Friday, February 15, 2013

THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN'S ACT HITS A ROADBLOCK

The United States Senate passed the Violence Against Women's Act this week by a 78-22 margin. The Senate's action was a bipartisan effort to correct Congress' egregious failure to renew the Act last year. It was House Republicans who derailed the Act's renewal last year, and though Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) has indicated that he will allow the House to vote on some form of legislation on the matter, it remains unclear whether Boehner is simply playing lip-service to the women in his party or is genuinely serious about working towards a cease-fire in the ongoing Republican War on Women. Time will tell.

Linda Rubin, a counseling psychology professor at Texas Woman's University wrote an editorial that appears on the AlJazerra Internet website at the following address:

www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/20132111438741599.html

Rubin's editorial is a "must-read" for those interested in stopping violence against women. Contact your local Congressional Representative and demand that he or she vote to reenact the Violence Against Women's Act. There is simply no excuse for saying 'yes' to violence!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

THE PASSING OF A GOOD BARBER

Ernie Barber died yesterday, on the eve of the feast of Saint Valentine, a third century Roman whose mission it was to spread a message of love. While millions around the globe celebrate Saint Valentine's life with traditional red hearts, Ernie's children and family will mourn his passing with broken hearts. Neither cards, candy nor presents will ease their pain, but Ernie's love for them will never die. That's because love is its own legacy, and the warmth it spreads lasts far beyond the boundaries of a single earthly day.

Ellen & Frank, you have my deepest sympathy at the passing of your father.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

THE GUY IN THE WHITE FORD F-150

On most mornings during the academic year, I drive my teen-aged daughter, Rachel to the high school she attends. She could ride the bus, but the fifteen minute commute gives us time to chat about any number of topics and I treasure the time we spend together. I know how time flies, and before I know it Rachel will be skipping off to college and our daily chats will become a thing of the past, so I'm taking advantage of every opportunity I can get. It's my own version of carpe diem.

The junior high school that Rachel previously attended is located next to her high school, but each of the schools has a separate access road that empties onto Bannister Street. Junior and senior high school students ride the same bus, so every morning a bus drops off junior high students first and then proceeds to the high school to drop off the older students. As a bus leaves the junior high school, the bus makes a left hand turn from the junior high school access road onto Bannister Street and then makes a second left hand turn into the high school access road. The result is a log-jam of buses attempting to make left-hand turns against a solid stream of traffic flowing in the opposite direction. It's not unusual for seven or eight buses to be stacked in a line waiting to make a left-hand turn at either intersection.

Whenever I'm driving on Bannister Street and the buses are stacked up waiting to make a left-hand turn across my lane of traffic, I've gotten into the practice of stopping at the intersection and signaling the line of buses to make their turns before I continue through the intersection. The practice saves the bus drivers a lot of time and energy and insures that the students get to school safely and on-time. I'm sure the bus drivers appreciate my gesture and I think a lot of driving parents do too, but the guy in the white Ford F-150 pick-up truck doesn't appreciate the gesture and he's let me know on several occasions exactly how he feels.

At least twice, maybe three times a month I've found myself driving in front of the same white pick-up truck, and the truck's driver has cursed out his window at me, flipped the finger at me and given me several loud blasts from his horn whenever I've stopped to let the waiting buses make the left-hand turn in front of me. Last week, he started blasting his horn before I even made it to the intersection or slowed down. I figured it was a preventative blast. The driver of the Ford F-150 is in a big hurry and my good deed apparently sends him over the edge.

I wonder if I'm being rude by delaying the pick-up truck driver, even though my act facilitates the prompt arrival of students at their own destination. Do I have a right to do a good deed at the expense of someone else? I'll have to give the matter some thought.


THOUGHTS TO PONDER

~~Does how the world got started matter half as much as where this world is headed?

~~If we can't be honest about our past, is there any hope for being honest about our future?

~~Which is a greater moral failure: leaving our children swamped in debt or leaving them swamped in ignorance?

~~If government is so awful, why are so many anti-government zealots running for public office?

~~If every religion dictates that all non-believers are destined for Hell, who will keep God company in Heaven?

TAKE THAT CHALLENGE, MR. PRESIDENT

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner (R-Ohio) called on President Obama to "man-up" and cut federal spending. Boehner's maschismo challenge was nothing more than a cheap political stunt in advance of President Obama's State of the Union message, but I think the President should accept Boehner's challenge and tell Boehner point-blank that he doesn't want to hear any Republican cry-babies when he does exactly what Boehner asks!

Then, and this is what I would do if I were in Obama's shoes, I'd announce that I was permanently closing every military base in states that voted for G.O.P. presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Every dime of savings from those closures would be applied to the National Debt.

At first blush, such a plan sounds vengeful, but if one is being fair and serious about cutting federal spending, those states that get more dollars in federal spending than they pay in federal income tax should be the first places where spending cuts are made. You see, the top-ten states that get more federal spending than they pay in taxes are all states that voted for the G.O.P. standard-bearer, Mitt Romney. That's where I'd start, and see if Boehner has the balls to "man-up" and be true to his words. I highly doubt he would!

SOCIAL SECURITY AND GLOBAL WARMING

Let's face it! We're never going to solve the Social Security insolvency problem until we get this whole global warming thing under control. As long as the arctic ice is receding, there won't be enough room to set our old folks adrift on an ice floe and watch them float away into oblivion.

Actually, America doesn't have a Social Security problem. What it has is a political will problem. By that I mean that there are not enough political leaders who are willing to place their own political careers on the line to do what is necessary to honor America's long-standing social contract that was established to take care of our retirees and disabled citizens. The Social Security ledger sheet could be placed in order for the next hundred years without raising the current social security tax rate in one simple step: require citizens to pay social security tax on all their earned income, without exception.

Right now, a person who works a 40 hour per week minimum wage job earns $15,080 per year. The Social Security tax is 6.2%, and on an income of $15, 080, the wage-earner pays $935.00 in Social Security tax. Wage earners making $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 and $60,000 per year pay the same 6.2% of their earned income (earned income = income from working) in Social Security Tax. So does every other wage earner making up to $113,700 per year in earned income.

This is where things get interesting…or unfair…depending on how you view the situation. Once a wage earner starts making more than $113,700 per year, the percentage of Social Security Tax that wage earner pays actually decreases, and the more a person is paid the lower the percentage a person pays. For example, the Social Security Tax rate on a person having earned income of one million dollars in a year is seven/tenths of one percent. In real numbers, a millionaire will pay $7,049 dollars per year in social security tax. When you compare the millionaire to the minimum wage worker, the millionaire makes 63 times more money, but only pays 7.5 times more Social Security tax. Where's the fairness in that system? Why should a guy working at a minimum wage job pay a higher social security tax rate than a guy earning a million dollar per year salary?

Social Security was created as a financial safety net, but for the wealthiest earners in our society, it's actually a financial windfall. Assume a millionaire pays $7,049 dollars into Social Security for forty (40) years. The millionaire will have paid $281,960 in social security tax over that time span. Now, assume that same individual collects social security for 20 years following their retirement. At the current top rate of $2,162 per month, the millionaire will have collected of total of $518,880 dollars. That's a tidy sum considering the millionaire already had forty million dollars in earned income. This is one place where Republicans never, ever talk about an across-the-board flat tax rate.

If one Social Security tax rate applied to all earned income, Americans would never have to worry about the insolvency of the Social Security Trust Fund. The baby boomer generation would come and go without bankrupting the security net that has protected seniors since the days of the Great Depression. This fix is not rocket science. It just takes something we're in short supply of lately: political will!

Monday, February 11, 2013

POPE BENEDICT XVI RESIGNS

Good riddance!

You can make a good argument that my comment is mean-spirited, but all the ill-will bundled into those two words pales in comparison to the callous disregard this Pontiff has exhibited toward the suffering of victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by the priests he leads. And while Pope Benedict has spent most of his religious capital railing against abortion and other reproduction-related issues, his leadership has been grossly lacking in focusing world attention on the needs of the poor and the oppressed. When it came to advocating Christ's social gospel, the head of the Holy Sea was a dismal failure. He might be missed by millions around the globe, but I won't be one of them!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

HATING THE DALLAS COWBOYS

Now that the professional football season has ended and half of America is going through pigskin withdrawal, a recurring question keeps gnawing at my mind: why so do many sports fans hate one or two particular teams? For example, why do Washington Redskin fans hate the Dallas Cowboys, and vice versa? Why do Boston Red Sox fans hate the New York Yankees, and vice versa there, too? Don't tell me it's because the teams are rivals. That's the obvious answer, but it doesn't address the real question I've been pondering. What drives the hatred? What turns regular opponents into bitter rivals, and why does that bitterness fuel mass hatred of certain teams that exist among die-hard sports fans?

My dad hated the Dallas Cowboys. He hated them with a passion, like the Jews hated Hitler, but at least the Jews had good reason for doing so. The same could not be said about my dad. He claimed he hated the Cowboys because they played on the Sunday following President Kennedy's assassination, but that assertion was pure nonsense because the entire National Football League played games that Sunday, including his beloved team, the Baltimore Colts. He could have said he hated the Cowboys because Dallas is where President Kennedy was shot, but that wouldn't have been a rational explanation, because President Lincoln was shot in Washington, D.C., and my dad also rooted for the Washington Redskins, especially when they played Dallas. I guess we'll never know what drove my dad's hatred of the Cowboys, but whatever it was, I'm sure it wasn't something rational.

My daughter, Abby went to college in Boston. I borrowed a van to haul her belongings when she moved into her first dorm room. The van's owner was a die-hard New York Yankee fan, and attached to one of the van windows was a Yankee sticker with half of a foam baseball attached. While I was moving my daughter's belongings into her room in the heart of Red Sox country, a die-hard Yankee hater vandalized the van and ripped the sticker off the window. I know it sounds trite, but some force of ill-will motivated that act of vandalism, and I call that hate.

In November of 1998, I attended a Monday night football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles. The game was held in Philadelphia, but it wasn't what you'd call a pleasant evening for Eagle fans. The Cowboys shellacked the Eagles, 34-0, but what really stands out in my memory of that game is the verbal and physical abuse one particular Dallas Cowboy fan was subjected to by the sea of screaming Eagles fans that surrounded her. As bad as it was to watch the Eagles play that evening, it was ten times worse to have to listen to the constant stream of deleted expletives that fans were screaming in her direction. At one point during the contest, so much popcorn, peanuts and other trash was being thrown at the woman that scores of stadium security personnel had to intercede to prevent a full-blown riot. It was downright ugly! Since that night, I've heard many sportscasters comment that Eagles fans are the most hostile of any fan base in the NFL, but none of those commentators ever offered an explanation as to where that hostility originated. That's what I want to know? Where does the hatred come from?

One inquiring mind wants to know!


Friday, February 8, 2013

ESCAPE FROM WESTBORO

America's most hate-driven cult, the Westboro Baptists Church in Kansas is back in the news again. This time, it's because the granddaughter of Westboro's leader, Fred Phelps, Sr. came out publicly and declared that she ran away from the church four years ago and has been shunned by her church family ever since. You'll recall that the Westboro Baptists have been picketing military funerals for years now, waving their "God hates fags" and "God hates crippled soldiers" posters in a vicious attempt to rub salt into the wounds of grieving military families.

Westboro Baptist is a disgusting group of hate mongers who wouldn't know the Word of God if the Almighty appeared and spoke to them directly, but here in America we cherish our freedom of speech and freedom of religion, so putting up with the Westboro clowns, as loathsome as they are, is a price we all have to pay.

Libby Phelps Alvarez, the granddaughter of Phelps who escaped the evil cult, related in an appearance on the "Today" show that Westboro church members frequently prayed for people to die. Talk about sick!

I feel sorry that Ms. Alvarez is suffering from her inability to have any contact with her former family, but I'm happy she's free to lead a life of her own choosing. In the end, she'll be better off because of it.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

WHO DECIDES WHEN VIOLENCE AGAINST GOVERNMENT BECOMES JUSTIFABLE?

Who decides when a government has become so tyrannical that it's okay to rise up with firearms to overthrow it? How do we distinguish between gun-toting wing-nuts and pistol-packing patriots?

I raise those questions because, as I type these words, there's an ex-cop, ex-Navy reservist (Christopher Dorner) running around southern California with an arsenal of weapons shooting at cops. He's already killed one, wounded others and killed two innocent bystanders. Dorner feels that the government of Los Angeles is tyrannical and has exercised its power in an arbitrary and despotic manner by firing him from the police force. So Dorner intends to fight back…by killing cops.

Make no mistake; what Dorner has done is despicable. I think it's indefensible too, but there's a sizable crowd of anti-government sympathizers in this country who are pumping their shotguns in a show of solidarity. They're praying that a military uprising is just around the corner. If you think I'm wrong, check out what the militia websites are saying about Dorner's rampage. The stuff ain't pretty, and it's definitely not pro-government.

The N.R.A. and gun control opponents justify their stance on firearms by stating that individuals need firearms in case it becomes necessary to overthrow our government. Okay, I understand that argument, but that doesn't answer the practical question I posed at the beginning of this post. Who decides when the individuals who run our government have become so tyrannical that the second Amendment justifies using firearms against them?

I've posed that question to several gun owners, and all of them essentially gave the same answer: it's up to the individual to decide.

That sounds like a great answer, until you recognize that Christopher Dorner believes that he's justified in bearing arms against a government he considers tyrannical. If you follow the prevailing government overthrow argument, you'd have to conclude that Dorner's actions were justified by his honest (albeit deranged) belief that the government is tyrannical. That's not a conclusion a gun-control advocate like me would reach, but it's the logical conclusion to the government overthrow argument advanced by the N.R.A. and its gun-toting followers.

I don't know about you, but the whole question makes me nervous, especially when the folks on the other side of the argument are armed to the teeth and feel entitled to decide for his or her self when government is being tyrannical and when it's not!

R.I.P. "Fe"

Iron is the twenty-sixth element on the Periodic Table of Elements. Its chemical symbol is "Fe". Iron is a naturally occurring solid element, except that under pressure and extreme heat, it also exists in a molten liquid state. The Earth's core, for example, is a sphere of molten iron with a diameter of approximately 760 miles and a temperature of 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit. That iron core is responsible for the electromagnetic waves that encircle our Earth and helps protect Earth's inhabitants from the sun's deadly radiation. Without iron on Earth, life as we know it would simply cease to exist.

I mention those factoids because Hasbro, owner of the popular board game Monopoly ®, just announced that the iron, a token that's been around since the 1930's has been voted off the game board. Monopoly's® iron token is being replaced by a cat. Hasbro allowed the public to vote on which game piece would get the "heave-ho" and which new token would take its place. The cat won. The iron lost, fair and square.

I have no beef with how the voting took place. My beef is with all who voted against the iron. Don't they realize how critical iron is to continued human existence here on Earth? I guess not; but they'd better not complain to me when solar radiation rains down and people start dropping over like shriveled-up flies. I didn't invite Armageddon by voting to ditch the iron.

In fact, the iron was my favorite Monopoly ® game token. It's always been the least flashy token of the lot, and that characteristic meant that the iron had an innate quality missing in its more flamboyant counterparts – invisibility. You see, when my iron slid across a Monopoly ® board and had the unfortunate stroke of luck in landing on Boardwalk or Park Place with hotels on both properties, and those properties were owned by one of my opponents, the iron's invisibility was the only thing that stood between me and bankruptcy. That iron got me through a number of pretty tight spots over the years, and I certainly appreciated its worth. Apparently, that's more than can be said about the folks who chucked it out in favor of a silly kitten.

I hope they all go directly to jail…and don't collect $200 in the process.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE

Chris Kyle was a former Navy Seal, a trained sniper with a much-heralded track record among those in the Pentagon who keep track of such things. He was also an accomplished author, penning "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History", a book that made its way to the New York Times best-seller list. Chris Kyle took his civic duty seriously, and towards that end began the FITCO Cares Foundation, a foundation dedicated to helping combat veterans re-assimilate into civilian life following their tours of duty overseas. He knew what it was like to deal with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), a product of his own tours in Iraq. He recognized the difficulties many of his fellow veterans faced as they tried to adjust to their old lives back home. Chris Kyle was not just a hero in the field. He was a hero at home too.

In an ironic twist of fate, Chris was killed yesterday at a Texas shooting range, along with another man, Chad Littlefield, by a veteran with a troubled history of mental illness; the very kind of vet Chris dedicated his life to helping. This story is not about guns. It's not about mental illness either. It's about an American public who all too often fails to recognize that the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform are not always confined to the field of battle. Many of those sacrifices are made here at home, and all too often end in bloodshed.

Three hundred and forty-nine soldiers in the military committed suicide last year, a figure that continues a growing trend among active-duty servicemen and women. When the number of retired service personnel who committed suicide is added to that figure, the picture becomes even more alarming. Service personnel need America's help and the first step in providing that help is a collective commitment on the part of all Americans to do whatever it takes, to pay whatever it costs, to provide whatever is needed to return our vets to a healthy state of body and mind.

Our soldiers made their sacrifices. It's time we make ours!

Friday, February 1, 2013

LOOK OUT WARREN AND BILL. HERE I COME!

Today I feel like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, two of the richest men in the world. No, I didn't win the Powerball jackpot, but I can honestly say I've finally reached a financial milestone that only men like Buffett and Gates can boast of achieving. The milestone is this: I have more money in the bank than one particular country has! That's right. The bottom line of my checking account is greater than the checking account of the government of Zimbabwe. As of this past Tuesday, Zimbabwe had $217 on deposit. My account had a few dollars more.

Don't expect me to open my coffers anytime soon, or think that my new-found financial status will alter the way I approach monetary decisions, but know this: I'll expect Forbes to list my name above Zimbabwe's name on its wealthiest depositors list, and my appearance fee to speak at a financial seminar is now $50,000 per appearance, plus expenses. If I'm going to be a financial mogul, I'll have to start acting like one.