The Public's Right (to decide they do not want) To Know

This morning I observed an interesting bit of human behavior. Sitting in the waiting room of a medical facility, along with a dozen or so other persons, I watched a large screen TV tuned to "America's Newsroom" on Fox News Channel.

The news they covered was important - no fluff - with stories from Washington Politics to Tropical Storm Betsy. The group in the waiting room varied in age. No children but a mixture of young adults and seniors.

I quickly observed that while the TV anchors covered these news stories, the younger adults scanned magazines or newspapers but paid little attention to the TV. The seniors in the group seemed glued to the screen.

Several times, the TV producers took a commercial break. The instant the commercials opened with their explosive sounds, jingles or whatever, every young adult immediately turned their eyes to the TV.

When the news programming resumed, they returned to their magazines.

Are young Americans just not interested in what is going on in their world?

When we hear reports the "Seniors Vote", is it because they DO care?
  

(Dis)organized Labor

In the early part of the last century, work was hard. Really hard. I remember in the 1930s there was no such thing as a 40-hour week. My father worked many long, hard days, quitting each day when the work was done, not when someone blew a whistle. My father was grateful to have a steady job and worked without complaining. But others felt abused. They reasoned that if organized as a like-minded group, they could achieve bargaining power to obtain "rights" for workers.

Organize they did, with sympathy evoking claims of seeking fairness for workers. They called themselves "organized labor" and the nation fell in love with Labor Unions. Oh, how we championed these fighters for fairness. But in the blink of an eye some discovered that if every worker paid monthly dues it would pile up a heap of money... a big temptation for crooks and con men.

Because many union members were lightly educated, they became an easy target for the con artists who quickly took over powerful, high paying union leadership positions. To maintain those positions, they knew they had to keep getting more and more benefits for their members. They soon exceeded reasonable demands.

With their huge bargaining power and help from politicians who sought to mine union memberships for votes, they destroyed many American industries. But they always pressed for more, using increasingly ugly tactics.

Now, however, many Americans - including many union members - have come to understand the destructive nature of Organized Labor. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker decided to rein in his state's public employees unions and found that a majority of citizens backed him. More and more states are enacting right-to-work laws ending, statewide, compulsory union membership.

Labor unions outlived their usefulness decades ago. It has taken some time, but it now appears that Organized Labor as we have known it is dead. A vital step in restoring America's greatness.

 

Religious Freedom

I do not belong to any organized religious organization. I do not go to church. Right or wrong, my decision. But please do not assume that I am anti-religion. Personally, I believe that the closely held positions of some religious organizations are a bit over the top. Some religions have beliefs or customs with which I disagree.

The "Church Of Christ" has prohibitions on using musical instruments in church. Nearly all Christian religions believe in baptism, some sprinkle, some submerge. The "Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints" believes the same Bible most Christian denominations use, but believes God had a new book (The Book of Mormon) especially for them. The Catholic Church believes differently than Protestant religions. Jews disagree with Christians on many levels. I overlook these differences.

In my view, religion must be, in some way, a force for good. I respect others' views and beliefs, including their religious beliefs, so long as those beliefs are based in some "force for good". No one can argue that members of the Church Of Christ do not do a world of good in their communities. My experience with Mormons has shown them to be exemplary citizens who actively care for their fellow man. Consider all the Roman Catholic Church has accomplished with their hospitals, universities and other institutions. Ditto for Judaism.

And, I believe in the U.S. Constitution: If Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion, I will stand for that free exercise.

However, holding millions of members in allegiance does not, in my opinion, make a religion. Since September 11, we have heard much about respecting Islam. I do not.

Muslims fall far short in the "force for good" department. They sentence to death people who disagree with their beliefs. They fight among themselves... Shi'ites, Sunnis, Wahhabis, Suffis, Bahaiis... Muslims all, but they have done battle among themselves for centuries.

But the accepted customs of many Muslims are the straws that break the criteria for a religion for me. In Islam, it is okay to lie for the good of Islam. Honor killings are okay. The universal acceptance of bad treatment of women. And, among the most despicable, one "long standing tradition" recently codified into law by the new Egyptian Parliament (since the Muslim Brotherhood gained the majority) permits a man to have sex with his deceased wife for up to six hours after her death.

Sorry, I cannot personally recognize Islam as a "religion" worthy of my support.    

Appreciating the doers!

This past weekend we took a road trip, covering a swath of New Mexico and a swath of Texas. My wife did most of the driving, giving me the opportunity to just look at the wonders that whizzed by.

Some were nature's wonders, like the occasional small herd of antelope (American pronghorns, actually) peacefully grazing in sparse grasslands. Strange geographic features like the miles of dunes of snow white gypsum which gathered on the east side of the San Andreas mountains.

Mostly, however, I marveled at the man made wonders, reflected on the work it took to create them and thought of all the people who benefit from those creations while bearing no knowledge of, or appreciation for, their benefactors.

I saw a lot of oil wells pumping away. I wondered about the men who sweated in summer heat or shivered in winter cold to erect the drilling rigs, then labored for weeks to drive the drill deep enough to reach oil.

I thought of the folks who provided capital for that drilling. Many have invested their savings to acquire a 1/64 interest in a drilling operation which failed to produce oil and they lost their investment. If oil is found, these investors will periodically receive small checks, hoping the oil will hold out long enough to get all their money back and, hopefully, enough additional to earn more than they could have received from a bank savings account.

From those windswept fields, the crude oil is transported to a distant refinery where gasoline is extracted, then shipped back to a filling station in a nearby village. There I am able to fill my tank and thus cruise in comfort down this highway... its hard surface another by-product of the stuff those pumps are extracting. I note the nicely formed plastic control panel of our car, also made from that crude oil, and I wonder why so many demonize this amazing gift from nature.

There are electrical wires everywhere you go. This was not the case in the 1930s when my family's farmhouse had no electricity and my sisters did their homework by the light of a kerosene lamp - also fueled by a product of the aforementioned crude oil.

Among the utility poles we passed, I saw an occasional one which carried a pod of large capacitors. I recalled a classroom, decades ago, and an instructor who explained that even a straight wire, if long enough, will introduce enough inductive reactance to shift the phase angle between the voltage and the flowing current. This requires the occasional introduction of enough capacitive reactance to straighten things back out. I know I am speaking Greek to most, but if it were not for someone studying that particular Greek and solving that particular problem, the family in the ranch house we passed could not watch their TV programs tonight. Or operate the myriad of other things powered by electricity.

We drove alongside miles of railroad tracks and I wondered at the fact that oak ties, laid directly on the ground with rails spiked to them, is still the best way to transport a train. Men once drove those spikes by hand, swinging sledgehammers endlessly to build the miles of track that carried trains across this vast nation.

I saw where rails and also highways cut through rolling, rocky terrain and up the sides of mountains. I remember reading how early roads were built with horse drawn excavating equipment and only black powder to blast a path through solid rock. How did they ever get it done?

We passed fields with deeply plowed furrows, stretching straight as a string to the horizon. I marveled that anyone can hold a huge tractor in a true, straight line. Later this spring those furrows will sprout cotton plants and when the summer is nearing its end, bolls of snow white cotton. Then, men on other machines will harvest the cotton and it will go to mills around the globe to be made into jeans and T-shirts for the world's youth.

Here in America we have much to be thankful for. Near the top of the list are the millions of men and women who work their entire lives to give us the many luxuries we enjoy. And we never even bother to say "Thanks!".

Work Station President

Back in the 1960s, a banker friend took me on a tour of his bank's computer. In the lobby, employees operated card readers and other wonderful devices that sorted checks, recorded withdrawals and deposits, computed balances, issued statements, etc.

We went to the bank's basement and entered a "clean" room. The walls were lined with large equipment cabinets, several of which had reels of recording tape on the front - these reels spinning forward and backward as bank employees operated the computer from their work stations. Upon returning to the bank lobby, I realized that all those work stations counted for little. It was the sprawling computer in the basement that was doing the work.

A couple of decades later, in the 1980s, my company installed our first computer system. Made by Wang, it consisted of a central unit (a micro version of that old bank's computer!) with work stations on each employee's desk. Each station consisted of a keyboard and a monochrome monitor, not unlike the CRT monitors used for PCs, but that was before PCs.

You could do all sorts of things at each work station... but the work station itself was nothing. Disconnect the cables connecting it to the central processing unit and the work station no longer functioned. Enter errors into the central unit, and every work station will repeat those errors

I think of those early computers every time I hear President Obama speak. Looking like a well-groomed intellectual, he stands in front of his teleprompter and sounds very wise indeed. Unplug the teleprompter and he is like a disconnected work station on our old Wang computer. He no longer functions intelligently.

When Barack Obama makes an unscripted statement about a current event, his comments are often ignorant and destructive: "The police acted stupidly"; "If I had a son he would look like Trayvon"; etc.

Our concern must be with whomever is programming Obama's "central unit". And we must realize that if we re-elect Barack Obama, we re-elect those programmers. 

Happy Birthday, Dad...

April 17, 1893.

From the gut...

Most often when we say "gut feeling", we simply mean something like "from deep within, a belief with no evidence of fact". So, it's a guess, but one with strong conviction.

For some time I have been wanting to say the unthinkable... that Barack Obama faces a landslide defeat in November. No one wants to say anything that will evoke a sympathy vote. No one wants Obama opponents to feel overconfident and stay home on election day. But, I speak to a small audience, so I will say it. Obama is toast.

I have watched a lot of presidential elections - 2012, in fact, will be my 21st. I was around for one other, but too young to have had an interest in politics - I was born the day Herbert Hoover was elected!

At times the outcome was evident long in advance. One time experts were fooled even on election day (1948).

In retrospect some election outcomes became apparent in increments along the way. Brick by brick a wall was built that totally blocked one candidate. That is happening in 2012.

Today we hear that Cecil Roberts, president of The United Mine Workers, hints that his Union may not support Barack Obama because of the Administration's "war on coal". The United Mine Workers president not supporting the Democrat candidate??? Does anyone remember John L. Lewis? Lay a brick.

Obama's chief political adviser, David Axelrod stumbled through an interview with a incoherent statement that seemed to confuse his talking point about voter choices, giving the Republican candidate material for an anti-Obama TV commercial. Lay a brick.

Another adviser spouts an equally incoherent statement that seemed to decry American moms. What is the saying about things quintessentially American: Apple Pie and MOTHERHOOD! Lay a brick.

Despite Democrat assertions to the contrary, former Vice-President Dick Chaney is a well-respected public servant. He has declared Obama's presidency to be an unmitigated disaster. A great many will help lay that brick. 

Scandals from GSA to Solyndra to Fast and Furious to signature legislation that may be declared unconstitutional to Secret Service agents exposing themselves to compromise to soaring gasoline prices and food prices... our imaginary mason must indeed be a fast and furious bricklayer.

Yes, last minute surprises happen. Does anyone recall Thomas Eagleton? A Senator from Missouri, Eagleton was chosen as Democrat George McGovern's running mate in 1972. Nearing the election, it was revealed that Eagleton had sought medical treatment for what, fairly or unfairly, was perceived to be a mental disorder. End of McGovern's candidacy.

And, yes, there could be an October surprise this year. But it will have to be an irresistible force to overcome the immoveable wall blocking Obama's reelection.

April 11. Another sad memory.

It was 61 years ago when President Harry S. Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of Command of all U.S. Forces in Korea. One of those brushed-off presidential actions which, in my opinion, unleashed an immeasurable dose of death and suffering to a countless number of souls, along with an uncountable amount of treasure.

To recap, at an historic February, 1944 meeting at Yalta, the Soviet Union was awarded administrative control of all of the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th parallel. The Soviets had done nothing to wrest control of Korea from the Japanese and had no business on the peninsula. But at the Yalta meeting, President Roosevelt, senile and ill, sat nodding and drooling as Joseph Stalin demanded control of half of Korea and was granted his wish. He subsequently did nothing but install a puppet Communist Korean dictator and walk away.

In June of 1950 American forces in Korea were purely administrative, there to help the Koreans establish an independent government. I had friends among them, and they could hardly have been considered a fighting force. Out of the blue, the North Koreans crossed that 38th parallel and began driving American forces southward toward the sea.

General MacArthur, perhaps the most brilliant military mind in American history, readied a force and swept across Korea's middle, trapping North Korean forces to their south.With the Korean Army now largely prisoners, American forces then turned north driving their way to the Chinese border. As they neared the Yalu River, which formed that border, Chinese aircraft began attacking American forces in Korea.

The Chinese were weak at that time, their armies poorly trained and poorly armed. Their air force consisted largely of donated Soviet planes. MacArthur wanted to attack the Chinese air bases from which the attacks were launched and end that mischief decisively. President Truman feared that action would provoke a restart of recently concluded World War II and fired MacArthur.

Soon, Chinese ground troops swept across the border by the tens of thousands. Some of my friends there at the time had thought the war was over. Then, one morning their arose a terrible racket as Chinese troops pushed southward. One of my friends, a Marine infantryman, said many among the swarms of Chinese were armed with primitive weaponry. Many thousands were killed, but if you have ever tried to fight off a swarm of thousands of angry hornets, you can understand how they eventually overran the Americans.

American forces were able to take a firm stand at the old 38th parallel border - where it had all begun - and halted the Chinese-Korean advance, but the Americans were ordered to hold at that line. In 1952, General Dwight Eisenhower was elected president. Even before inauguration, he traveled to Korea and brokered a cease-fire, which brings us forward to April 11, 2012, the 61st anniversary of Mr. Truman's change of command in Korea. The cease fire is holding - sort of - but the war never ended.

Imagine, if you will that MacArthur had been given a free hand. A decisive and brutal blow at Chinese air bases north of the Yalu River would have undoubtedly stemmed the Chinese desire to fight for the puppet government in North Korea. After all, the Americans had been fighting for the Chinese to drive Japanese occupiers from their land since the late 1930s. Would not many Chinese have held a favorable enough opinion of Americans to dilute their taste for war over a neighbor which had contributed nothing to the Chinese?

Now, North Korea is militarily much stronger, and today or tomorrow threatens to launch a missile which, presumably, could reach the American mainland. We may shoot it out of the sky... if our current president, like Harry Truman in 1951, doesn't tremble in fear of starting a larger conflict. But think how much more easily we could have attacked some small Chinese air fields six decades ago. Think, too, how North Korean citizens, like their countrymen south of the 38th parallel could have prospered for three generations, instead of having watched their children starve.

Only if they use a gun...

My home is four blocks off a parkway - four lane, divided, with a nice wide median. The terrain is rolling and a bit curved. While this is a residential area, not one residential driveway opens onto this parkway. Still, local traffic officials have determined that the maximum speed limit should be 35 MPH.

About a year ago there was an incident wherein a young man left his brain at home, crawled into his pickup truck and headed for some unrevealed destination requiring he drive north, the length of our neighborhood parkway. For some reason, he decided to ignore the legal speed limit and accelerated his truck to a very high speed, possibly over 75 mph.

An elderly neighborhood couple, southbound on the parkway, arrived at the intersection where they would turn left, across the northbound lanes, to reach their home. Just south of the intersection, the parkway reaches a rise in the ground. As our neighbors turned left into the northbound lanes, the young man in the pickup truck shot over that rise at a speed that made it impossible to stop. His truck hit the car broadside, killing both the man and his wife. Only local news media reported the "accident", and the driver of the truck was to be cited for speeding.

This was a clear case of reckless behavior causing the death of two law abiding citizens. But no nationally known rabble rousers showed up to lead a crowd of protesters. No one started a movement toward "pickup truck control". It was just an accident! Provided the driver's blood alcohol level is below 0.08%, death by reckless use of a motor vehicle is always just an accident.

However, death by a firearm is never just an accident or the act of a deranged person. Recent shootings in the workplace, on school campuses, or in a middle class gated community in Florida are always hate crimes or acts of blatant racism. They are widely covered by national news media, attract all sorts of people protesting for something or other and petitioning for more gun control.

What is it about guns that arouse such passions, while death by any other instrument does not?

Thoughts about music.

My son asked his mother something he described as an odd question: "What are your ten all-time favorite songs?" I don't know how my wife answered, but his question caused me to think. Fist, I did not find the question to be odd. This son is a college professor, a Cognitive Scientist, no less. Maybe he is thinking of some sort of study relating a person's choice of music to their personality traits - I have no idea. I did find his question - in my case - impossible to answer. During my 25 years in broadcasting, I played thousands of songs on the air. There is no way I could name my ten all-time favorites.

Songs evoke memories. Some songs which I did not actually like, evoke pleasant memories, so it is good to hear those songs. Some songs evoke both pleasant and unpleasant memories: pleasant because they recall some happy event. Unpleasant because of a later unhappy ending that followed event... such as, perhaps, the memory of a good friend who later died.

People seem to remember songs for other, different reasons. My wife, an excellent dancer, sometimes says of a song that she paid no attention to the lyric, she just loved the music. I happen to listen for lyrics. I have never been able to dance. Early in our 40+ year marriage she tried to teach me to dance. "Just listen to the beat", she suggested. "What's that?", I asked. She gave up. I was dead serious. I hear the music as a complete blend of all the instruments. I have asked her about a specific sound in a specific piece of music, and she immediately tells me the instrument that made the sound. How does she do that?

I love the skilled use of language and greatly appreciate skillfully written lyrics. Years ago, Reader's Digest magazine included a feature titled "Toward More Picturesque Speech". One quote I remember was, "The man sat heavily in the chair." What a beautifully simple way to perfectly describe something familiar to us all, yet otherwise hard to describe!

In some songs, the lyric is so skillfully written it carries a strong emotional impact. That's my kind of music, even if I don't particularly like the music! It is comforting to know others share that feeling. A fellow disk jockey friend and I once visited about the performance of other disk jockeys. He deplored an incident wherein a young deejay played a Righteous Brother's record on which the lyric pleaded, "...for once in my life let me hold onto the thing I've found...", and followed the song with some silly, flip comment. I agreed. The singer caused the listener to feel the pain of a man always disappointed in life. How could the deejay ignore that pain. Maybe he heard something in the music which we had not heard.

Higher Education Indoctrination

In recent years, we have been bombarded with admonitions that success in America is nearly impossible without a college education. The Federal Government has taken many steps to facilitate that education with student loan programs, tuition grants, monetary support of institutions, etc.

Now, however, we are learning that graduates from a four-year college are without jobs, (or working at multiple menial jobs which do not require a degree) while saddled, on the average, with a $20,000 student loan debt. All the while, North Dakota reports that scores of high-paying jobs, requiring training in mechanical skills - not a college degree - are going begging.

Some now say a college education, excluding a post graduate degree in the sciences, is a waste of time and money. I wish that were the end of the story.

The truth is, many graduates from a four year liberal arts college not only have no skills, they have acquired a mindset destructive to the American way of life.

In my local newspaper (the Las Cruces, New Mexico Sun-News, March 11, 2012), there appeared the following Letter To the Editor:

  "New Mexico State University's College of Education is aggressively teaching future secondary teachers a liberal agenda. I am a graduate student working toward a secondary teaching license through the Department of Curriculum and Education at NMSU, where it is mandatory to take a course called Exploration of Education. The course description states this class is an overview of secondary schooling, but instead, it is a platform to promote the Democratic Party and to nullify the white American male, American culture and Christianity.
  "The front cover of one of the required textbooks depicts President George W. Bush next to a picture of a monkey with a similar facial expression while President Barack Obama is pictured giving a speech in front of the American flag.
  "Through the class, I have been taught the white male is the opposition, and everyone who is not a white male needs to band together in order to succeed against them. One textbook further defines the opposition as white, male, Christian, heterosexuals. In some of the readings, the American citizenship of white American males is negated by calling them White Europeans rather than European Americans. All other male groups are called Americans, such as African Americans rather than Black Africans.
  The United states of America is never exalted; rather, I have been taught our American culture is deplorable because we are a capitalistic nation who loves football and owns guns.
  It was conveyed that in order to embrace freedom of religion, I must first put down Christianity. This is what future secondary teachers are being taught at NMSU, under the guise of critical pedagogy, and all secondary education teachers must pass this class in order to be eligible to be a secondary teacher. I contend that if these ideologies are not adopted, then failure is imminent.  -Brenda Bullard, Las Cruces

As a one-time news reporter, I understand this is thus far unverified. But surely Miss Bullard would not lie, since her assertions are easily proved or disproved with a trip to the NMSU bookstore to peruse the referenced textbooks.

Bear in mind, meanwhile, that this instruction is being offered at a high cost to each student, made higher by the interest they will surely pay on a student loan, and a high cost to taxpayers. Collectively, we are financing the destruction of our America by creating a generation of anti-American thinkers.

Defining bigotry
Many Americans, myself included, have decried the opposition to Mitt Romney based on his religion. We thought that position was forever laid to rest with the election of John F. Kennedy. Some had opposed JFK's election because he was a Catholic. Whatever you thought of Kennedy's presidency, his religion had no bearing on his performance.

So, we were appalled when people rose objections to Romney's Mormon faith.

We were likewise appalled when objections arose to Barack Obama's race. Never mind that he was more "white" than "black", by virtue of having a white mother and was raised by white grandparents while his black father deserted him before his birth, we objected to those who rejected him because he was "African American", which he indeed was.

Then, we learn that in 2012 Republican primary elections, 91% of Mormon voters in Nevada voted for Romney.

In 2010, Mormon Harry Reid - certainly one of the most unpopular politicians in America, was re-elected over Southern Baptist Sharon Angle, in heavily Mormon Nevada. Coincidence?

In 2008, black Americans went for "black" Barack Obama by 97% to 3% over white John McCain. Can anything but race explain that outcome?

So, if you oppose Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon, or oppose Barack Obama because he is "black", you are a bigot. But Mormons who overwhelmingly choose Mormon candidates over non-Mormons, and blacks who overwhelmingly choose black candidates over white candidates, are not bigots?

Sorry.  I don't buy it.

A late business colleague of mine used to say "There is no part-time honesty". Be the subject minor or significant, your response is either honest or dishonest. You cannot be judged an honest person based on the importance of the subject.

Same with bigotry. A bigot is a bigot, no matter which side you're on.

Snail mail - idle minds

My wife picked up the mail and there among the ads and bills was a hand-written letter from our daughter in Omaha. We communicate with that daughter via email on almost a daily basis. Why would she send a hand-written note when she has a computer and knows how to use it? The answer was that she had undergone surgery on her foot, was confined to resting - not walking - and the computer was in another part of the house. But, there was a pen and note paper at hand so she wrote a chatty little note which our son-in-law mailed for her.

A slow U.S.P.S. note when a computer is available? Started my mind wandering. Why do people make a less reliable choice; jump to conclusions, resort to rumors, or guessing, or imagining, or .... whatever people often do as first response to anything, when access to the world's finest, fastest computer is available, right there between their ears? I am asking, why do people so often fail to think? Yes, think.

A year or two back, a friend in middle America wrote to tell me of an attempt by a group of investors to build a coal-fired power generating plant out on a Kansas prairie. Citizen protests against that "pollution belching monster" were so loud and sustained, the plan was vacated. My friend was happy.

I thought differently. Some 60% of America's electricity is generated in coal-fired power plants. We are not building new plants, and some existing ones are getting pretty old. That means they employ old technology which surely is more pollutant-producing than would be a modern, new plant. Populations have grown around some of the old plants, meaning people are living in very close proximity. Trainloads of incoming coal and outgoing ashes surely do not enhance their neighborhoods. Had the modern, new plant been built as planned, some distance from any residential area, perhaps it could have afforded the closing of one of the old, outdated plants. Wouldn't that have been a good thing? Maybe. Maybe not.

The point here is that I witness very few people looking for the "big picture" for any event.

General Motors' Chevy Volt is an interesting subject. The government promoted an electric car (recall the source of 60% of our electricity) which General Motors built. Building a new automobile is a costly experiment made possible only through massive sales of the vehicle. Turns out, nobody wanted to buy the Volt. Too small, too expensive, inadequate for most people's needs. Chevrolet made a "initial" run of the small cars - which they cannot sell - so they have had to suspend production until they could, hopefully get rid of some of their inventory.

A costly, failed (to date) experiment. But then, I guess you don't need to think when you are spending someone other people's money!

It's so easy to stand out!

My son uttered that phrase during his first year in graduate school. "Dad", he said, "I am surprised at how easy it is to stand out." Well, easy or not, he did stand out and is, today, doing extremely well as a tenured professor at a major university.

Good for him. Sad for society. If it is easy to stand out, what does that say for the population?

Some 50-plus years ago, I stumbled across a book titled "How To Retire At 35." Since that time, there have been numerous writings on the subject, pro and con, and there is even a coming TV series by that name, scheduled to appear on TVLand cable channel.

The gist of that 1950s book was, indeed, the fact that it is easy to stand out. The author suggested that one decide the field of work in which he believes he will be happy. Then, get a job in that field. Start on the bottom rung of the ladder. That's okay. Then, be the very best employee the company ever hired. That's the "Stand out" part. If, within a reasonable period of time, your efforts are not recognized, look to another company in that field. Eventually, hard work, loyalty, honesty and devotion to your duties will be recognized and you will move up. The one constant then, must be, to be the best employee ever.

That is such a simple and effective plan. Yet, in some of the offerings since the 1950s, people have demonized the idea. A Google search of "How To Retire At 35" found some 72 million results. Some despaired over the idea of early retirement leading to a life of boredom with dire results. What a crock.

In recent years, liberal politicians have been wringing their hands over "the poor", as though large segments of the population are doomed to be stuck in a life of want. Yet, the renowned economist, Dr. Thomas Sowell has offered proof that many among "the poor" are only temporarily struggling economically. Large numbers of yesterday's poor are today's middle class and will be tomorrow's wealthy. It happens, because it is so easy to stand out.

Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said "Never make poverty comfortable." Perhaps if today's policy makers would heed that advice, hunger pangs would make more "poor" wake up to the fact that it is easy to stand out and will stand out themselves, rather than sit at home and beg for government help.

How To Learn

There are, basically, two ways to learn about a person, an event or an era. One way is to read what someone else has to say. The problem here is that you cannot always trust what someone else says.

The other way is to have lived through the era or the event, or lived during the period of the person's influence. The problem there is that you may have not been able to see the 'big picture'. Maybe you just were not privy to the rest of the story.

I am reminded of the World War II story from the Pacific. The War Department supposedly said a certain tiny, remote island was not important in the war effort. An individual soldier said "What do you mean this island is not important... I'm on it!"

I was born in the waning days of the Coolidge Administration. I have no first hand knowledge of Teddy Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson, but I did live through the administrations of F.D.R., Harry Truman, J.F.K. and Jimmy Carter.

Teddy Roosevelt was a man of small stature and was such a wimp that when he first appeared in the legislature in a purple velvet suit, the other lawmakers all snickered. So he manufactured an image of a tough warrior which has stuck with many to this day.
    
For decades I've heard tell of the greatness of F.D.R.! I remember only the grinding poverty of the 1930s. I recall his failed programs - some even overturned as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and his subsequent attempt to pack the Court with six additional, new, hand-picked and like-minded justices.

F.D.R. was a horrible president. He set America on a path to destruction with bad fiscal policy. It will be nearly impossible to ever erase all the wrong F.D.R. gave us. Still, many - including our current failed president, Barack Obama - insist F.D.R. was a great president.

Finally, someone, Dr. Thomas Sowell, has eloquently made my case in a three-part column which he titled "The Progressive Legacy". Read all three parts here. 

I wish every American would read Dr. Sowell's explanation of how Progressives could advance such destructive policies periodically throughout the 20th Century, while hoodwinking the American Public into believing they were the 'party of the people'.

One may find it amazing that the Progressives never seem to learn. Obama is, today, making the same mistakes as his predecessors. We know he wasn't around to witness Teddy, Wilson, F.D.R., Truman or J.F.K. It is obvious, then, that he never read the truth about their serial failures.

Who will do the dirty work?

As someone who has been a hunter since my pre-teen years when my father took me rabbit hunting with an old .22 caliber rifle, I have always taken issue with anti-hunter types who enjoy their well-marbled steaks so long as someone else bloodies their hands killing and butchering the steer. Their concern is not for the animal, at all. They just don't want to be accused of the killing.

The Obama Administration has now jumped on their bandwagon with their free contraceptive mandate compromise. While professing to oppose abortion, the Administration is happy to provide "Plan B", morning-after abortion pills while assuring America that neither they nor faith based institutions will be pulling the trigger.

Kinda like the guy who hires someone else to murder his wife.

Is Obama non-partisan???

It wasn't that long ago when President Obama was taped at a West Coast fundraiser, accusing we peasants of "clinging to our guns and God".

 Well, now... the Administration certainly was not "clinging to their guns" when Fast & Furious was going down. Millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to purchase high-quality weapons to give free to Mexican drug cartels. We know, of course, that grateful druggies made use of those guns in killing at least one Border Patrol agent, hundreds - maybe thousands - of Mexican citizens, and perhaps a few of the Americans murdered while south of the border on some sort of humanitarian mission.

But, the Administration is most certainly clinging to its guns in the case of Syrian civilians begging for arms to protect themselves from their own government. Obama says 'no' to smuggling arms into Syria.


Is that Fair and balanced, or what?


Now we see that the Administration is not "clinging to God" as they walk all over the religious beliefs of American citizens. Does your conscience oppose the use of contraceptives? Doesn't matter, you may be forced to pay for contraceptives to be given free to persons with different beliefs.

So... in the aforementioned spirit of being fair, should we not expect from this president a show of strong support for God's followers in some coming issue?

Sorry Mitt... you just don't get it!

Barack Obama and his constituency, the environmentalist, Labor Unions, and the 47% who pay no taxes and long for more handouts, are destroying our country. For that reason, if, next November, the choice is between Romney and Obama, I will support Mitt for president. But I hope, in my heart of hearts, that Mitt will not be the Republican nominee.

I don't know if any of the other candidates can beat Obama, but I am afraid that Mitt Romney would just give us more of the same.... big government, getting bigger: another nail in the coffin of this great nation.

This morning, on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked Mitt about other candidate's proposals to drastically cut spending by instantly eliminating several cabinet level government departments. Mitt answered that we would have to study the activities of each department to see what could and could not be wisely cut.

Having observed the policies of ten administrations, that position means just one thing: the formation of yet another cabinet-level department, The Department To Study Which Departments Can Be Cut and By How Much; another $30 to $50 billion load on the budget; and no conclusions.

A persistent belief that the government can solve the problem if we just go about it correctly, is exactly what gave us the useless departments that are now destroying America. Sadly, my friends, regulations that require opposite and mutually exclusive actions are the rule... not the exception!

We now know that while the Department of Justice is suing states because their police are inquiring about  citizenship; the Department of State is demanding that each state's police do inquire about citizenship (so aliens may be advised about help available from their home country's consul.)

In my state, the Executive VP of the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau reminds us (http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-opinion/ci_19571153) that the average age of American farmers is advancing - meaning young people are rejecting a career in agriculture. Thus, his bureau is urgently trying to develop programs to encourage farm youth to stay on the farm. He believes that it is work on the family farm that trains kids to "grow into teenagers with a strong work ethic; a sense of responsibility and a heart full of compassion". After college, these kids often return home to follow a career on the farm. Toward that end, the USDA is now spending well over $50 million annually to train beginning farmers and ranchers.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor is striving to eliminate the coming generation of farmers and ranchers by proposing regulations to prevent farm "children from working with farm animals, storing or transporting raw agricultural products, climbing on or into anything higher than six feet tall including ladders and haylofts or even being on the premises of grain elevators, livestock auctions or feedlots."

As a kid who grew up on a farm, I find this so preposterous it is unbelievable.

No, Mitt... you are wrong. Ronald Reagan understood: government cannot fix the problem - government IS the problem. No more study... no more investigations - it is past time to nibble. We now must cut, cut, cut! 

Why I will Never Again Vote For A Democrat

The Democrat Party in the United States has become the party of fools - or liars. They have justly earned either or both descriptions on several fronts. One is enough to convince me.

That one is the determination to look facts in the eye and declare them untrue. Barack Obama repeatedly asserts that Republican policies have been tried and did not work. It is politically incorrect to call the POTUS a liar, but it is incredulous to believe he does not have access to the facts about the Reagan policies.

For example, Reagan cut the top tax rate from 70% to 28%. In 1979, before Reagan, the top 1% of income earners paid 18.3% of the total tax bill. In 2006, the last year for which we have numbers, the top 1% paid 39.1% of the total tax bill. Likewise, in 1979, the bottom 40% of earners paid 4.1% of all taxes. By 2006, they were receiving 3.3% in direct payments from the U.S. Treasury. Today, Democrats insist that increasing taxes on "the rich" will benefit the middle class. In light of historical facts, are they fools or liars?

Under Reagan's policies, economic growth grew. Per capita GDP grew. Per capita income grew. Can you believe Obama does not have access to these and many other figures proving the success of  Republican policies? Or, like me, can you believe he is denying those fact to create class warfare and garner votes?

But... will this class warfare work? In 2000, Al Gore ran on a platform of  "People vs. The Powerful". He lost the election. In 2008, John Edwards touted his theory of "Two Americas"... the 99% against the 1%. He lost in the primaries.

Today, the Democrats see more and more Americans distracted from following and understanding the news. More and more Americans misled by a dishonest news media. They now believe they can try the class warfare tactic one more time... this time, perhaps, with success. 

That's a Direct (mis)Quote...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is accused of advocating we abolish child labor laws. Well, that is true, in a sense. Newt suggested a program in our schools where poor kids may take some sort of menial job, such as a janitor's assistant, to learn about responsibility on the job and be rewarded with cash. In other words, a program to teach kids how to work and earn. To make that endeavor legal, may require some easing of child labor laws.

Almost immediately, Newt's excellent proposition was morphed into an effort to subject children to long, hard hours in sweatshops.

Some fifty years ago, in Kansas, I was privileged to become friends with an elderly back minister who was president of the local N.A.A.C.P. chapter. The good pastor spoke of employing kids from poor families. These kids, he said, have no concept of dependability in the work place, because they have had no family role model to teach dependability. He urged employers to understand this fact and mentor poor kids on dependability.

For a small company, that may be a tall order. Existing employees, who need extra help on the job, would now  have to teach newcomers how to show up for the job!

Now comes Newt Gingrich with a solution! Teach them in school, the proper place for teaching!

No, can't do that! It serves others to accuse Gingrich with wanting to see kids suffer in sweatshops.