The Yorktowne Free Liberal

EVEN LIBERALS BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL

2012-02-22T19:14:00.001-05:00

A 2007 Gallup survey of Americans found that 7 of every 10 people questioned indicated that they believed in the Devil. The results of that Gallup poll have been bandied about lately as proof that Americans are buying into the snake-oil being sold by Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum. I beg to differ with that assessment, because I'm a blazing liberal and I count myself among the 7 in 10 Americans who believe that the Devil actually exists. In fact, I think he looks a helluva like Rick Santorum. Imagine that!

VIRGINIA'S G.O.P. ULTRASOUND RULE…and my Democratic amendment!

2012-02-22T16:07:00.002-05:00

Virginia's Republican legislature is ready to forward a bill to the Commonwealth's Republican governor requiring women to have internal vaginal probes before seeking an abortion. It's the latest in a long line of G.O.P. efforts to deprive woman of control over their own bodies, not to mention access to abortions, but if Virginia Republicans really want to be fair about their efforts, they'll include my own Democratic amendment to their bill.

I propose that all males within the Commonwealth of Virginia be required to undergo an internal penis probe before engaging in any sex act that could result in the fertilization of a female egg. Failure to undergo such a procedure within 48 hours of engaging in sexual intercourse should constitute a felony. Requiring such a procedure would cut down on the overall number of sexual encounters performed in the Commonwealth, and thus, reduce the number of abortions. That is the aim, isn't it?

BOOK BURNING - A CONTINUATION OF IGNORANCE

2012-02-22T14:57:00.000-05:00

Book burning has never been a good idea. In fact, it's downright maddening, and that's why I can sympathize with the anger that has erupted across Afghanistan at news that Americans have once again burned copies of Islam's most sacred book – the Qur'an. The burning of the Qur'an is not just a slap in the face of a particular religion. It's an insult upon a rich and vibrant culture and the civilization that sprang forth from it. It's like stabbing the soul of a follower of Islam. Plus, it's just plain mean and insensitive.

Consider how Americans would feel at the sight of mobs burning the American flag. Imagine the outcry in this nation if Bibles were burned. For Muslims, the burning of the Qur'an carries the same sentiment.

Book burning as a political or religious tool has a long and storied past. The Chinese Emperor Qin did it in the 3rd century BC. Egyptians monks did it in the 4th century AD. A Spanish king ordered it done 200 hundred years later and included the homes in which the books were found to underscore his point. When the Turks invaded India near the end of the 12th century, they made a bonfire out of the great library at the celebrated Nalanda University. During the later 15th and early 16th century, the Spanish Inquisition took its turn by destroying thousands of Qur'ans and other Arabic manuscripts. In the late 1800's, New York's Society for the Suppression of Vice undertook a massive purge of the written word by fire (along with lewd pictorial representations). In the 1930's Germany's Third Reich torched millions of volumes at the Opernplatz in Berlin and, of course, American idiots in these earliest years of the 21st century have taken to burning the Qur'an again. Some people never learn, and the ignorance continues.

THE HUBRIS OF FRANKLIN GRAHAM

2012-02-21T20:46:00.000-05:00

When Reverend (and I use that term loosely) Franklin Graham, the son of renowned Evangelist, Billy Graham went on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show today and espoused his doubt that President Obama was a Christian and hinted that Obama was Muslim instead, I've little doubt that Graham was intending to inflame the right-wing religious (and I use that term loosely too) zealots in America who are determined to continue their campaign of denigrating our President by essentially calling him the anti-Christ.

It really doesn't matter what the zealots think, because God knows the true nature of Obama's soul and His is the only opinion that counts, but I find it rather irritating that so much time is wasted by America's right-wing religious zealots judging one man's personal faith instead of concentrating on their own souls. There were reasons why Jesus sternly warned his Disciples against judging the souls of others. First of all, it's a Divine task. Next, men are too blinded by their own faults to accurately sit in judgment of others. Finally, mankind lacks the necessary humility to pass the kind of judgment Franklin Graham and his ilk like to make. Only the perfectly humble can do that job. That's why it's a task solely reserved for God.

Graham might find comfort in calling himself and his right-wing zealots, 'Christians', and labeling others as evil non-believers, but there will come a day when the Christian label doesn't mean squat in the eyes of the Divine, and only that which resides in the souls of individual men matters. Jesus warned the religious zealots of His day about what awaited them. I hope Graham and his followers were listening!

MY ONE MILLIONTH MISTAKE

2012-02-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

I can't be absolutely certain, but I think this morning I committed the one millionth mistake I've made during the course of my lifetime. I forgot to use cooking spray on the griddle before making pancakes. The first one I made burned. Obviously, that wasn't the first bone-headed move I ever made, and it probably won't be the last, but I thought I'd honor the occasion by ruminating over some of my past mistakes in the hope of not repeating them again. If reading about some of my most memorable lapses in judgment (*) helps you avoid making similar errors in the future, so much the better!

(*) The mistakes cited herein are not in chronological order or ranked according to my own personal level of stupidity.

Pepper is not medicine!

When my son was about 8 or 9 years old, he caught a bad cold and would not blow his nose. Listening to his persistent attempts to clear his nasal cavities without using a tissue was driving me batty, and for some reason I thought that a good sneeze was exactly what a doctor would recommend. If my son wasn't going to blow his own nose, I could speed the process with a homemade remedy you won't find in any medical literature – a pepper inhalant…not to be confused with "pepper spray", though my son might beg to differ! I sprinkled a dash of pepper on my finger, held it up to my son's nose and told him to inhale quickly. He did…and I'm sad to say that remedy didn't work. What followed was a string of 'deleted expletives' from the mouth of a young kid, followed by a jeer that I was a stupid dad…which I guess I was.

Always check the number first!

Back in my college days, I met a girl that I thought was very interesting and I wanted to ask her to go on a date. There was one small problem – I'd been dating another co-ed, and although we hadn't officially broken-up, we were drifting apart and I knew there was little future for that relationship. Still, it was a sticky situation. Undaunted, I tracked down the new young lady's telephone number and gave her a call. When the phone was answered, I asked if I could speak to the "new girl", only to have the voice on the phone reply, "I'm sorry, Steve. You called the wrong number." The voice promptly slammed the phone down. I'd mistakenly called the number of girl I'd been dating…well, right up to the point where she hung up on me.

Look before you grab!

When I was eleven or twelve years old, my family frequently visited my grandparents at a weekend cabin my grandparents owned in a heavily wooded area. We were often joined by aunts and uncles and hordes of cousins. A small stream ran through the property and my cousins and siblings and I frequently tied ropes to trees and amused ourselves by swinging over the stream. One Sunday, several kids were already in the process of performing Tarzan impersonations over the stream when I decided to join the fun. Nobody had an extra rope, so I set off searching for a chord heavy enough to support my weight. I finally found a large black garden hose lying beside the cabin, and I called to my grandmother for permission to borrow it. She nodded yes, so I grabbed the hose in one fluid motion and started moving toward my rowdy cousins. Unfortunately, the twelve foot black snake that I'd wrested from its afternoon siesta was not too keen about being tied to a tree, and when I discovered the snake was not a hose a second later, my heart nearly stopped. Look before you leap…that applies to grabs too!

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LUNACY

2012-02-20T18:50:00.002-05:00

I know I've been picking on Rick Santorum lately, but he's the latest G.O.P. candidate du jour and not a day goes by that he doesn't say something stupid, even by Republican standards. Rick's most recent rant, suggesting that public education should be eliminated, is the perfect example. If Santorum had his way, all children would be home-schooled; by whom I have no idea, because in a Republican economy a majority of two-parent households can't afford the luxury of one parent staying home to conduct educational classes. Kids living in single-parent households…well, they'd basically get screwed.

Santorum forgets that not everybody gets the congressional 'free health insurance for life' benefit or has access to corporate donors willing to drop $50,000 a pop for a 45-minute inspirational speech on the joys of fathering a brood of seven. I'm not questioning Santorum's virility, just his haughtiness.

Somebody from the business world ought to take Rick aside and clue him in on the necessity of having an educated workforce. I was tempted to add "citizenry" to that list, but the fact that Santorum is the front-runner among Republicans, the supposed brains in American, means that there's little hope of that happening.

CASTING STONES IN GLASS HOUSES

2012-02-19T21:04:00.002-05:00

Years ago, two of my children and I were walking in a local mall when we ran into one of my former high school teachers. I introduced my children to her, and she spent several minutes chatting with each of them about their school classes and various extra-curricular activities. As our conversation wound down and we were about to head off in different directions, my teacher nodded her head toward me and said to my daughter, "He's a good guy."

As I reflect back upon that incident, I wonder how my daughter would have felt if, instead of uttering a word of praise, the woman had told my daughter that her daddy was a no-good, godless bastard who looked down on crippled folks, and was responsible for leading America to ruin.

I bring up that incident because we're currently mired in the ugliest of all political seasons – a presidential election year, and because the probable candidates have children that they're still rearing. President Obama and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two children; Malia, age 13 and Natasha, age 11. Their daughters have been raised in the Christian Faith, nurtured and educated in loving surroundings, and by all accounts, are two bright, well-adjusted and intelligent young ladies who any parent would be proud to call their own.

But you and I read the papers. We know that not a week goes by without two or three letters to the editor and several syndicated columnists suggesting that Obama is a no-good, godless bastard who looks down on crippled folks, and is responsible for leading America to ruin. The G.O.P.'s current favorite son, Rick Santorum spewed out that drivel just last week, and I have to say that such rhetoric sickens me.

I have no doubt that Rick Santorum deeply cares for his wife and children. I have no doubt he loves God. I have no doubt that he loves his country and has a sincere desire for Americans to prosper. I don't share many of his political beliefs. I think some of his views are unwise, unfounded and would result in needless pain and suffering. I believe some of the policies he advocates are downright cruel, some even dangerous, but none of those political differences would cause me to debase Rick Santorum in the eyes of his children in the same way Santorum's words debased President Obama in the eyes of his two girls.

Santorum is famous for denouncing his political opponents as being "anti-family", but a guy who would lie to daughters about their daddy really shouldn't be throwing stones in a glass house.

KILLING THOSE WHO MOURN KILLINGS

2012-02-18T20:25:00.002-05:00

While Americans were mesmerized by the litany of well-known voices singing at today's funeral service for Whitney Houston, mourners in the Middle East were chanting to a different tune – the sound of gunfire and tear gas cannisters. In Damascus, Syria, government security forces fired upon a funeral procession, killing two and injuring scores of mourners who were honoring three young men that were killed two days ago in an anti-Bashar al-Assad regime protest. The al-Assad regime didn't take kindly to the funeral procession passing within eye-sight of the Presidential Palace, so the security forces attacked the crowd with bullets and tear gas. Scores of mourners were also arrested, leaving little doubt that the al-Assad government has no plans to let-up on the brutal crackdown it's been conducting on citizens in every part of Syria.

Bashar al-Assad's days are numbered, but the continuous reign of terror that his government has been orchestrating against the Syrian citizenry leaves little doubt that thousands more will die before that day arrives. Eventually, all tyranny falls. Let's hope a-Assad's happens sooner than later.

THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK

2012-02-18T19:57:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure there's a better example of "the pot calling the kettle black" than today's report that Rick Santorum told an Ohio crowd of Christian Evangelicals and Tea Party members that President Obama follows a 'phony Christian theology'. If Obama's desire the feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give comfort to the sick and seek justice for the oppressed is 'phony Christian theology', then the Jesus mentioned in the New Testament must have been a fraud, and millions of Americans should be calling themselves something other than followers of Christ.

G.O.P. v. JESUS DEBATE (Part IV)

2012-02-18T12:53:00.000-05:00

Moderator: “Mr. Santorum will answer the next question first. What role, if any, should the government play in providing for the poor in America?

Santorum: "None! Now, I'm sure this Jesus fellow standing next to me will be biting his lip over what I'm about to say, but it's about time somebody had the courage to say what millions of hard-working Americans are thinking every day! We're tired of supporting millions of deadbeats who don't mind sucking at the public's tit, until it's time to show up for a job interview or a urine test. Then, it's one crying excuse after the next. When I'm elected, the poor will learn how to swing a hammer or starve, because the day I take office is the day the welfare checks stop!

Jesus: "Blessed are those who feed the poor, for they shall see God."

Santorum: "Spoken like a true lazy liberal!"

Moderator: "Mr. Santorum. It's Mr. Romney's turn."

Romney: "That's okay, Mr. Moderator. I know Ron is passionate about starving folks; probably just as passionate as Jesus is about handing out food stamps on the taxpayers' dime. You see, when I was governor of Massachusetts, I imposed severe conservatism on those New England liberals, and they cowered faster than the Jews did to the Romans. That's true respect, and if you want the poor to respect you, the best thing you can do is take apart the companies that employ them, put the poor on the street and cut off the safety net. The poor just magically go away. I don't really care about the poor. If you stop thinking about them, they truly don't exist.

Gingrich: I used to be poor once! That was, oh, I'd say about a month after my first divorce settlement, but look at me now. I'm on national TV. I've got friends pumping millions of dollars in PAC money into advertising campaigns telling the world what a great guy I am. I've got a beautiful trophy wife. I've got a half-million dollar line of credit at Tiffany's. Not too shabby, eh? Any why do I have all those things? Because I decided I didn't want to be poor. It's that simple. That's the beauty of America. If you don't want to be poor, you don't have to be. You just have to pick yourself up and go for the gusto!

Ron Paul: "Sounds like a beer commercial? I like a good frosty mug!"

Moderator: "Mr. Santorum, any rebuttal?"

Santorum: "A poor kid came up to me the other day whining about having no food in his refrigerator. I told the kid to go home and tell his mom to get up off her lazy butt and go earn some money for food. That's what I call governmental tough love."

Jesus: "That woman went out and prostituted herself for the boy's supper. She caught AIDS in the process. She will die in 2 years and her son will be homeless."

Santorum: "Good! One less mouth to feed."

Romney: Jesus may have inherited a lot from his Dad, but in my church, we look at things differently. The journey west made Mormons tough. It wasn't pleasant watching the poor die, but my ancestors did so I wouldn't have to care about the poor, and I'm grateful for their sacrifice.

Gingrich: "When you've written as many books as I have, you realize that most poor people want to be poor. They like being poor! They like playing the victim! Did you ever look at a line outside a food bank? Everybody looks so downbeat. When they come out with a bag of groceries, they're happy. Why is that? I'll tell you why. It's because now they have something to use to buy dope."

Ron Paul: I'll make a pact with America's poor people. You stay out of my life and I'll stay out of yours."

G.O.P. v. JESUS DEBATE (Part III)

2012-02-17T19:46:00.002-05:00

Moderator: “The next question is for Mr. Paul. Mr. Paul, are Americans safer now that Osama bin Laden has been killed and does the Obama Administration deserve any credit for bringing bin Laden to justice?”

Ron Paul: Osama bin Laden was just one man. Am I glad he's dead? Of course I am! He killed a lot of Americans and he paid the price. That was good, but what I'm concerned about is this notion that America should fight wars on the other side of the world and not take care of the war going on here at home. We should put our own house in order first.

Santorum: “You could kill Osama bin Laden a hundred times over, and as long as you have people right here in America, killing innocent babies in their mother's wombs, nobody is safe. I'm with Ron; I'm glad bin Laden is dead, but if you think for a second that America is any less safe, well…you've never seen the butchery that goes on at an abortion clinic. If you're looking for a place to bomb, there are plenty right here at home.

Moderator: “Jesus?”

Jesus: “Have you ever heard of an evil child being born? Of course not! That’s because all children are innocent and precious. However, there is evil in the world and over time some children grow and lose their innocence to the Prince of Darkness. It has been this way since the day the world was created and it will remain so till the end of time. Until the Kingdom of God is fulfilled nobody is ever safe from evil.”

Moderator: “Mr. Romney?”

Romney: “There’s no denying we’re safer from the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. That doesn't mean that we can sit back and rest on our laurels like Obama has. When I'm elected President, I'll bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, if that's what it takes to get them to give up their nuclear ambitions.”

Gingrich: "While Newt was making money hands over fists in the Grand Cayman Islands, and Santorum was trying to figure out which abortion clinic to firebomb next, I was busy writing several books warning Americans of the dangers of appeasement in the Middle East. The books are still available at Amazon.com, or if you care to donate a million to my campaign, I'll send you an autographed copy. My point is that in several of my books I warned America about the towel-heads, and nobody listened. I'm glad our Navy Seals got that bastard bin Laden, but don't start giving Obama the credit. He just made a phone call. Any sixth grade flunky can do that!"

Moderator: "Mr. Paul, any rebuttal?

Ron Paul: I don't know much about flunkies. I just know we should bring our boys home."

Santorum: I'm telling you. America is on the road to ruin. Do you know how many babies die from IEDs every year? Unless we take back America today, millions more will die tomorrow.

Jesus: “Weeds spread and take root faster than flowers. Pull one weed and two more will spring up in its place. Unless a gardener sows the seed of harmony and nurtures it daily, weeds will multiply faster than they can be pulled and no garden is safe.”

Romney: "It's impossible to think we're safer today with millions of Mexicans pouring over our border on a daily basis."

Gingrich: These guys just don't have a clue. I balanced the budget in the 1990's when the godless liberals were pouring into Washington. If you want somebody who is going to protect the American way of life, I'm that man!"

G.O.P. v. JESUS DEBATE (Part II)

2012-02-14T08:09:00.002-05:00

Moderator: “This next question is directed to Mr. Gingrich first. Do you believe it is or is not necessary to strip mine coal from atop mountains in West Virginia and why?

Gingrich: "In West Virginia, in Pennsylvania and in Canada too! If I'm elected President every household in America will have a coal-burning stove and we'll move Heaven and Earth to mine that black gold, wherever it's found."

Ron Paul: "At my age, bringing the top of a mountain down to me is a big plus!"

Santorum: Back when I represented the great coal-producing state of Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, and that was before the liberals temporarily seized control of the place, you couldn't walk ten feet in that state without seeing something that was created or made better by the coal industry. Even protesters outside abortion clinics would throw coal when they demonstrated. If I had my way, they'd be firing coal bullets.

Jesus: “If men had faith, they could move whole mountains without destroying one tree. For that matter, with faith, a man could turn salt water into enough fuel to power humankind for all eternity. You see, with faith, anything is possible...even finding ways to provide energy without destroying this earth created by my Father.”

Romney: "Personally, I like oil futures. You can bundle them into credit default swap securities and transfer capital gains on income from those securities to companies based in the Grand Cayman Islands and avoid paying federal tax on any of your profits. That's how you can make a killing and not get your hands dirty with something like coal. On the other hand, there's something strangely satisfying about buying up a coal company and raiding that company's pension fund because everybody knows that black lung disease kills miners long before they ever get to retirement. It's a win-win for the boys up stairs!

Moderator: “Mr. Gingrich, any rebuttal?”

Gingrich: “If the American people give me Divine power, I’ll put oil and gas in places where it can easily be obtained without destroying the environment. Look, this wasn't my call. It was liberals like Jesus' dad who put the gas and oil in the most difficult places to extract and now radical environmentalists want to blame we conservatives for trying to keep the lights and heat on in American homes. Of course we’re trying to protect the environment, but I’m not going to stand up here and apologize for making it possible for ordinary folks to cook and see their food at night.

Ron Paul: "Let's forget about the towel-heads in the Middle East. Dig baby. Dig!"

Santorum: [facing Ron Paul] "You've been talking to Sarah again, haven't you? Yeah, I admire her too."

[audience claps and chants, "Palin", "Palin" "Palin" until the moderator raises his hand to silence the crowd]

Santorum: [cracking a wide smile] Yeah, I'm considering her as my running mate. Look, I want to address what Jesus said. That sounds nice in church, but we’re talking ‘real world’ here…where ordinary Americans get a light and heat bill every month. And if Jesus is talking about another heat and light welfare program…well, that’s not going to fly with American taxpayers.”

Jesus: "I am the light of the world. Whoever shall follow me will never walk in darkness.”

Romney: "Glad to hear that Jesus, but from where I'm standing your ledger books just don't add up. If America follows where you're going, pretty soon we'll all be drowning in red ink…deficits as far as the eye can see. That's not what Americans want in a leader. They're looking for somebody who can go toe-to-toe with Obama, and I'm that guy!"

G.O.P. v. JESUS DEBATE (Part I)

2012-02-13T06:44:00.001-05:00

Moderator: “Good evening gentlemen. The agreed upon format for tonight’s debate will be as follows. Since Jesus already knew which questions were going to be asked, all candidates have been provided with a full list of possible questions and there will be no deviation from that list. I will ask a question and each candidate shall have 90 seconds to provide an answer. After all candidates have given their answer, each candidate will be given an additional 30 seconds to provide a rebuttal comment. At the close of the debate each candidate will have three minutes to give a closing statement. Are there any questions about the format?”

Santorum: “No.”

Jesus: “Not at this time.”

Romney: "Not now, maybe later."

Gingrich: [turning to Romney] "Flip-flopper!" [turning back to moderator] "No. I've always believed in rules!"

Ron Paul: "Suits me."

Moderator: “Fine. Jesus won the coin toss, but elected to allow Mr. Romney to answer the initial question first. Therefore, Mr. Romney, here is the first question for you. Do you favor a Constitutional Amendment to ban flag burning?

Romney: “Absolutely! Burning the American flag is an affront to the millions of service men and women who have fought bravely over the years for this Country. Back where I come from, people stand up for their flags, and if they can make a buck printing them on tee-shirts; so much the better!

Gingrich: "Frankly, Mr. Moderator, I'm appalled that you'd ask such a question. That claim by my ex-wife that I burned her red, white and blue lingerie is utterly false. In all the marriages I've had over the years, there has never been one shred of proof that I have demeaned the stars and stripes in any manner whatsoever. I fully support a Constitutional Amendment to ban flag burning, and again, I'd like to voice my outrage over what has become a constant theme of the liberal, elite press – trying to soil my good name."

Ron Paul: "Well, you know, setting Old Glory afire is a form of freedom of speech; not that I would do such a thing. I find it repugnant and just plain stupid. I'm just worried that the flag is getting us into too many wars. 'Keep the flag at home,' I always say."

Santorum: I cry every time I see a flag being burned by one of those godless Democrats. It's as if a tiny baby is being ripped from a mother's womb. Plus, all those liberals are desecrating the memory of our fallen soldiers who served this country and held the flag near and dear to their hearts. If I’m elected, I won't wait for a Constitutional Amendment. I’ll ban flag burning by executive order immediately after ordering the death penalty for contraceptive use.”

[Major applause from the audience]

Jesus: “I don’t believe I could support such an amendment. In fact, burning one’s flag is probably a good idea if the flag has become a false idol or is getting in the way of a man’s pursuit of eternal salvation. Besides, what good is it if a man owns one hundred flags and flies each in front of his home as proof of his patriotism, but does not honor the principles upon which his country was built? Is it not better that a man burn his flag, but quietly adhere to righteous principles, than noisily sound his allegiance to a flag, but not follow the principles it was meant to represent? Flags are symbols of worldly kingdoms but have no place in the Kingdom of God. Anything that stands in the way of the Kingdom of God should be burned.”

Moderator: “Any rebuttal that the candidates wish to share?”

Romney: “Every church in America is flying a flag, for heavens sake! Are you saying all those God-fearing Americans are wrong? I don’t think so! Maybe some liberals think it’s okay to tell people what they can and can’t do in church, but here in America we have freedom of worship and if flying the American flag is part of that worship, so be it!”

Gingrich: "Yeah, but it's probably not something you in the left-wing press want to hear. Look, Jesus might have experience ruling Heaven, but here in America, we do things differently. We like our flag. We respect our flag. We die for our flag. We fly it proudly 364 days a year; giving it a vacation only on Martin Luther King Day. If liberals want to burn flags, let them adopt their own flag and go burn it in Hell.

[More applause from the audience]

Ron Paul: "I think my first answer was sufficient."

Santorum: "If we allow flag burning where would it stop? This country is on the road to ruin, and if we don't reel in the flag burners and baby killers, nothing will be left in America to burn."

Jesus: “It is written in the law handed down from Moses. Thou shalt not have false idols.”

[The audience boos]

A G.O.P. DEBATE WITH JESUS

2012-02-12T20:14:00.001-05:00

For the next ten days Yorktowne Fee Liberal readers will be treated to an exclusive debate between Republican Presidential Candidates and Jesus, leader of past and modern day Christians. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the debate. Monday's blog entry will feature question 1. Stay tuned!

TAKING AMERICA BACK - THE QUESTION IS TO WHEN?

2012-02-11T13:35:00.008-05:00

A standard phrase heard these days on Republican presidential campaign trails is the pledge to "take America back", but as often as I've heard that phrase repeated in one form or another, I've never heard anybody answer the simple question that arises in my mind – back to when? If, as the Republican candidates are suggesting, Americans are yearning to return to better days gone by, you'd think that somebody would supply a date so the rest of us could set the calendar on the time machine that's supposedly going to take us there. Is that too much to ask?

Let's take a few moments and examine our options. Do we want to give up our modern electrical conveniences, empty our cities and return to 1773, when rioters in Boston were busy dumping tea into the water, or 1775, when most colonists owned a gun and there was no income tax or food stamps, but an eight-year war on American soil was about to begin and half the infants born died before reaching their first birthday?

How about 1861? Those were certainly happy times. A Republican (Abe Lincoln) was ensconced in the White House. Republicans controlled Congress. Over seventy percent of all white Americans owned a gun, blacks knew their place (slaving away on a plantation) and there was no income tax. Of course, that was also the year when Southern Democratic soldiers (a/k/a Confederate Forces) attacked the United States military base at Fort Sumter in South Carolina - commencing the Civil War, meaning that three quarter of a million Americans were about to meet a very violent death. Another five hundred thousand would sustain serious injury before the war was over, but at least folks didn't have "Obama-care" or Medicare shoved down their throats.

How about 1906? That was a vintage year. A Republican (Theodore Roosevelt) was enjoying his stay at the White House. Most American women (except for a few loud-mouths in the suffrage movement) knew their place, over half of all Americans owned a gun and government regulations didn't interfere with industry demands that kids put in a 16-hour work day and labor in unsafe conditions. Kids lucky enough to attend school started the day with a prayer and got their butts lashed with a belt (at school & at home) if they stepped out of line. Sure, lots of Americans were dying from tainted foods and work-related injuries, but people didn't have to pay income tax to fund government inspectors or put up with the A.C.L.U. suing to keep a crèche display off government property.

What about 1930? What a year! Another Republican (Herbert Hoover) was living comfortably in the White House. American industry had its first pro-business President and a half-million Mexican immigrants were forcibly returned to the land of their birth so they wouldn't compete with American citizens for the scarce number of jobs available after the 1929 stock market crash. Sure, by then America had a federal income tax and Hoover raised the top tax rate from 24% to 63% of net income. Everybody errs now and then, even Republican presidents. A mere 5000 U.S. banks had failed within ten months and tens of millions of Americans were homeless and penniless, but gun control was not on anybody's agenda, government waste was not an issue and welfare queens simply didn't exist. How can folks resist taking America back to those good old days?

How about 1957? There's another exciting year! I was born in February, a celebrated Republican ("Ike" Eisenhower) was running things in the White House and Elvis Presley was lighting up the stage on the Ed Sullivan Show. The Ku Klux Klan were keeping blacks in their place down South, Jim Crow laws did the same up North and the F.B.I. was hot on the trail of union leader, Jimmy Hoffa. Plus, men could slap their wives if dinners were cold without worrying about being socked with a protection from abuse order. Yeah, the top federal tax rate for earned income was 91% (kind of high for a Republican President), most American T.V.s were still black and white sets and the Asian flu claimed 70,000 American lives that year, but at least the government wasn't wasting money on medical research and people could still buy a pack of cigarettes without a government-mandated warning label. Back then, cars could spew as much pollutants into the atmosphere as their super-charged engines would muster and anybody who wanted to buy a gun could do so – no questions asked (unless, of course, you were black). Just thinking of those days brings a tear to my eye.

What about 1982? That's the year when Republican icon, "the Gipper" (a/k/a Ronald Reagan) was in control of the White House and the hearts of modern-day conservatives. Deregulation and trickle-down economics were all the rage. The federal air traffic controllers' union lay in ruins. American armed forces went on a spending spree to bankrupt the Soviet Union while federal spending on social programs designed to help the poor and disabled was slashed by sixty (60%) percent. Yeah, the U.S. unemployment rate hit 10.8 percent (not like Obama's current 8.3%) and liberals were successful in passing a federal ban on assault weapons following the assassination attempt on Reagan's life by that wing-nut, John Hinkley, but the top federal income tax rate for wage earners fell from 60% to 50%, ketchup gained official recognition as a vegetable for federally funded school lunch programs and the National Rifle Association acquired its most potent political weapon since the invention of gunpowder. What could be a better time to be alive?

If Republican presidential candidates are serious about taking America back – choose a year, and then, let's talk!

NO BUTTS OR BOOBS ON RICK'S FRONT LINE

2012-02-10T14:52:00.001-05:00

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has made it clear that if he is elected as President of the United States, women in America's armed forces will not be permitted to serve on the front lines in combat. Putting women in combat situations is "not in the best interest of men, women or the mission", he said. Rick would certainly know, since he's spent all of ZERO minutes in the military, and even less time in combat, unless you count the time he spent being the lawyer for the World Wrestling Federation as combat time.

Santorum is worried that men in uniform on the front lines will lose sight of their objective if women are allowed to block their views with curvy boobs and boot camp honed-posteriors. Clearly, he's never seen a short U.S. Army private wearing body armor and a fifty-pound weapons pack. Without looking at the head, you frequently can't tell the difference between a man and a woman.

Santorum won't let gays serve either, but that's another story.

It ought to irk men in uniform that a guy like Santorum would think that with women around, they'd put something other than their mission first, but there again, Santorum never served in the armed forces so he wouldn't have a clue what something like 'Semper fidelis' was really all about. They don't have that at the WWF.

I haven't conducted any scientific research on the subject, but the women I know who've served in the military are greatly offended by Santorum's viewpoint because it implies that women in uniform are second-class warriors. Take my wife's Aunt Elizabeth, for example. Aunt Elizabeth served in the "China-Burma-India" theater of operation in World War II and she came home with the medals to prove it, not to mention the scars of serving in a hospital unit that blazed its own trails and set up operations within earshot of the front lines. Mortars frequently fell on their hospital camp. Those were combat situations in the mind of Aunt Elizabeth and her fellow female soldiers; maybe not for Santorum, but they are to me too, and thousands of husbands and fathers came home from that Asian theater because those female soldiers in combat acted just as capably as their male counterparts.

Thanks, Aunt Elizabeth. You're the woman!

OBAMA RELAXES RULE REQUIRING PRIESTS BE ISSUED CONTRACEPTIVES

2012-02-10T12:17:00.006-05:00

President Obama has taken steps to quash the latest uproar over contraceptives, medical insurance and religious freedom by announcing that his Administration will re-write federal health insurance regulations to allow Catholic and other religious institutions to "opt out" of providing medical insurance coverage for contraceptives as part of the insurance coverage those institutions provide to their employees. That means that while Catholic priests won't be forced to wear condoms, they will have to pay for them out of their own pockets if they choose to do so. That seems only fair.

Studies have also suggested that as many as 2/3 of Catholic women in America use or have used birth control pills in spite of the ban on such medication issued by the Vatican. Of course, the Vatican doesn't put bread on the average Catholic table, or pay any of the $200,000 plus it takes to raise a kid these days, so I can understand why many Catholic women (and their husbands too) would ignore the edicts handed down by their church hierarchy. If there's one thing that's painfully obvious to all except a bunch of bishops, cardinals and the pope, it's that Catholic leadership doesn't have a clue when it comes to sexual matters. They may think they do, but they don't. (See, Exhibit # 1...the widespread priest sex abuse of children scandal)

Still, I have to hand it to the President for showing some flexibility when it comes to the contraceptive issue because there are a lot of people who have genuine religious views on the matter and their conscientious objections are just as valid as those who think that contraceptive use is morally acceptable. Early indications are that Catholic groups, including Bishops and Catholic hospitals, are happy about the President's accommodations. So is the Planned Parenthood organization, which might sound odd at first, but that's because the new Obama Administrations rules will force insurance carriers to offer contraceptive coverage for free in exchange for government payments. It's a win-win for all sides. Watch Congress jump in and screw things up. Yeah - I'm jaded.

THE WAR TO COME

2012-02-05T09:52:00.002-05:00

When leaders stop fighting for peace, war is sure to follow. ~ Anonymous

War is about to break out in the Middle East again, not because it must, but because those who hold the reins of power no longer desire to expend the effort or make a sacrifice to achieve a lasting peace. The fight for peace is winding down, and so are the chances that horrendous pain and human suffering can be averted. I'm referring to the war the leaders of Israel are preparing to launch against the leaders of Iran over Iran's decision to acquire a nuclear bomb to use against the Jewish State. War is coming. The only question is when.

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei refuses to back down from his pursuit of nuclear weaponry and his desire to flood the earth with Israeli blood. Israel's hawkish prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to wait idly on the sidelines for Iran to acquire the weaponry it needs to carry out the Ayatollah's maniacal wish. Both leaders see no use for peace. Both leaders have given up fighting for it. War is sure to follow. The only question is when.

SAVORING THE MOMENT, EVEN IF IT STINKS

2012-02-04T05:11:00.004-05:00

I appreciate candor in a politician because a willingness to be truthful with the public is the foundation of good governance. Lies and half-truths may fool voters and win elections, but in the long run they don't advance the public interest because you can't build sound government policy on something that isn't true. Those who try will eventually be exposed for their fraud.

Earlier this week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decided that he wanted to be candid with the public and share his innermost thoughts regarding the poor in America. He told a CNN reporter who was covering the Florida Republican primary that he's not concerned about the poor. I found his honesty refreshing. G.O.P. politicians seldom acknowledge their callous indifference to the plight of the poor so openly.

Over the years, Romney made tens of millions of dollars by putting thousands of hard working individuals out of a job and their families in dire financial straits, but he's not shy about those accomplishments and he's certainly not going to apologize for the wealth he's amassed. His fellow Republican candidates may chide him over his business practices, but I get the feeling they're just jealous it was Romney raking in the dough and not them.

Don't get me wrong. I find Romney's lack of concern for the poor as repugnant as fresh skunk road-kill; no offense to skunks, but I have to give credit to Romney for dropping all pretense and saying what he truly believed. Those are rare moments in a presidential campaign. You have to savor them whenever they occur.

HAPPY GROUNDHOG'S DAY

2012-02-02T06:56:00.000-05:00

According to sacred scriptures, on this day in the year 33 A.D., Jesus Christ emerged from the tomb, saw his shadow and predicted that there would be six more weeks until Pentecost. Or was that Punxsutawney Phil? Or Octarara Orphie? Maybe I'm just a little mixed-up this morning. It's Groundhog Day! Go outside and celebrate!

RICK SANTORUM AT HIS CRUELEST

2012-02-01T21:03:00.004-05:00

Republican presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum, was at his callous best today when asked by a young kid what he planned to do to make drugs more affordable. Santorum responded with well-rehearsed "double-talk", but his answer was clear and unsympathetic - not a damn thing!

I labeled Santorum's response well-rehearsed double talk because his initial response was to attack the boy who asked the question and the boy's family. You be the judge. Here is what Santorum said:

"People have no problem going out and buying an iPod for $900. But paying $200 for a drug they have a problem with - that keeps you alive. Why? Because we've been conditioned in thinking that health care is something we should get and not pay for."

Now, let's examine Santorum's response more closely. He was essentially saying that the reason people can't afford expensive drugs is because they waste money on other areas of their lives and expect something for nothing. Santorum had no knowledge of the financial situation of that young kid's family, but his automatic assumption was that if the family couldn't afford drugs to keep a child alive, it was the family's fault. That sounds cruel to me. Then again, that's Santorum.

The mom in that family yelled out that she was going bankrupt just to keep her kid breathing. Santorum was unmoved. He could afford to be. His kids get the best government funded health care available because Santorum was a former U.S. Senator and that's a perk he gets for the rest of his life. Talk about getting something for nothing.

Santorum responded to the mom saying as follows:

"Look, I want your son and everybody to have the opportunity to stay alive on much-needed drugs. But the bottom line is, we have companies with the incentives to make those drugs. And if they don't have the incentives to make those drugs, your son won't be alive and lot's of other people in this country won't be alive. We either believe in markets or we don't."

For Santorum, mainataining unfettered freedom in the pharmaceutical marketplace is more important than maintaining affordable access to life-saving drugs for everyone. In his view, drugs are a luxury for those who can afford to pay the going rate. For those who can't - well, tough!

Rick Santorum likes to fancy himself as a pro-life crusader, but his bottom line is the pharmaceutical industries' bottom line, and when forced to choose between drug company profits and the life of a deathly ill child, he believes that life is cheaper than the cost of a pill. That may be his idea of family values, but they're not mine.

A LIBERAL'S CALL TO ARMS

2012-01-31T21:04:00.001-05:00

For the second time in a week I find myself wondering whether we liberals should cast aside our discomfort with firearms and start loading up our basements with assault rifles and all the ammunition we can get our hands on. You can call me paranoid, but I'm starting to think my fellow citizens "across the aisle" are gearing up for another civil war, at least that's what their party leaders are saying.

Michael Reagan, son of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, told a G.O.P. rally in Tampa, Florida yesterday that liberals were "termites". I've been called names before, but never a termite, and I have to say I'm somewhat offended by that particular label because everybody knows that termites have no useful value, and if some "cockroach" like Michael Regan is going to imply that I have no value, well, he's just damn wrong, not to mention short-sighted and just plain stupid! Did you know that termites eat cockroach eggs? If it weren't for termites and bug sprays, cockroaches would be everywhere.

Former G.O.P. presidential candidate, Herman Cain spoke at the same rally as Reagan and he managed to call liberals "stupid people who are ruining this country" and "elite" – all in a span of five minutes. Both times the audience broke out in applause. Now, the word "elite" means a person or class of persons of superior intellect. A secondary definition is the best of most skilled members of a group. The word "stupid" means the exact opposite of elite. Somebody should have clued-in Cain and the Tampa G.O.P. audience that if liberals are elite, then conservatives are…! But, I digress. I've got a cold and I'm rambling.

Let's get back to guns and liberals. The other day, Florida G.O.P. congressman, Allen West – a Tea Party loyalist – went on a rant where he proclaimed that Democrats and liberals should get the hell out of the United States of America. Again, the crowd of loyal Republicans went wild with applause.

Now, here I am thinking, "Wait a minute. I was born in America. I love this country. I pay taxes here. I have rights. I have a vote. I have a voice and the vocal chords to prove it. How dare some "piss-ant" Congressman from Florida tell me that I have to get the hell out of America because he doesn't like my political opinions! Did I mention that termites eat piss-ants too? They make a good jelly if you can get them in season. Anyway, I got to thinking about all the dehumanizing bullshit Republican politicians have been casting at liberals lately and it occurred to me that maybe it's time for we liberals to start watching our back. Maybe it's time we arm ourselves, because when the founding fathers decided that the Second Amendment was necessary to ward off oppressive government, a government who told political opponents to get the hell out of the country was just the kind of government they were considering.

NOTE: I'm just venting!

ONE OF LIFE'S GREAT MYSTERIES

2012-01-30T07:36:00.000-05:00

If the federal government is so evil and everything that is wrong with America derives from Washington, D.C., why are so many Republicans in such a tizzy to be the head of the federal government and move to our nation's capitol?

OCCUPY OAKLAND - CONFRONTING PEACE & VIOLENCE

2012-01-29T12:07:00.001-05:00

I read with mixed emotions the news reports out of Oakland, California that described yesterday's clashes between police and the 'Occupy Oakland' protesters who were in the process of marching toward a vacant convention center. The protesters planned to take over the empty facility and the police blocked their path. Words flew and tempers flared, and then things turned ugly.

According to the police, protesters bombarded police with debris ranging from rocks and bottles to burning flares and explosive devices. 'Occupy' protesters accused the police of attacking them with tear gas, rubber beanbags and rubber bullets. Whichever version you choose to believe, it's pretty clear that both sides resorted to violence of some fashion. That's why I have mixed emotions. I detest violence, but at the same time, I'm deeply offended by the brutally, unsympathetic economic injustices that are championed in this nation in the name of maintaining our Almighty God of Capitalism. When should our human sacrifice end?

Jesus Christ, Mahatma Ghandi and Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. continuously preached that non-violent resistance was the only true means of achieving an end to political and economic oppression. I truly believe they were right, but I also acknowledge that staring down oppression with non-violence takes more courage than a lot folks are willing or capable of summoning. Fighting oppression with violence is an instinctive response, whereas non-violent resistance is counter intuitive to everything it means to be human. In simpler words, it's easier and more natural to fight than turn the other cheek.

In my heart, I want to calm my 'Occupy Oakland' brethren with peaceful words to soothe their anger and their rage, but in the next breath, I want to exhort them to pick up arms and bloody the streets to force this nation into recognizing the terrible injustices it inflicts on the meek and lowly on a daily basis. Appealing to the better angels of our nation's capitalists hasn't seemed to work; it's hard to refute the argument that force and violence are the only things that will.

THE DEATH AND SHAME OF HOMS

2012-01-28T16:59:00.001-05:00

A town of grief and tears and bombs,
A family home in downtown Homs;
Where screams are heard and lives are dashed
And loves are lost and dreams are trashed.

A spray of bullets line the halls,
And dots of blood adorn the walls.
The bodies lay upon a heap;
With eyes that stare, but never weep.

A tiny finger hugs a bear,
But finds no solace hiding there.
A mother reaches out in vain;
A lullaby that ends in pain.

The mortars fly, the bombs explode
To rip apart a small abode.
Then neighbors come to search debris
And find the horror plain to see.

The men who wield the guns and might,
They think their purposes are right,
But nothing in their war is tame,
And all they have is death and shame!

Note: This past week, Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad, unleashed a brutal military assault on the citizens of Homs. Families were massacred; the bodies of women and children were found littering the floors. The dead deserved to be remembered as the precious human beings they were.

POLITICAL TARGETING

2012-01-28T14:44:00.001-05:00

The other day I was unsettled by a story that appeared in The New York Times about a photograph posted on a man's Facebook web page. The photograph showed a bunch of gun-toting guys holding up a T-shirt of President Obama. Bullet marks were splattered across the President's face and emblazoned in bold letters on the shirt was the word "HOPE". That's when I had my own "profiling moment"…and thought, "Those guys had to be from Arizona." Sure enough, the boys from the land of cactus and sage brush didn't disappoint!

I found the story unsettling for another reason. It's been almost a year since that wing-nut opened fire on Arizona Democratic Congresswomen Gabby Giffords in Tucson, killing six and wounding thirteen. In the aftermath of that incident, former Alaskan governor, Sarah Palin took a lot of flack (deservedly so in my estimation) for a website she'd previously posted identifying 20 House Democrats she was vehement about opposing, using rifle scope cross-hairs. Gabby Giffords was one of Palin's targets. Of course, Palin denied with disdain the suggestion that she'd countenance something as heinous as political assassinations in this country, but denials of sinister suggestions back then sounded eerily similar to the denials of the guy the other day in The New York Times article. You don't have to hail from Arizona or Alaska to know what cross-hairs and bullet holes signify or the message they convey.

I was hoping that America had moved beyond the Palin's target fiasco. Sadly, I see we haven't!

MY TROUBLE FIGURING OUT GOD

2012-01-28T13:42:00.001-05:00

Ever since I was a little kid I've had a tough time figuring out God. You'd think that would be a simple task since he (or she for you hard-core feminists out there) gave us plenty of literature to explain what's expected of us, but it's not. The Bible, the Koran and the Torah are all fascinating books, but they're extraordinarily long to read, and complicated and frequently contradictory. Sometimes, it's hard to believe they all originated from the same God.

I've always thought that God was kind of mean on occasion. Take the time when he sent Abraham out to sacrifice Isaac. Then, after Abraham bound his son, placed Isaac on an altar and raised a knife above his head, God suddenly decided to intervene with a "just kidding" and called off the ritual. It sounded kind of cruel to me. The nuns in religion class claimed it was a test of Abraham's faithfulness to God, but that didn't sit well with me either. The only tests I ever took were done on paper with a No. 2 pencils, and if God was supposedly all-knowing and could see into everyone's heart, was it really necessary to scare the crap out of Isaac like that? Talk about a kid needing therapy!

God seems a bit touchy too. Remember when Moses led the Israelites around the desert for forty years and the people got hot and thirsty and demanded that Moses contact God for water? According to the story in Exodus, God told Moses to strike a certain rock and the water would flow, and Moses was a little bit skeptical, so God told him that he couldn't set foot in the Promised Land because he questioned God. That story bugged me for the longest time. You'd have thought God would have been more understanding. Moses was a nice guy, and he took a lot of crap from the people he led, especially when the conditions in the desert were bad, which is pretty typical of deserts. I'll probably go to Hell for saying this, but I thought Moses deserved some slack. The hot desert sun probably got to him. I know I get snappy and irritable whenever I've been out in the sun too long. It happens!

Another thing about God I find baffling is the way He (or she) switches side on a daily basis. For instance, one day God directs Osama bin Laden to kill thousands in the United States. The next day He tells the United States to kill thousands by invading Iraq. The day after that, He instructs Hezbollah in Lebanon to lob rockets at Israel. The following day, He authorizes the Israeli cabinet to sanction assassinations in Iran, all the while telling the Ayatollah's in Iran to build bombs to obliterate Israel. It would kind of make sense if God owned stock in arms manufacturers, but if God's plan is for men (and women) to live in peace and harmony with one another, egging on armies and authorizing mass killings doesn't seem like the best way to accomplish that goal.

And what about Tim Tebow? Forty-three percent of Americans (mostly Evangelical Christians) believed that God was on Tebow's side and was responsible for Tebow winning all those games for the Denver Broncos. Was it really Tebow's public piety? And if that's the case, then why did the Patriots, who hail from the land of liberals and staunch Democrats, whoop the crap out of Tebow and company a week after the Broncos eliminated the Pittsburg Steelers? Sure, I'm from Pennsylvania, but I'd still like to know what happened. Did St. Peter forget to tell God that the game was on FOX? I'm also interested in knowing why the 49'ers beat the Saints, if that's not too much to ask. I guess I'm still struggling with figuring out what God wants. He (or she) is a mystery to me.

TO INFINITY, AND BEYOND...

2012-01-27T22:48:00.000-05:00

I admit to chuckling when first hearing word of Uncle Newt's plan to build a moon colony by 2020, but after giving the matter some serious thought, I've got to admit that he might be onto something. I know that skeptics are saying that Newt's just trying to pander to Florida voters living in the Cape Kennedy / Cape Canaveral neighborhood, and they've got a point, but a colony on the moon would have some pretty useful benefits.

For example, now that Newt has been publicly bashing Mitt for holding offshore accounts and corporate investments in the Grand Cayman Islands, many of America's wealthiest investors are looking for other less conspicuous tax havens to shelter their earnings from the evil eyes of the government's revenue police…you know, IRS agents. The moon would offer the perfect "other world tax shelter". All you'd need was a guy living in a one-room solar-powered module on the lunar surface, a computer and a satellite dish. Business would pour in as companies realized the advantages of incorporating in a place with one-sixth the gravity and tax burdens as earth.

Another possibility for lunar development would be to relocate Congress there, preferably on the far side of the moon, where our representatives would be out of sight and largely incommunicado from all but alien spaceships hiding back there. Eventually, the lobbyist would set up shop on the moon too, but that would be okay. They're use to living in a world apart from everyday reality. It might even give lobbyists a whole different perspective of life on earth.

Newt is dreaming about Mars too. It's a red planet. Newt figures that means they vote straight Republican. Wait until he realizes that the only way to get from place to place on Mars is via government subsidized public transportation (a/k/a Martian rovers).

What comes after Mars is hard to say. Newt hasn't thought that far ahead yet. It's a good thing there's still 47 primaries to go before the G.O.P. convention. The universe is the limit! To infinity, and beyond, I'm sure.

RICH AND POOR DADS...AND CHILD SUPPORT

2012-01-24T20:35:00.001-05:00

A couple of months ago I ran into a woman at a local mall. She and I went to the same high school, but we weren't really friends back then and we seldom spoke to one another. In fact, I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she and I ever had a meaningful conversation before that meeting at the mall. The woman seemed pleased to meet me though, and before long, we were trading stories about our kids and how they were fairing in the world.

At one point during our conversation, she expressed annoyance over the fact that her son was being hounded by a woman for child support payments that were overdue. She claimed her son was several months in arrears and thought her grandchild's mother should have been more understanding because her son was out of a job and only collecting unemployment. I tried to maintain a sympathetic face as I listened, but when the woman mentioned that her son was also paying child support to two other woman for three children he fathered with them, it took some effort to maintain a non-judgmental façade. Afterward, we said our good-byes and I haven't thought of her or her son since, until today. Here's why:

Former pro-football standout, Terrell Owens recently told a GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly) magazine writer that he's currently burdened by monthly child support payments totaling $44,600. Terrell has four children, each fathered with a different woman, and now that his NFL playing career appears to be over, he's finding it impossible to keep up with the child support payments. Apparently, the $80 million he pocketed during his NFL career is gone. I'm finding it hard to be sympathetic with his dilemma, though I do feel sorry for the kids. They're the pawns that usually end up suffering the most.

Terrell Owens isn't the first professional athlete to find himself in that kind of situation. Heavyweight boxer, Evander Holyfield went bankrupt after a financially lucrative career and stiffed a number of women for child support. Former Denver Bronco's running-back Travis Henry left 11 children to 10 different women without funds for support. 1990s NBA Hall of Fame inductee Calvin Murphy sired 14 children to 9 different women. Child support battles spanned his entire career.

I know that most professional sports leagues hold seminars for new players to dole out financial advice regarding the new-found wealth those players are experiencing. Perhaps those seminars should be expanded to include information on birth control…or maybe a film or two on what goes on in child support court. It couldn't hurt.

I hope my high school classmate's grandchildren are getting the child support they deserve. Their daddy wasn't a multimillion dollar athlete who went broke, but like the athlete's children, they still have to eat!

CONFLICTED BY THE DEATH OF LEGENDS

2012-01-23T06:57:00.001-05:00

"JoePa", the former coach of the Penn State's Nittany Lion football team, died yesterday. He was 85 years of age. His body couldn't overcome the ravages of his bout with lung cancer. I'm guessing that all the anxiety he felt over his recent firing because of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal didn't help matters. Maybe it was just his time. We'll never really know for sure.

When I first saw word of Joe Paterno's death on an Internet news site, my immediate feeling was one of conflict – sadness for the profound loss that his family and Penn State are experiencing alongside my own smoldering anger over what I view as his failure to appropriately respond to information that former Penn State coach, Jerry Sandusky was abusing children. The anger hasn't gone away because "JoePa" is now dead, nor does it overcome my feelings of grief over the passing of this long-respected legend. I guess I'm just conflicted.

I felt the same way when Michael Jackson died. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, was a talented entertainer and a wonderfully gifted musician. His work as a philanthropist for victims of famine, earthquakes and A.I.D.S. was legendary, but there were also dark clouds that over-shadowed Jackson's life. Allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with children arose on numerous occasions, and my take on those allegations was that he bore a large measure of responsibility. Maybe I'm wrong on that account, but that's my own personal opinion and I'm comfortable with it. I do know that Jackson's death left me saddened over the passing of a musical icon at the same time as I viewed the world a tiny bit safer from a child abuser. I felt conflicted over his death. I still do.

I assume a great deal of my conflicted feelings arise because we humans like to think in terms of black and white. We avoid the grey areas and all the confusion that surrounds it. We feel most comfortable viewing folks as either "good" or "bad" – with no room for good in bad people or bad in good people. When folks do something uncharacteristic of the label we've assigned to them, it leaves us adrift in a sea of emotional conflict with seemingly no compass to find our way.

I'd like to say I've found a way around this conflict, but I can't. I'll let you know if I ever do.

INTEREST HIGH FOR THE GAME AT HOME

2012-01-22T12:57:00.000-05:00

At least one hundred and seventy-eight people died in a series of coordinated bombings yesterday in Kano, Nigeria. The group, Boko Haram, a cadre of Islamic extremists fighting the Nigerian government, claimed responsibility for the blasts. Elsewhere, in the northern part of Syria near the Turkish border, a bus explosion killed fourteen and wounded twenty-six. Both the Syrian government and those rebels in the north opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime have blamed the other for the explosion, but none of that really matters to the folks who died. Dead is dead!

Meanwhile, we Americans are transfixed on the outcome of South Carolina's Republican primary. The political resurgence of a serial philanderer is exponentially more fascinating than murder and mayhem in places far from America's collective conscience. Talk of sexual dalliances and open marriages trump open diplomacy, hands down! Would we want it any other way? I guess not.

Seismic events are occurring world-wide as we speak. Egypt just held its first truly democratic election in decades. Has anybody noticed that this Muslim country in the Middle East has taken a giant step forward by promoting individual rights while a country that is our friend – Isreal, is moving backward by restricting them? Is that registering on America's radar screen?

The anti-western Muslim Brotherhood party garnered 47% of Egypt's parliamentary seats in yesterday's election. The Al-Nour Party, an Islamic party that makes the Muslim Brotherhood look like a band of moderates, secured a second-place finish with 25 percent of the vote. Secular parties managed only one-quarter of the Egyptian vote. Do we know what that means for America? Do we care to know? Apparently not! Americans are so engrossed in the political war within our nation that we're becoming complacent over the war of ideas outside. It's no wonder ignorance abounds in America these days – sex sells! Ideals don't!

REPLACING THE N-WORD

2012-01-21T16:59:00.002-05:00

My wife and youngest daughter use my wife's maiden name instead of my surname. Our family joke is that they do so to give themselves plausible deniability if asked whether they know me. Everybody chuckles at our joke, but the concept of plausible deniability is rarely funny in today's world and nowhere is that more evident than in our political arena.

Take the word "nigger", for instance. It's an incendiary word meant to inflict pain and arouse hatred. Its history is long and storied and steeped in the ugliest shadows of this nation. We know what it means. We know what it stands for. We know why. We also know that it's a socially taboo word, one not to be uttered aloud; not that it prevents a segment of our population from doing so when they know they can get away with it. We've essentially labeled the word politically incorrect. We've removed it from many dictionaries, but it still lingers in our minds.

Why is that? It's because the word "nigger" is a handy word. It's more than an epithet. It's a code. It's a knife. It's a rallying cry for all the hate many whites carry against blacks in this nation. It's a word that sums up their anger at welfare, at desegregation, at affirmative action and the notion that government would use its power to tear down the walls of white supremacy.

A word like "nigger" can't fade away. It's too versatile to be hustled off. It's a powerful word, and something that powerful does not escape the eyes of people who seek to gain power for their own purposes. That's why the word "nigger" will never die. The letters may change, but not the concept.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has his own word for "nigger". Well, it's really a phrase. When he labels President Obama the "food stamp president", he's really calling Obama a "nigger". Of course, Newt would deny my charge. That's the beauty of plausible deniability. The words "food", "stamp" and "president" have meanings totally divorced from racial politics, but when you put them all together they become an epithet, a code, a knife, a rallying cry for all the hate many whites carry against blacks in this nation, and a black President in particular, who heads a government that challenges the notion of white supremacy.

Every time I hear Newt utter those words and receive thunderous applause my stomach heaves. The word "nigger" hasn't died. It's just been replaced!

GINGRICH AND RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION

2012-01-19T21:00:00.003-05:00

Is it just me or does Newt need a lesson in regret and remorse? Righteous indignation doesn't seem like the right tack to take when addressing a question regarding why he left a sickly ex-wife to take up with a mistress; then again, this is the Republican primary we're talking about. It's not like anybody really cares whether he advocated for an open marriage or not. As long as Newt's sufficiently hostile toward the poor, blacks and northeast liberal elites, the G.O.P. can apparently disregard any of his flaws.

Wow! Things have surely changed from the days of Bill Clinton and Gary Hart. In fact, they seem to have changed since the days of...well, Herman Cain. What a difference a month makes. Go figure!

A SERIES OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

2012-01-18T07:04:00.001-05:00

Every now and then for amusement, I like to scour media sources for odd stories that lead listeners or readers to ponder the unanswered questions behind those stories. Yesterday, a local news item fell into that category. A blurb in one of our local newspapers indicated that police were summoned to the scene of a barroom brawl. When they arrived, the brawlers were gone, but somehow in the melee, a toilet bowl in the men's room was smashed. The police were asking for the public's help to determine what occurred. Strangely, the newspaper article never mentioned whether any blood was found at the scene, but it's kind of hard to imagine a brawl occurring, where a toilet got smash, and nobody left a trail of blood or cracked skull on their way to a hospital. A blow from a ceramic toilet has to hurt! The first question I have is how did the toilet get smashed? Were the brawlers carrying sledge hammers? Or did some guy yank the toilet from the floor and heave it another brawler? Something stinks about that story…maybe one of the brawlers too.

~~~*~~~

The Huffington Post ran a story about a guy who swears he's still a virgin, but has fathered fourteen kids. You guessed it – a serial sperm donor. Why doesn't he just give up abstinence?

~~~*~~~

The organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has been lobbying the Illinois legislature to permit the placement of memorials along public highways in Illinois at spots where cows were struck and killed by motor vehicles. Being a big beef fan I guess I have no sympathy for the cows, but if we're going to be fair about things, what about deer, opossum and woodchuck memorials? You see a lot more road-kill of those species than bovine. Plus, are folks advocating for memorials for the damaged cars? Shouldn't the American Automobile Association (AAA) be doing something about those tragedies?

~~~*~~~

Authorities in North Korea have started charging thousands of its citizens with the crime of being insufficiently sincere in their public displays of anguish and sorrow following the recent death of Kim Jung-Il, North Korea's former brutal dictator / benevolent national father-figure (you choose). What's the acceptable level of heartbreak in a nation where thousands starve to death every day? With death so common, it's hard to believe that those living aren't numbed to it already. Why haven't they employed acting coaches as teachers in their educational system? It seems like the perfect solution!

IT'S ALL ABOUT WINNING

2012-01-17T04:12:00.001-05:00

This past weekend Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman's decided to withdraw from the race. His candidacy hadn't garnered the kind of voter support that he'd hoped for, and I'm guessing that he decided that continuing with the campaign was not the best use of his time or resources. I can respect his decision. I'm interested, however, in one factor that Republican insiders attributed to his poor showing in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries – his connection with the Obama administration.

In July of 2009, President Obama nominated Jon Huntsman to serve as the United States' Ambassador to China and the former Utah governor agreed to serve America in that capacity. One month later, the U.S. Senate formally confirmed his nomination. Huntsman served in that capacity until resigning his commission in April of 2011, oddly enough, to explore the possibility of running for president.

There's absolutely no reason why conservatives in America should not love Jon Huntsman. He's been a faithful follower of right-wing ideology, a governor with a track record of success and possesses an impressive resume when it comes to foreign relations. So, what gives? Is it that, like Mitt Romney, he's a Mormon? Or, is his lack of success really tied to what G.O.P. insiders claim was his betrayal of party principles by having worked with the Obama Administration? At first blush, the latter explanation seems a bit petty, especially since Huntsman was campaigning to unseat Obama and his administration, but when you consider the current state of Republican ideology, it kind of makes sense.

Senate Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky set the tone of things to come when he stated in 2010 that defeating Obama in 2012 was the Republicans' number one priority. Never mind that millions of Americans were out of work, millions more were out of homes and the number of Americans living in poverty soared. The chief concern of McConnell and his colleagues was to add Obama to the unemployment lines; not to solve America's problems. As a result, Republicans have spent the past two years obstructing any and all Obama administration attempts to better the lives of Americans, hoping to insure Obama's failure in this year's voting booths. Apparently as part of that process, anyone seen as assisting the Obama administration in any manner [like Huntsman by serving as an Ambassador] was automatically deemed shameful and suspect.

Since when is serving America during a Democratic administration a shameful act? Should all our service personnel resign on the first day a Democratic president takes office to avoid being disrespectful? How dare Republicans debase the legitimate sacrifices that those who serve America, both at home and abroad, simply because they were doing during the tenure of a Democrat! The idea is downright offensive!

Even today, as the Republican slug-fest continues on stages across South Carolina, the chief topic is who is best positioned to defeat Obama, not an in-depth analysis on why G.O.P. policies would supposedly solve America's problems. It appears as if Republicans aren't really concerned about bettering the lives of all Americans. They're just concerned about winning, and the rest of us are going to have to suffer because of it.

APARTHEID IN THE 21st CENTURY

2012-01-16T07:31:00.005-05:00

Imagine a country where ethnic minorities are prohibited from living in certain neighborhoods. Imagine a country where ethnic minorities are driven from decades old, ethnically-mixed neighborhoods to allow the ethnic majority to expand their dominion and control. Imagine a country where ethnic minority spouses are prohibited from living with one another to prevent the birth of ethnic minority children, for fear that one day those children will proliferate to become the ethnic majority. Imagine a country where religious zealot squads roam the streets to enforce their rigid codes of moral dress and decency, and harass and shower debris upon those who violate their codes. Imagine a country where women are denigrated and treated as second-class citizens, relegated to the back of the public bus and forbidden to walk on the same side of the street as men. Imagine a country where the government doesn't just turn a blind eye to these injustices, but codifies them into the law of the land. Would you be imagining America in the fifties and sixties, or Bosnia in the nineties? How about South Africa during the hay-day of Apartheid, or Afghanistan under Taliban rule? No, you'd be imagining Israel in 2012!

For quite some time, local and national legislative bodies in Israel have been passing laws forbidding the sales of businesses and real estate in specified areas to Arabs, Palestinians and non-Jewish individuals. The goal of those laws is to create ethnically exclusive Jewish neighborhoods by preventing non-Jews who already reside there from passing property onto their offspring or selling to anybody but a Jew. Non-Jewish families, who've resided in those designated areas for decades, are oftentimes forced from their homes and businesses and have to move into shrinking non-Jewish areas elsewhere in Israel. To make matters worse, the practice of limiting the pool of potential property buyers means that non-Jewish property sellers cannot get a fair price for the property they are being forced to sell.

Next, the Israeli legislature passed, and its highest court just recently affirmed a law banning Palestinian residents in Israel (those who are legal residents) from living with their spouse on Israeli soil. As I stated earlier, the intent of this prohibition is to eliminate the procreation and birth of Palestinian children in Israel in order to prevent the Palestinian minority from one day becoming an ethnic majority. Imagine one political party in America passing a law forbidding individuals belonging to another from living or procreating with their spouses and forcing their opponents to choose between their spouse and their country. The idea is so ludicrous here (okay, many not for Rush Limbaugh and his ilk) that we can't even fathom such a concept gaining political traction, but in Israel, the idea is not ludicrous. It's the law of the land!

Meanwhile, ultra-orthodox Jewish groups have demanded that the Israeli government sanction gender-based segregation on public streets, public transportation and in government buildings and other public places, and the right-wing Israeli government has been capitulating to the ultra-orthodox group demands. Mobs of Jewish zealots roam the streets of Israel's largest cities and harass and stone women and children who, in the eyes of the zealots, are violating their rigid codes of moral dress and decency. The Israeli government does nothing to prevent those attacks.

Women in Israel are on track toward becoming second class citizens, just as Palestinians are on track toward becoming slaves of their Israeli oppressors. In a matter of a few short years, Israel has become the new South Africa…a nation with government sanctioned apartheid.

In 2011, Israel received three billion dollars worth of foreign aid from the United States. Dare I ask why America, a country whose very foundation rests upon the pillars of justice and equality, should waste such sums of money on a nation such as Israel that openly practices apartheid over its non-Jewish citizens and sanctions violence and discrimination against its own women? How can Americans support such a regime or count them among our closest of friends?

Today we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, the leader of the civil rights movement in America. If Dr. King's contributions are to mean anything in this land, America cannot look abroad and morally or financially support the same injustices he worked so hard to eliminate.

Once upon a time, when the struggles of Nelson Mandela against South African apartheid captured America's social conscience, we boycotted South African goods and withdrew America's financial aid from the government that sanctioned the unjust treatment of its black citizens. It was the morally just thing to do and our actions helped break the chains of apartheid. It's time we do the same to Israel.

IN THE PURSUIT OF STUPIDITY

2012-01-15T06:21:00.000-05:00

"Parlez-vous francais?" Because if the answer is, "Oui", and you are an American, according to a political ad recently released by the Newt Gingrich campaign in South Carolina, you are an intellectual elitist and by virtue thereof, are totally unqualified to become president of the United States. That's the essence of the Gingrich campaign ad targeting G.O.P. frontrunner, Mitt Romney, who – you guessed it – speaks French. It came in handy during Romney's two-year missionary stint in France in the 1960s.

I'm just as opposed to Romney taking up residence in the White House as I am to Gingrich, but Romney's intellect and foreign language skills don't enter into the equation. His policies do, but certainly not his intelligence quota.

Over the past three decades, Republicans have garnered a fair amount of success using the kind of anti-intellectual argument that lies at the core of Gingrich's anti-Romney ad, so it's no surprise that Newt's campaign would resort to such a strategy. What surprises me more is its use in a G.O.P. primary against the front-running candidate. That's the kind of stuff Republicans usually wait until the fall campaign to levy against the Democratic candidate. Maybe since Obama is a black man, and suggesting that such an individual could be intellectually elite goes against those with racist views in the Republican Party, Newt has decided to use the "intellectual card" in the primaries instead. Still, I sense a hint of desperation in Gingrich's strategy that highlights just how barren Republican policies have become. Gingrich's posters should read: "Pick me; I'm the Republican dunce!"

I love a good political debate, especially when those debating can do so with a broad base of knowledge and experience, a healthy dose of intellectual reasoning and a deep sense of appreciation of the value of opposing viewpoints. Maybe it's a liberal thing, but I can't think of a single reason why anybody should want the class idiot to run America. Then again, maybe that's why Republicans have been waging an angry war against public education for the past three decades. Perhaps a stupid electorate is exactly what they want, with a dunce leading the crowd.

The pro-stupidity political strategy reminds me of the warning given to Forrest Gump by his mother – "Stupid is as stupid does!"

Talk about a great campaign slogan!

JUSTICE FOR STEPHANY AND NATALEE

2012-01-14T12:46:00.000-05:00

Several years ago, someone placed a bumper sticker on a light pole in the parking lot of my family's favorite pizzeria. The sticker reads: "Boycott Aruba – Justice for Natalee". After years of weathering the elements the letters on the sticker are somewhat faded, but the message they convey is still crystal clear in our minds and we chant the words aloud every time we park in front of them. It's a mantra of sorts, or maybe it's just our way of saying that we'll never forget what happened to Natalee or the need to seek justice on her behalf.

Two events occurred this week that were related to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, that Alabama teenager who went missing in 2005 on the last night of a high school graduation trip to Aruba. The first was that a judge in Alabama signed an order legally declaring Natalee dead. The second was that the man widely believed to be Natalee's killer, Joran van der Sloot, was sentenced by a Peruvian court to served 28 years in prison for the May, 2010 killing of another young lady, Stephany Flores, in Peru.

I've heard and read a fair amount of commentary following the van der Sloot sentencing on whether justice has finally been served for Natalee's death. So far, the opinions have been mixed. Americans tend to think that it hasn't and espouse the belief that only with van der Sloot languishing in an American jail can true justice be achieved. Many foreign commentators see things differently. Although they lament the fact that van der Sloot was never brought to trial for Natalee's death, they see the Peruvian sentence imposed, harsher than normal for murder in that country, as having taken into account the fact that van der Sloot escaped punishment for Natalee's death. Those divergent views on punishment serve as a reminder that justice, like beauty, is something frequently judged in the eye of the beholder.

Since the introduction of Babylonian King Hammurabi's Code in 1772 BC, in which the 'eye for an eye' punishment maxim was first recorded [not in the Old Testament as erroneously believed by many Americans], people have struggled to define justice and how it might truly be served. Nineteenth century British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli once stated, "Justice is truth in action." Anatole France, a French poet with a more jaded view wrote, "Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned." Soviet dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn noted during his time in a Russian gulag, "Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity". Columbian novelist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez issued a practical take on justice when he penned, "Justice…limps along, but it gets there all the same."

The other day I watched a tape of van der Sloot's sentencing hearing held in Peru. A very nervous-looking young man stood before a three-justice panel of female judges, protected to his rear by bullet-proof glass, but fully exposed in front to the wrath of the court. He frequently fidgeted and wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. Maybe those beads were produced by fear, or maybe from the TV lights. Who knows? What is known is that the court imposed an unusually harsh sentence for murder in Peru – 28 years in jail, and as van der Sloot was lead away, he could be heard shouting obscenities at the women who sentenced him.

I don't know whether justice was served for Natalee or not. I do know that receiving a 28 year sentence for killing of Stephany Flores - that was due punishment. Having his sentence imposed by an all-female panel of judges; now that was justice!

BRAVADO IS THE LAST BASTION OF A DICTATORIAL REGIME

2012-01-13T04:04:00.002-05:00

Some dictators never learn that bravado is the last bastion of a dictatorial regime. They never see the end coming, even when the hangman's noose is tied around their neck, an angry mob is knocking at their door or the rifles of a firing squad are leveled in their direction. In their final moments, dictators cling to the mythical notion that their own greatness will somehow rise above the situation and restore order. All that is necessary is a healthy dose of bravado!

Take Saddam Hussein, for instance, the former dictator of Iraq who boasted during the run-up to the U.S.-led attack on his country in March of 2003 that every Iraqi citizen would lay down their lives for him to repel any foreign invasion. When the attack came, seventy-five percent of his army immediately laid down their weapons and Saddam was forced into hiding. Shiites living in Iraq, who comprised nearly ninety percent of the population and who had been brutally oppressed by Saddam's regime, immediately took up the cause of hunting him down. Saddam was finally captured, found hiding in a hole in the ground. He was living like a filthy beggar. Later, he was hung with onlookers cursing at him and snapping pictures of the event on their cell phones. So much for bravado!

Last year, when Libyan rebels initiated the uprising that eventually deposed Libyan dictator, Muammar Gadaffi, the grandiose Gadaffi took to the media airways and, like Saddam, boasted that his loving countrymen and women would annihilate the rebel attackers and restore peace and justice to the Libyan nation. Gadaffi boasted that he would fight to the death and become a martyr, if necessary. Instead, his final moments were spent trying to escape through a storm drain, and his death came not from a hail of enemy gunfire, but from the kicking boots of a mob of his own countrymen. They too snapped pictures of the event on their cell phones.

This past Wednesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose brutal regime has killed thousands of Syrian civilians during the past year in an unmerciful crackdown against anti-government protesters, boasted that his government would hunt down his opposition to the last man and that order and honor under his leadership would be restored. That's a pretty big stretch considering that al-Assad has had to use his military to bomb whole cities into submission. And still, the protests continue.

Al-Assad, like Gadaffi and Hussein before him, refuses to read the writing on the wall. He clings to the belief that a magical aura will descend upon his nation and restore his mighty rule. He believes his own bravado. He has to. It's his last bastion. He just doesn't know it yet.

BLOG READER'S CONTEST – 2012

2012-01-12T07:06:00.000-05:00

To all my millions of readers out there…the first reader to add a comment following this post shall win an all-expense paid weekend trip to see Peter Franklin…live and in concert in Atlanta, Georgia. Good Luck, everyone!

LET THE FALSE CHAIN E-MAILS BEGIN

2012-01-12T05:51:00.000-05:00

I have to hand it to Republicans; they do a much better job at producing patently false incendiary chain e-mails than Democrats do, leaving Democrats spending more time debunking baseless bullshit than spreading their own message. I bring up the topic of false political chain e-mail because this is 2012, a presidential election year, and as Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell stated so eloquently, "The number one goal of Republicans is to defeat President O'bama." Given that G.O.P. policies are just about as barren as a sterile camel in the middle of the Sahara desert, it's understandable why the Republican's false e-mail campaign would start kicking into high gear.

A good friend of mine just received the false Fannie Mae / President O'bama adviser e-mail, which means that it's making the rounds again and I'm apt to see it in my mailbox at least fifty times before this fall's election. The e-mail expresses disgust at the fact that three top officers of the Fannie Mae, who ran that corporation into financial ruin, were hired by the O'bama campaign to act as economic policy advisers. That would be shocking if it were true, but it's not!

Unfortunately, far too many people read that e-mail and accept it as true without question, and then spout off its contents to their relatives and friends as if it's Gospel truth – which it isn't! That's why political stupidity in America abounds and our elected politicians get to pander to the lowest common denominators among us.

The false Fannie Mae / President O'bama adviser e-mail originated during John McCain's presidential campaign in the 2008 election. "Snopes" has the best explanation of where the myth originated and why it's false. You can read why at:

www.snopes.com/politics/obama/fanniemae.asp

KUDZU ON THE BRAIN

2012-01-11T06:41:00.000-05:00

Kudzu is a pesky, weedy vine that has proliferated in our Southeastern and Gulf Coast states. It spreads so quickly and thoroughly over trees and shrubs that it frequently cripples or kills by completely cutting off its host from life-sustaining sunlight. Anybody who's driven in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana can attest to the seemingly endless miles of kudzu vines growing along the highways in those states. What worse, it is claimed that kudzu gnaws away at 150,000 new acres of land in the South every year. It is spreading at an alarming rate.

Up to this point in time, scientists have never believed that kudzu attacks humans, but recent reports from the state of Mississippi may change their minds. It seems that a couple of weeks ago, the outgoing Republican (that's right, as in G.O.P.) governor, Haley Barbour passed out several hundred get-out-of-jail-free cards to convicts imprisoned in the state, several dozen of which were incarcerated for murder. That's right – murder. The only logical explanation I can figure for the ultra-conservative ex-governor's actions is kudzu on the brain. Or maybe he was just smoking the stuff.

I regularly rail against our system of capital punishment in this country, and particularly as it is applied in our Southern states, including Mississippi, but even a blazing liberal like me doesn't suggest that it's okay for convicted murderers to walk free just because they put in some time helping keep the Governor's Mansion neat and tidy. If that's Barbour's idea of paying a debt to society, it's a good thing he's left office and is not planning a return anytime soon.

Compassion has a place in our criminal justice system, just as punishment and the need to protect the public have their places too. Convicts who've paid their debt to society deserve a second chance, but let's not diminish the size of their debt or ignore the public's need for protection because of something as arbitrary and capricious as the performance of a nice cleaning job. That's just plain stupid! Somebody should check the Governor's Mansion for kudzu before it cripples the next governor. The last thing anybody needs is stupidity spreading at an alarming rate!

GRANDMA ZORBAUGH'S SUGAR CAKE RECIPE

2012-01-10T07:31:00.001-05:00

[Preheat oven to 350 degrees]

Bowl No. 1: Mix 2 cups of sugar with ½ cup of butter. Add 3 eggs to this mixture, one egg at a time. Then, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Bowl No. 2: Mix 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of baking powder together. Wisp this mixture until it becomes frothy.

Bowl No. 3: Mix 4 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of baking soda together.

Then, while stirring Bowl No. 1, alternately add parts of bowl 2 and 3 to bowl 1 until all the ingredients are combined into bowl No. 1. A regular teaspoon full of batter makes a fair-sized cake (a/k/a cookie). Top each cake with dash of colored sugar before baking.

Bake 10-11 minutes, depending on oven.

~~~*~~~

I'm posting Grandma Zorbaugh's sugar cake (a/k/a cookie) recipe on this blog today because it's my blog and I can post anything I want. Plus, last night there was a full moon and that frequently brings out the weirdness in people. If you've been listening to the Republican presidential candidate debates, you know that America is supposedly on the road to ruin. What better way to enjoy the trip than by packing a bunch of Grandma Zorbaugh's sugar cakes! You can thank me later for posting her recipe.

Grandma Zorbaugh was a woman who lived life pretty much on her own terms. She drank and smoked and worked well into her eighties, cooked with enthusiasm for anybody who dropped by unannounced and never missed an opportunity to help out a person in need. She spoke her mind, laughed at her own foibles and had a genuine soft spot for kids, no matter who's they were.

When my oldest daughter was three years old, she took to calling Grandma Zorbaugh "beer grandma", for obvious reasons. Most grandmothers would have objected to such a name, but not mine. She'd been around young kids long enough, having spent her entire career as an elementary school cook, to know that they call things pretty much as they see things, and she took my daughter's label as a compliment.

I miss grandma "Z", but I know her memory will live on as long as we bake those sugar cakes.

GOVERNMENT PROTECTIONS

2012-01-09T06:44:00.000-05:00

Two news stories caught my attention last week. On the surface they don't look like stories that share a connection, but I think there's a common theme if you look deep enough. One story involved an Oklahoma mother who called 911 for permission to shoot a man who had broken into her home at 3 o'clock in the morning and was endangering her and her three year-old son. She then shot and killed the guy. The local authorities determined that her actions were justified. Republicans are calling her a hero. The second story involved President O'bama, who used his constitutional 'recess appointment' powers to install Richard Cordray as director of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Senate Republicans are in a huff over the President's appointment, claiming that it was not justified. It's fair to say that they are not calling the President a hero. I assume they're calling him names that shouldn't appear in print!

At the heart of both stories is the need for protection. The first involves physical protection. The second involves financial protection. Both threats can be life threatening. Republicans are concerned about the first. The second - not so much! In fact, it's fair to say they don't see it as a problem people should worry about. That's where they and I disagree.

Not everyone in this country has the financial sophistication of Warren Buffet or Donald Trump. With over two-thirds of the county living paycheck-to-paycheck, citizens who are taken advantage of by unscrupulous lenders and investment operatives very often find themselves in financial ruin with little or no means of redress. That's why it is imperative that government act as a referee in the financial sector to insure that all Americans are guaranteed a level playing field in their transactions with the financial industry.

Republicans, on the other hand, advocate a hand's off government policy that I think is akin to a bunch of cattle rustlers objecting to the townsfolk decision to hire Wyatt Earp to put an end to cattle rustling activities. Of course, the rustlers are going to object! Rustling is their livelihood and rustlers never advocate for an end to their profitable racket.

There are broader implications that must also be considered. If rustlers hit one ranch and that enterprise goes under, the nation's economy does not experience a seismic jolt, but when tens of millions of ranches get hit and go under, as did tens of millions of American households in the months leading up to our current recession, society as a whole suffers and experiences a much greater burden than the sum of all those individual losses put together. There are some dangers out there that a gun won't protect us from, and where only the government is able to offer that protection without endangering our freedoms in the process, it should do so.

MAKE YOUR LEGACY COUNT

2012-01-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

Thirty-eight years ago this day, my father died. I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing. It's just a historical fact. He died when I was seventeen, and now, as I approach my fifty-fifth birthday, I realize that I've lived over two-thirds of my life without him in it. He hasn't been physically present for the past thirty-eight years, but I can't think of a single day during that time-span when I could claim that he wasn't influencing me in one way or another.

I'm taking this opportunity to reflect upon my father's passing because I think it's important to remember that after we're dead and gone from the face of this earth, our actions during the time we spent here will for decades continue influencing those individuals we have left behind. Hopefully, our influences will be good ones, and our children and grand-children will look back with gratitude for the times we shared with them and the lessons we taught them.

We walk this earth for a finite number of days. Make them count!

MENTAL DECLINE ON THE MOVE

2012-01-07T07:47:00.000-05:00

My mental decline must be picking up steam. Really! I can feel the wind flowing through my wavy grey hair even though I'm typing at a stationary desk. I can't see any dementia in front of me, but if it turns out that dementia looks like a computer screen, I'm about 0.27 seconds away from getting my face splattered like a bug on a windshield. I'm kind of bummed-out that the ride isn't more exhilarating.

Researchers at University College London just released the results of a study they conducted and concluded that brain functions and cognitive decline begin in humans around the age of 45. According to their study, folks lose the equivalent of 3.6% of their mental reasoning powers over a four-year span beginning at that age. Apparently, after passing 49 years of age the loss of mental power picks up steam. Since I'm turning 55 years old next month, you can understand why I'd be concerned. I'm not particularly fond of roller coasters. If the London researchers are correct my car has already passed over the top and the ride is about to get scary.

Mental decline worries me, but not for obvious reasons. I worry about the mundane stuff, like whether I'll forget that I'm a blazing liberal or start believing in Reaganomics and the "trickle down" theory. What if I fall off the deep end and start blogging that tax cuts for the wealthy produce jobs? Who will be around to save me? Certainly not my Republican wife! She'll be filling out MY absentee ballot card with a straight GOP vote. I know she will, because she knows that I'd have her voting straight Democrat if the shoes were reversed. Loving spouses do that sort of thing!

As long as I maintain the ability to recognize that I'm always in the right, life will be fine and dandy, but what if my capacity for impeccably sound reasoning should falter? What if I start thinking that I could err? I know that's almost unimaginable, but still.

I commented to my wife that there ought to be a pill that improves brain functioning in men. She dryly replied that there was – Viagra. See what I mean? Women!

IRAQI SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

2012-01-06T07:44:00.001-05:00

Ordinary Iraqi citizens are finding it difficult to sleep at night. That's because every morning they awake to news of yet another bombing! The American troops are gone, but sectarian violence and forces waging civil war for control of the country have replaced them. Yesterday, there was a car bombing. Today, it will be a mosque. Tomorrow, the target might be an open market or a police station. The stories are the same – scores of innocent folks dead, scores more wounded and civilians everywhere are wondering whether they'll be the next casualty. It's not a kind place to raise a family.

I keep thinking about the famous photo of George Bush on that aircraft carrier with the "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background. What did we accomplish in Iraq, other than toppling a brutal, loudmouth dictator and replacing his regime with another just as bad? Yeah, Saddam was evil, but at least his subjects knew where they stood and mosques didn't get bombed on a daily basis.

Before the war, Saddam and the Baathists of Iraq, a small part of the Sunni Muslim minority who ran the country with an iron hand, persecuted Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. Now that the Shiites are in control, its leaders are carrying out what is essentially a plan of brutal political payback. Understandably, the Sunni's are retaliating too. Shiite – Sunni violence is nearly as old as Islam itself, so it's not as if today's events were not predictable. Unfortunately, it's the common folks in both religious groups who are paying the price.

When I read the daily news of murder and mayhem coming from Iraq, it bothers me that a people who only recently got their first taste of freedom, are now moving to enslave, and in many cases, annihilate their own fellow countrymen for nothing more than political pay-back.

We wouldn't do that here in America, would we?

BATTLING POVERTY

2012-01-05T10:43:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, I lived in a wooden three-bedroom city row house occupied by seven people. Whoever built that house forgot to install radiators. The house was heated, so to speak, by an old coal furnace in the basement and what heat it produced made its way up through the house via metal grates in the floor. Our family bathtub was the kind of tub college kids now use to ice down a keg of beer, and the water used to fill that tub was heated on the kitchen stove, one bucket at a time. When we kids took a bath, my older sister went first. She got the fresh water. I went next and then my three younger siblings followed suit. After the youngest was finished, the tub was finally emptied. We thought we were clean.

We battled poverty by collecting discarded soda bottles and turning them into the small "ma & pa" grocery store across the street for the two cent deposit, by selling bluebells and dandelions each spring for a nickel a bunch to our neighbors and later by selling candy that my dad got from a local chocolate factory. He took us to upscale neighborhoods outside the city and we sold it door-to-door.

When President Johnson started the so-called war on poverty, we'd get government surplus food items on occasion…flour, butter, lard, powdered milk, corn syrup, canned beef, spam and sometimes potatoes. It wasn't much, but we made do with anything edible. It never occurred to me that there were people in this country far better off than me who resented the fact that I was getting free food to eat. I was just happy for a meal.

When food stamps replaced the government surplus program, my dad was reluctant to sign up for them. It didn't make sense to me. Food was food. By then, I'd had enough milk potato soup and boiled pot-pie to last a lifetime, and the notion of getting store-bought food seemed like a good thing. Still, Dad balked at the idea until things got so tight that he had no other choice.

I remember accompanying him to the grocery store when the food stamps arrived. If felt like Christmas in July. We loaded up the cart, mostly with the same stuff we'd been getting from government surplus, but with extras like chicken and fresh fish and apples, and headed to the check-out area. When the cashier finished ringing up all the items we were purchasing she gave my dad the total bill amount and he started fumbling in his pocket for the bulky coupon book that contained the food stamps. When he finally retrieved the book from his pocket and started to hand it to the cashier, she immediately became indignant and announced in a rather loud voice, "Oh look, more customers with food stamps." Patrons and cashiers in the neighboring check-out aisles turned and stared at us, and my aforementioned glee was immediately reduced to shame and humiliation. My dad tossed the food stamps on the conveyor belt and we left the store empty-handed. We never set foot in that store again.

I hated that cashier. A part of me still does. She didn't know my hunger and she didn't care to know. She didn't acknowledge my pain, but she was more than satisfied to heap humiliation and scorn upon me for wanting nothing more than some food in my belly. That's why I still loathe sanctimonious politicians and people who begrudge those in poverty for getting free food to eat, or government assistance with housing and medical care. I hate callous disregard for the suffering of others. It saddens and sickens me at the same time.

Today, I'm sitting in my four-bedroom home in suburbia with two cars in the garage, four computers and three flat-screen TVs to entertain the three of us who reside here. We've got a Wii, several DVD players and more remotes than even a couch potato like me can handle. The refrigerator in the kitchen is filled; so is the food pantry and the extra refrigerator in the basement.

With all that at my fingertips, you'd figure that I could finally put my poverty-related hatred to rest, but I can't. It still haunts me. Instead of collecting glass soda bottles, I collect aluminum cans. Five bucks from the recyclers feels like five million. Instead of food stamps, I clip coupons, dreaming for those opportunities when I can skillfully turn a piece of paper into free food…and every once and awhile when that happens, a cashier will look at me and say, "Good job!" And all I can say is "Amen!"

ONE EXPLANATION FOR LACKING COMPASSION

2012-01-04T19:11:00.000-05:00

"Since many people strive for positions of power as compensations for needy egos, it is hardly surprising that the corridors of power are filled with people for who the compassionate responses will be short-circuited as a matter of course." ~ Karl Marlantes, author of What It Is Like To Go To War © 2011

I was trying to figure out an explanation for why the current bevy of Republican presidential candidates are so universally opposed to government spending on social programs designed to ameliorate hunger, homelessness, unemployment and the lack of access to medical care among tens of millions of poor American citizens. To me, their attitudes border on callous indifference to those who are suffering in this nation, but then I came across Karl Marlantes' above-referenced quote regarding widespread indifference in leadership to the plight of those who innocently suffer in war, and I recognized that the same can be said when it comes to the plight of the poor in general.

In American politics, compassion is not regarded as a virtue; instead, it is viewed as a character flaw. That explains a lot!

MARGARET ANDERSON - CASUALTY OF WAR

2012-01-03T15:19:00.001-05:00

Margaret Anderson was an American casualty of the war in Iraq, a war she never signed up to fight. You won't find her listed among the war dead statistics kept by the Pentagon, but she was a war casualty nonetheless, and it behooves us all to remember her sacrifice and why she died.

Margaret was a park ranger assigned to the Mount Rainier National Park in the state of Washington. Her job included standard park ranger duties as well as law enforcement throughout the national park. She was armed. She recognized the dangers associated with her position, and by all accounts, she was well-liked and carried out her duties in a competent and professional manner.

On New Year's Day, the war that started over five thousand miles from Margaret Anderson's home came to America's shore, to the national park where Margaret worked, to the road where Margaret had set up a roadblock, to the vehicle where Margaret breathed her final breaths, and it turned her into a statistic - another casualty of war. The war came to Margaret in the form of a twenty-four year old man, Benjamin Colton Barnes an Iraqi war veteran who still carried the war with him. Barnes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidal ideations and probably fear, stemming from having shot four people near Seattle earlier that day. Barnes knew the police were searching for him and Mount Rainier National Park was the place he chose to attempt to avoid being captured. That is where Barnes encountered resistance (a roadblock) set up by a force he perceived as an enemy (Ranger Margaret Anderson) and he responded to that perceived enemy as soldiers of war are trained to do, by using deadly force.

I am not suggesting that Barnes' actions were justified in any sense of that word. I am not suggesting that Margaret Anderson was anything but an honorable woman performing her civic and patriotic duty. What I am suggesting is that Benjamin Colton Barnes never left the Iraq war in Iraq. He brought it home with him, continued fighting it within himself and never managed to bring it under control. As a result, Margaret Anderson became another casualty.

Our politicians and military leaders may choose to overlook or downplay the scars left on combat veterans by post-traumatic stress disorder, but until proper attention is given to its prevalence among our soldiers returning from war, casualties like Margaret Anderson will continue to occur.

MY CAMPAIGN IS DOOMED FROM THE START

2012-01-02T16:23:00.001-05:00

Last week, I mentioned to my wife, a loyal Republican that I was considering a run for President of the United States. She didn't think it was a good idea and said so. Besides the lack of friends willing to donate the tens of millions of dollars necessary to wage a presidential campaign, she thought my closet full of skeletons was a non-starter and the fact that I'm a more liberal Democrat than President Obama would mean that I couldn't even carry my home district. In my heart of hearts I know she's right, but still, it pains me to think that my own neighbors wouldn't consider a native son, albeit an insanely liberal one, over some dimwitted G.O.P. politician who claims to understand the plight of people who reside in York County, but doesn't really have a clue. After all, everybody knows that to truly understand this county, you have to have been born and raised here, which I have been, and all the Republican presidential contenders have not. You'd think that would give me a leg up on the competition. Apparently not!

MY HOPES FOR 2012

2012-01-01T15:42:00.001-05:00

I hope those who hunger will find food and those who are sick will find medical care they need. I hope the homeless will find shelter, the lonely will find friendship and those who are torn with grief will find solace in the hearts. I hope greed and selfishness give way to kindness and compassion for others. I hope arrogance is replaced with humility and loathing with respect. I hope compromise regains its good name and politicians come to recognize that the common good entails consideration of opposing viewpoints. I hope the spirit of this past Christmas lasts more than twelve days.

I hope my wife continues to smile and my children continue being the joy that they are. I hope my friends prosper and my colleagues find satisfaction in their working endeavors. I hope my heart holds out this year, and all I do and say will do credit to the effort it makes to keep me going. If hope springs eternal, I hope 2012 is just the beginning.

MIXING SEX AND POLITICS

2011-11-29T12:37:00.000-05:00

At first blush it would seem that politics and sex wouldn't mix, but we Americans are so obsessed with both subjects that we find it next to impossible to keep them separated. I think a good argument can be made that our country suffers greatly because of that failure. While we as a nation focus on who slept with whom, unsolved economic and political problems fester and grow worse by the day.

Take Herman Cain, for example, a G.O.P. presidential candidate. Multiple women have alleged that he groped and sexually harassed them during his tenure as president of the National Restaurant Association. Recently, an Atlanta woman confessed to carrying on a 13-year affair with Cain. The result of those revelations is that millions of Americans are now riveted to the titillating details of Cain's sexual dalliances instead of discussing the merit, or lack thereof, to his political and economic proposals. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, we're no closer to any solutions for our national problems.

Back when Bill Clinton was president and I was arguing against the appropriateness of Impeachment over his sexual indiscretions, my conservative friends denounced that position with the argument that sexual morality was a necessary character trait for America's highest office holder. I still think that's a load of crap. Historians credit George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy with carrying on extra-marital affairs and all those Presidents are viewed as having served extraordinary presidencies. The most morally pious president in my lifetime, Jimmy Carter, is roundly viewed as somewhat a bust. Americans would do well to remember that we're not electing a pope; we're electing a president!

Homosexual rights, abortion and contraceptive freedom are all about sex, but the stances that politicians take on those issues frequently holds sway over how individual Americans vote. That's why right-wing G.O.P. politicians can advocate policies that result in poverty and hunger and death for many, and yet be seen as champions of the right to life. It's also why those same politicians can stonewall necessary economic solutions, like increasing taxation of the rich, without suffering voter backlash from their constituency. In American politics, positions on sex-related issues trump all other positions…and we're paying a steep price for that foolishness.

INCLUDING EX-CONS ON CITY COUNCIL

2011-11-28T06:38:00.008-05:00

Voters in the City of York recently elected Michael Helfrich, a candidate with a prior felony drug conviction, to city council. Some have asked whether Mr. Helfrich should be disqualified because of his past criminal behavior. This is my response:

Fourteen percent of York County's registered voters went to the polls two weeks ago, which means that eighty-six percent of those registered couldn't be bothered and chose to stay home. The overwhelming number of those stay-at-home individuals didn't have a prior felony drug conviction, but they exhibited no interest in participating in the democratic process or working to improve the quality of life in their local community. Michael Helfrich, on the other hand, did have a felony drug record. He also exhibited a drive and determination to make the City of York a better place to live. He invested a great deal of time and energy in his community by campaigning for a city council slot. I find it impossible to ignore the will of those voters who participated in the election process and were aware of Helfrich's record before entering the voting booth.

In a republic such as ours, where the right to self-governance is the linchpin to our freedom, if voters choose to place their trust in the hands of an individual with a prior felony drug record, I say "so be it." Those opposed can always get up off their butts and vote.

A BLOODY START TO THE CHRISTMAS SEASON

2011-11-26T21:13:00.000-05:00

A guy dropped over dead at a Target and nobody batted an eyelash. A woman pepper-sprayed twenty fellow shoppers in a Wal-Mart to make sure she got first-dibs on an X-box game console. Robbers shot a guy in a mall parking lot over a few lousy dollars and two women came to blows in North Carolina over towels on sale in a department store. Such were the notable incidents of violence in America as shoppers hit the stores on Black Friday, the beginning of the shopping season dedicated to remembering the birth of the Prince of Peace.

So much for Peace on Earth!

PLATTS ACKNOWLEDGES HIS OWN FAILURE

2011-11-16T10:12:00.000-05:00

I read Todd Platts' piece in last week's edition of The York Sunday News regarding the proposed balanced budget constitutional amendment, and quite frankly, I'm a bit surprised that Todd would publicly admit to his own failure as a congressional representative a mere twelve months before he stands for reelection. You see, the logic behind the balanced budget measure is that leaders like Platts are totally inept when it comes to reaching sound fiscal decisions about government spending and taxation, so they want a balanced budget amendment to do the work for them. Never mind that we're paying Todd and his colleagues $174,000 per year to make the tough choices; now he wants those taken off his plate too.

I'm not against the principle of a balanced budget, but there are times other than wartime when the government needs to step in to stimulate economic growth and those steps frequently require periods of deficit spending. The proposed amendment Platts is sponsoring does not address those situations and effectively hamstrings our Nation's ability to address future economic crises.

What our country needs today is not another constitutional amendment. What our country needs are leaders; men and women with integrity who are not afraid to bear witness to the inequities that exist in this nation and are steadfast in demanding sacrifices from every sector of our population, including their own constituents. If Todd Platts is unwilling or unable to be one of those leaders, it's time we take our $174,000 and look for one elsewhere.

THE HUMAN VALUE OF PALESTINIANS LIVING IN GAZA

2011-11-11T09:07:00.001-05:00

Last month, Israel secured the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been held captive for five years in an unknown location within Gaza by Hamas leaders who control the Palestinians living in that narrow strip of land. To secure Shalit's release, the Israeli government had to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners who were incarcerated in Israeli jails and allow their return to Gaza. It was a bitter pill for the Israeli government to swallow, but public opinion in Israel favored the deal to win Shalit's release from captivity and the government capitulated to that sentiment.

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is no doubt troubled by the high price his government paid to secure Shalit's release, because he knows that many of those Palestinian prisoners who were released from Israeli jails will immediately take up arms again and renew their attacks on the Jewish state. That knowledge has prompted the Israeli government to review its internal process for deciding how, when and under what circumstances will the government bargain for the return of Israeli citizens.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza are ecstatic about the release of so many of their men from Israel and are celebrating the homecoming of their compatriots.

The Israeli government feels like it paid too high a price for Shalit's release. The Palestinians feel like they drove a hard bargain and came out the real winner in the exchange. Personally, I think the Palestinians got the short end of the bargain.

Ask yourself, what is the value of a Palestinian life? Hamas has set the value at 1/1000th the value of an Israeli life. Palestinians ought to be mad about the massive devaluation of their lives by their own leaders. Instead, they are celebrating. Go figure!

A UNIVERSAL LAMENT

2011-11-11T06:34:00.000-05:00

Joe Paterno, the former football coach at Penn State University has been quoted as saying, "I wish I had done more" regarding his failure to follow-up on the reports that his former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, had raped a ten year-old boy in the University football team's shower room. From reports that have been released thus far, when Paterno was informed of Sandusky's actions by a graduate student who observed the incident, Paterno reported the incident to his boss, the University's Director of Athletics, but did nothing to alert the police about the rape or to locate the young victim to insure he received treatment and counseling for the horrifying trauma the young boy experienced. Only now, after the whole sordid affair has hit the fan, does Joe recognize that he should have done more. Unfortunately, now is too late and Joe will spend the rest of his days lamenting about what he might have done differently - SHOULD have done differently.

We all lament our mistakes; at least we should. We reflect on our past and wish we had done this or that differently, and hopefully feel remorse over the bad choices we've made. The bigger our mistakes the more we should lament them, but it's useful to remember that none of our lamenting can change the past. The past is now set in stone. The real value of lamenting is its potential to affect change in the person we are today, so that tomorrow we become a better person.

WEIGHING IN ON PROPOSED RED LIGHT CAMERAS

2011-11-10T05:32:00.000-05:00

Pennsylvania is on the verge of granting cities the option to install red light cameras at dangerous intersections. The cameras would record the license plates of vehicles that run a red light and a traffic citation would be sent to the registered owner(s) of that vehicle. No points would be assessed to the vehicle owner(s) driving record because the camera would not identify the actual driver of the vehicle when the violation occurred. Residents in this state are of varied opinions regarding the wisdom of installing red light cameras at dangerous intersections. Here is mine.

I've had the displeasure of having my vehicle struck by a motorist running a red light in the City of York. Luckily, nobody was injured, but I've witnessed plenty of drivers pull similar stunts at various York intersections and recognize that it's a serious problem. If red light cameras reduce accidents and save lives, I'm all for them.

Most folks at some point in their driving careers have been late for work or an appointment and been tempted to step on the gas when the stoplight turned yellow in order to beat the red light. I know I have, and occasionally, I've also been guilty of giving into that temptation. Since the accident I mentioned, I've become more vigilant about stopping on yellow lights, but my track record in that regard hasn't been perfect. If there's a red light camera out there with my name on it, so be it!

Liberty conscious individuals might view the proposed cameras as unwelcomed government intrusion into their lives and their concern is understandable. However, let's not forget that running a red light deprives waiting drivers of their right to use the intersection, so red light cameras can help protect driver's rights too.

DELIVERING RELIGIOUS CHOW IN THE MANNER TO WHICH THEY ARE ACCUSTOMED

2011-11-09T06:52:00.003-05:00

You remember the Crystal Cathedral, don't you? That's the ostentatious mega-church built by televangelist, Rev. Robert Shuler out in Orange County, California. The cathedral and its ministry are now in bankruptcy court because the Schulers and cathedral administrators quit paying on the tens of millions of dollars worth of debt the cathedral racked up over the years to support the Schulers' lavish lifestyle, the ministry's television empire and the Cathedral building itself. After having bilked millions of dollars from the ministries' Sunday morning viewers, you'd think that the Schulers would go searching for a proverbial rock to hide under, but you'd be wrong.

Last week, Rev. Schuler and his wife, Arvella had Crystal Cathedral personnel send e-mails to church members and ministry donors soliciting prepared meals and other food stuff for their own family table. Once more, the Schulers arranged for the expected food donations to be transported to their home in one of their family limousines. Is that chutzpah, or what?

For years I've been railing against televangelists and their ministries for being nothing more than charitable scams, but seldom have I witnessed such blatantly outrageous conduct being conducted for all the public to see. Usually, such fraud only happens behind closed doors. In any case, I wish a Crystal Cathedral member would bake a crow pie and have it chauffeured to the Schuler residence. That's one meal the Schulers deserve to eat.

OVERLOOKING A TREE IN A DEAD MIDDLE EAT FOREST

2011-11-08T06:48:00.001-05:00

It's all the rage in the European and Israeli media – an overheard private conversation between French President Nicholas Sarkozy and our President Obama wherein Sarkozy told Obama that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was a liar and Obama lamented that at least Sarkozy didn't have to deal with Netanyahu every day like Obama did. Sarkozy and Obama may have thought their private conversation was beyond snooping ears as they attended the G20 Summit in France last week, but in these days of technological wizardry, that's not always the case. At least one microphone in the room was still turned on and picked up the exchange. Oops!

As the story of Obama and Sarkozy's exchange goes viral, especially among this country's Obama-hating Republican crowd, who will no doubt rejoice in our President's embarrassing moment, I can't help but reflect on the irony of the conversation and the situation the two leaders were discussing. You see, the two leaders were discussing the recent United Nations vote on the Palestinian request for full membership status in UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Israel and the United States voted against the Palestinian request for admission, but France voted yes, and the Palestinians were ultimately successful in their bid.

France has a long history of defending the concept of liberty for all people, and although we here in the United States like to claim we're just as zealous in defending the concept, the truth is we're not – at least not where the Palestinians are concerned. When it comes to the subject of Palestine, our Nation's chief concern is to do the bidding of Israel and its pro-Israel lobby here in the U.S., not to promote the goal of Palestinian freedom. We Americans should be ashamed of ourselves. That's the real story here, not the idle chatter of two politicians having what they thought was a private moment.

HAPPY VALLEY NOT A HAPPY PLACE

2011-11-07T06:33:00.001-05:00

Penn State University officials appear to be taking a page from the Vatican playbook on dealing with sexual abuse scandals. They're hunkering down behind legal shields and boasting of eventual vindication with a pass-the-buck strategy, but nobody was fooled by the Vatican's play calling and my guess is that folks won't fall for Penn State's either. Whether or not University officials were required by state law to report the raping of a child on campus property is beside the point. The fact is, University officials knew that a rape of a child occurred on their campus and took no action to alert the police to bring the perpetrator to justice or to prevent other children from being victimized by that same perpetrator. Penn State officials may not have violated our penal code for their failure to report the incident, but they violated every civil code of decency that this world has ever known.

And what about the perjury charges? What is Happy Valley's excuse for two of their high-ranking officials lying to the grand jury investigating the incidents? The President of the University claims that he has the utmost confidence in those officials and denies their wrongdoing. Does that mean Penn State University now condones lying under oath? Is academic fraud or cheating now permissible on campus? It seems unfair to hold students to a higher standard than the administration officials.

Stay tuned…no doubt things will get much uglier before campus officials come to their senses.

SHOULD PENNSYLVANIA REALLOCATE ITS ELECTORAL VOTES?

2011-11-06T12:03:00.001-05:00

I do not support the effort of Pennsylvania Republicans to rig next year's presidential election, and make no mistake; the proposal in question seeks to do just that. You don't see legislatures in states that Republicans figure to carry next year, like Texas, Florida and the southern tier states proposing to toss partial votes to President Obama. Nope, it's only in swing states where Republicans want to rig the game in their favor. You don't have to be a Democrat or an Independent to recognize what an affront to democracy this G.O.P. proposal actually represents.

If Pennsylvania Republicans were honest in their claim of seeking democracy in its purest sense, they would propose an amendment to the Federal Constitution abolishing the Electoral College in favor of a presidential election by straight national popular vote. We all know that won't happen, because that's not a game Republicans believe they can win. Otherwise, they wouldn't be trying to rig the system.

SHOULD PEOPLE WITH ALTZHEIMERS & DEMENTIAL OWN GUNS?

2011-11-06T11:59:00.001-05:00

There are always times in our lives when we need to be protected from ourselves. A wise person recognizes those times and does something about it. People suffering from Altzheimers and dementia frequently don't.

On the other hand, there's not much more threatening to an individual than the prospect of losing control over their mind. For an Altzheimers sufferer who finds security in the ownership of a firearm, being deprived of that sense of security would be a difficult burden to accept. Their concerns for personal safety are very real and their anguish deserves validation and respect.

Our society already prohibits felons and certain persons with mental health hospitalizations from owning firearms. Those prohibitions are based on the notion that certain groups of individuals are incapable of safe and responsible firearm ownership. Adding Altzheimers and dementia sufferers to the list of people prohibited from owning a firearm makes sense from a safety standpoint, but let's not lose sight of the fact that we'd be negatively impacting the lives of some of those patients in the process.

MEXICAN DRUG SMUGGLING GOES "Old School"

2011-11-05T09:56:00.001-04:00

According to a spokesperson for the Mexican Army, some of that country's soldiers recently confiscated two old-fashioned catapults that the soldiers claimed were being employed by members of a drug cartel to fling bundles of marijuana across the U.S. – Mexican border into the state of Arizona. This is the kind of news item that makes you want to shake your head in disbelief, but it underscores the fact that no matter what this nation does to fortify its southern border, drug smugglers will continue using creative ways to outmaneuver our defenses; even going "old school" if they have to do so.

Everyone in law enforcement who fights drug trafficking in the United States will tell you that as soon as one dealer or drug supplier is taken off the streets, another will immediately step in and take their place. The stream appears unending, and our constantly rising prison population offers all the proof anybody should need.

I find it maddening that, even in our current economic downturn, new prisons are being built in this country while funding for drug prevention and drug rehabilitation programs is being drastically reduced. That approach is doomed to failure.

Illegal drugs are subject to the same forces of supply and demand as any other commodity. If the demand for drugs continues, smugglers will find a way to meet that demand. American will only rid itself of the scourge of illegal drugs when its primary effort in the war on drugs focuses on preventing drug use. I know that sounds "old school", but even smugglers know that sometimes "old school" works.

GREEK PROTESTS

2011-11-04T06:38:00.000-04:00

Many leaders of countries in the European Union (EU) are understandably miffed at Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's on-again, off-again plan to put the EU's financial bailout bill to a public referendum vote in Greece instead of ramming the austerity measure through the Greek Parliament, but the EU ministers are not walking in Papandreou's shoes.

Papandreou is a shrewd politician who recognizes that the measure has absolutely no chance of being approved in a public referendum vote, and to try to force the draconian austerity measure upon the Greek citizenry by a parliamentary vote would be sheer political suicide for him. Papandreou might ultimately cave into his opposition in the Greek government to keep his government from falling, but he'll be putting his own career above the interests of the Greek people if does and the Greek voters will take out their anger on him during the next Greek election.

The people of Greece have been protesting the proposed austerity measures for months now, and some of their protests have even turned violent. I'm not condoning the violence, but it's not hard to understand why everyday Greeks are raving mad about what EU ministers and officials in their own government are asking them to do, which is basically to give up jobs, forfeit all benefits and starve.

Once more, the current Greek financial crisis was not of their making. It was caused by a corrupt Greek government that allowed the country's wealthy and affluent members to escape paying taxes necessary to fund the government and its public servants and pensioners. Now that Greece is awash in government debt and cannot meet its financial obligations, EU ministers and their Greek counterparts are demanding that Greece's retirees, working class and poor shoulder the overwhelming majority of the burden of dealing with the financial crisis instead of the people who caused the crisis. That's just not fair!

European Union ministers have been smug in pretending they played no role in Greece's current predicament, but they too bear a measure of responsibility for the Greek crisis. EU member banks have provided the wealthy and merchant class of Greece with safe haven for their assets with full knowledge that said funds were being held outside Greece to protect those funds from taxation. EU ministers have long recognized that Greek government spending could not be sustained given the massive amount of tax evasion that was permitted by the Greek government, but did nothing to stop those practices because their own member banks were profiting from Greek funds deposited in their banks.

One could hardly blame the Greek people for not giving support to the EU's call for austerity measures. Let Greece's wealthy and EU member banks do the suffering. They caused the problem. They should fix it.

HERMAN CAIN'S "XXX" PAST RISES AGAIN

2011-11-03T09:29:00.000-04:00

Sex sells just about anything these days, so it's not surprising that G.O.P. presidential hopeful Herman Cain is making even greater inroads with his party's faithful after reports surfaced that he'd been previously accused of sexually harassing two women and the organization he headed (the National Restaurant Association) paid the women to keep their mouths shut about the matter. Nothing inflames the rabid right like a juicy sexual harassment expose.

It's kind of ironic that Republican die-hards would flock to Cain, as they did to Clarence Thomas decades ago under similar circumstances, yet crucify Bill Clinton for his inappropriate sexual dalliance with Monica Lewinsky, but the G.O.P. faithful have never been known for giving equal treatment when it comes to sex.

The fact is Cain's sexual harassing past is of no moment to me. I've listened to him speak. I've read his political platform and I've digested as much of his political rhetoric as my stomach can handle. In my book, he's not presidential material. He's not even worthy of being in the presidential ballpark, but the fact that Republicans think he is shows just how intellectually weak and dishonest the Republican Party is these days.

RMS TITANIC - THEN AND NOW

2011-11-02T06:41:00.003-04:00

When the RMS Titanic departed Southampton, England on April 10, 1912, two thousand two hundred and twenty-three (2,223) people set sail on a vessel carrying lifeboats designed to hold one thousand one hundred and seventy-eight (1,178) individuals. When the Titanic sunk, those lifeboats carried only 705 people to safety. Everyone knows that Titanic's massive casualty list resulted from the absence of sufficient lifeboats, but frequently ignored is the fact that 473 passengers who perished could have been save, but were not, because many of the lifeboats were lowered into the sea with less than a full load of passengers. One boat, meant to hold forty people, departed Titanic holding only twelve. Once in the water, many occupants of those lifeboats refused to pick up passengers who dove into the icy waters of the North Atlantic to escape the sinking ship. The overwhelming majority of those swimmers eventually succumbed to hypothermia and drowned.

The tragic sinking of the Titanic is not unlike today's tragic sinking of our Nation's economy, or the world's for that matter, but history is sadly repeating itself as those fortunate to occupy economic lifeboats callously refuse to offer assistance to those swimming for their very lives.

A case in point was the recent killing of the President's job creation bill by Republicans in Congress. Those Republicans were sitting comfortably in jobs that pay $174,000 per year, with free health care, a generous pension package and as many free lobbyist-funded lunches as their bellies can hold. Is it any wonder that none of them would jeopardize their own safe seat by reaching out to those drowning in the sea around them? I guess not. Little has changed since the Titanic went down.

I'm sure that some will read this piece and cast my opinion aside as just another call for class warfare, but warfare presumes a level of power on the part each combatant that was not present with the swimmers in the waters around the Titanic, and is not present with millions of drowning unemployed Americans today. Titanic swimmers lasted no longer than 15 minutes in the icy North Atlantic. Help didn’t arrive until four hours after Titanic sank. Today's jobless have UC benefits, but those benefits will expire long before good jobs ever replace them. Lifeboats like the President's job creation bill are their only hope.

I admire the President's attempt at job creation. He knows that in trying to pull more people into the lifeboat, his own political ship of state will likely be swamped and sink, but at least he'll know that he went down as a man who sacrificed in an effort to save the drowning, and not as a person who survived by callously rowing away.

PENNSYLVANIA G.O.P. GOVERNOR PROPOSES HOG WILD SPENDING ON SCHOOL VOUCHERS

2011-11-01T19:42:00.001-04:00

For the second time in as many weeks Pennsylvania's G.O.P. Governor, Tom Corbett proposes a new tax using a label meant to disguise that tax as something other than a tax. Last week, it was the Marcellus shale gas drilling impact fee. This week, it's the education reform voucher payment. Either way, we taxpayers lose. The voucher payment program is touted as a way to allow parents of children in failing schools to seek a better education for their children, but funds used to pay for those vouchers will be deducted from the state's share of education payments made to school districts. To make up for that loss of revenue, school districts will be forced to raise their local school tax rate. In today's lagging economy, the people in this Commonwealth do not need another tax, whatever its fancy label.

Public education benefits everyone and all should shoulder responsibility for maintaining that system. Parents who are dissatisfied with the quality of their child's education should either work within their district to improve that quality or move to a different district. Increasing taxes so that parents can have the luxury of choosing what school their child will attend is not something taxpayers can afford. You'd thing a Republican Governor would understand that. Apparently not!

PALIN SAYS "NO THANKS" TOO!

2011-10-05T19:43:00.001-04:00

Today, Sarah Palin made it official. She's not running for President next year. Good riddance!

CHRISTIE SAYS "NO THANKS!"

2011-10-04T20:36:00.000-04:00

New Jersey governor,

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY

2011-10-03T02:40:00.001-04:00

One man's immorality is another man's justifiable act. The Amish community across the river from my mine considers the death penalty immoral. Most people in my middle-class neighborhood think differently. I gravitate toward the belief that morality is not as set in stone as people would like to think, so I understand and appreciate both points of view.

There's no disputing that some killers deserve the death penalty. I just don't think that we as a society should stoop to their level by returning violence for violence. That's never been a positive proposition, and given all the inequities that exist within our justice system when it comes to applying the death penalty, it appears highly unlikely that attempts at reform will achieve a positive end either.

Wanting an eye for an eye is an understandable sentiment, as is seeking a sense of closure for a victim's family and friends who want to move on with their lives. Striving for justice is certainly a must, but perhaps our society would benefit from examining all that is lost by maintaining a form of punishment so filled with inequity and uncertainty. Putting a prisoner to death costs more than a lifetime of incarceration and holds no possibility of correcting any injustice once carried out. Our money and time seem better spent elsewhere.

Then, there's the alternative. Pearl Buck once wrote, "To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death." Pearl recognized that a life without hope holds little measurable value, which is why I tend to think that a life sentence without the possibility of parole or pardon, a sentence with no hope, is a much harsher punishment than a lethal injection.

PULPITS NO FRIEND TO THE POOR

2011-10-02T08:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's New York Times on-line edition carried a story by Stephanie Strom about a planned protest being staged in pulpits across the nation this morning by hundreds of right-wing Christian pastors itching for a fight against the Internal Revenue Service. The pastors intend to deliver openly political sermons that endorse certain candidates and denounce others in direct violation of IRS regulations that prohibit churches who want their members to be able to deduct church contributions on their tax returns from engaging in political activity. Once more, those pastors who are participating in the event plan to tape their sermons and forward them to the IRS – a direct "double dog dare" aimed at the government's tax collection arm in hopes of provoking a court fight with the government.

The whole effort shows how low Christian fundamentalism has sunk. Somewhere, even Christ is shaking His head in disbelief.

When the G.O.P. attacks government efforts to feed the poor via the food stamp program, right-wing Christian Pastors remain mute.

When the G.O.P. attacks government efforts to house the poor via section eight housing and federal rent assistance programs, right-wing Christian Pastors remain mute.

When the G.O.P. attacks government efforts to keep the poor warm during winter months via the federal emergency heating assistance program, right-wing Christian Pastors remain mute.

When the G.O.P. attacks government efforts to provide health care to the poor via the Medicaid program, right-wing Christian Pastors remain mute.

BUT…when the government threatens to disallow a tax deduction for mostly G.O.P. contributors to those right-wing Christian Pastors, well, that's what sends those Pastors into a rage, itching for a fight.

It's sad, but it's telling that a group of right-wing Christian Pastors finds it more necessary to battle for tax deductions for the wealthy than benefits for the poor. I thought Christ's message was the other way around.

SANTA CLAUS THINKING IS NOT THE SOLUTION

2011-10-01T16:27:00.000-04:00

Santa Claus is a wonderful fiction. He allows people to see the world as they'd want it to be, but there comes a time in life when that fiction no longer works and folks have to face reality. Facing reality though is not an easy task. Fictions like Santa Claus may not be true, but oftentimes people become so comfortable with their fictions that they cannot distinguish what is real from what is not. Fictions can also blind people from the true nature of things, and that's not good, especially in times of peril when recognizing reality is most critical.

Today, America faces a severe economic crisis. Tens of millions of Americans are out of work, many for so long that their unemployment benefits have expired. Millions more have given up hope of ever finding meaningful jobs. For those individuals and the families who depend on them, the peril is here today, and now is not the time for wishful thinking or wonderful fictions.

Behind the jobs debate in America is a fiction peddled by a number of our politicians. It's a fiction that plays like Santa Claus, and it goes like this: If you lower taxes on the wealthy and reduce government regulation on businesses, jobs will flow like the Biblical land of milk and honey. It's an attractive fiction, and many have heard it repeated so often they've come to believe it as Gospel truth, but belief doesn't equal reality. Here's why.

During each of the eight year of the last Bush Administration, federal taxes on the wealthy and corporations declined. Government agencies headed by Republican appointees of President Bush systematically dismantled many regulatory structures so that on the day Bush left office, there were less federal regulations than the day he took office. How did business respond to this reduction of taxation and regulation? They responded by cutting their workforces and shipping tens of millions of American jobs overseas. How did wealthy investors respond to lower taxation? They responded by investing in those same companies that were reducing workforces and shipping jobs overseas. If it sounds like I'm criticizing businesses and wealthy investors, that's not my intention. In reality, both were acting prudently. Let's consider why that's so.

A business operates to generate profits. If job creation enables a company to generate higher profits - great, but companies do not create jobs in a vacuum. They create jobs when demand for their products or services increase. Conversely, companies shed jobs when those demands decrease. Take The Bon Ton stores, for example. In response to the 2008 economic downturn, Bon Ton executives laid off 1,150 employees in the beginning of 2009. In order to remain viable, the company took the prudent and necessary step of reducing its workforce. The move wasn't popular, but it was a good business decision.

If it were true that cutting taxes and regulations produce jobs, the Bon Ton would have been hiring workers in January of 2009 instead of laying them off, because the lower taxes and regulations they were enjoying would have convinced them to hire more workers. But that's not what happened. The executives at The Bon Ton saw a drop off in demand for their products and they wisely cut workers so their company would survive. The Bon Ton will start hiring again when demand for their products goes up – probably at the start of the Christmas buying season. Lower taxes and less business regulations did not prevent Bon Ton layoffs. The drop in consumer demand was the driving force.

Next, consider a wealthy investor. The goal of an investor is to make money. Typically, that means investing in companies that are posting profits, paying dividends and/or gaining value. In difficult economic times, the majority of those companies are like The Bon Ton, companies that have significantly cut their workforce to remain viable. If it were true that cutting taxes and regulations produce jobs, as soon as word spread that The Bon Ton was cutting its workforce, investors would have deserted that company because the fiction says that investors create jobs, but that's not what happened. When The Bon Ton executives dramatically cut the number of its employees, Bon Ton stock, which in November of 2008 was as low as ninety cents per share, started an upward run that eventually climbed to over seventeen dollars per share in April of 2010. Those lucky enough to ride that investment wave made a substantial profit, but they didn't create any jobs.

Bank of America is another good example. It's one of the largest, if not the largest of all U.S. banking corporations. Its profits have plummeted over the past several years and pulled its share price down along with them. Investors have shied away from buying Bank of America stock. A week or so ago, news that the banking giant is undertaking a massive layoff of 30,000 employees immediately boosted the bank's share price, and no doubt its bottom line, and investors once again signaled a willingness to purchase Bank of America shares. That's because prudent investors invest where the profits are, and in this economic era, that means buying into companies that are downsizing, not hiring.

A corollary to the fiction that investors create jobs is the notion that if we reduce taxes on wealthy investors, besides investing, they will spend more on products and services. Supposedly, that increased spending will create the need for more jobs. On the surface, this notion sounds plausible, but the reality is just the opposite. Consumer surveys conducted during the current economic downturn have consistently shown that America's wealthy investors did not reduce their level of spending. That's not a knock on the wealthy. They had sufficient money to maintain their standard of living and they did so, which in all honesty probably kept the economy from getting worse than it is. However, because wealthy spending never dropped off, there's no reason to believe that wealthy American investors are itching to embark on a major shopping spree, if only their taxes were lowered. Few people become wealthy by spending foolishly. The wealthy invest their money instead of foolishly spending it, and as I've shown earlier, they invest in companies that are making money, not creating jobs.

If businesses and the wealthy aren't creating jobs, what's left? Another fiction– evil government spending!

The arguments against government funded job creation are essentially twofold: (1) it invites waste and fraud, and (2) it adds to the national debt. Both arguments contain a measure of truth. Government spending does expose taxpayer dollars to a degree of waste and fraud. Where money is involved, those predisposed to manipulation and greed will follow. There's also no denying that increased government spending today would add to America's national debt, which is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Neither argument, however, justifies our government sitting on the sideline doing nothing.

Imagine for a moment that you are the captain of the Titanic. The boat is sinking. You issue an order to have all staff report to the lifeboat stations to assist with boarding passengers. The first mate turns to you and complains, "But Captain, if all the staff reports to the lifeboat stations, there will be nobody left to prevent third class passengers from stealing the gold utensils in the first class dining room. And if we order staff that are off-duty to report now, we'll have to pay overtime and the company is already in financial trouble." Do you suddenly countermand your order? Of course not! The urgency of the situation demands extraordinary intervention.

The same applies to America's economy. Government funded job creation is the only viable choice for placing our nation's economic engine back on the road to recovery. We cannot rely on the fiction that wealthy investors and businesses will do it instead, if only their taxes and regulations are lowered. It never worked that way in the past. There's no reason to think it would in the future, unless of course, you believe in Santa Claus.

THE VACATION IS OVER

2011-10-01T16:24:00.001-04:00

September, 2011 is in the past and the vacation is over. America's most under-read liberal blogger is back on track!

TEA PARTY NUMBERS TANK

2011-08-20T15:20:00.003-04:00

They may be unlikeable, but there's no denying Tea Party clout in the Republican Party. Let's hope that the light of day finally exposes the Tea Party for the hoax that it is before any more political damage is done.

Last week, the New York Times revealed the results of a poll conducted by Harvard Professor Robert Putnam and Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell. In the Putnam/Campbell poll, Tea Party followers were found to be less popular than atheists and Muslims. I realize that the results of the poll represents a slight to atheists and Muslims, which is totally unjustified, but the fact that the Tea Party image is held in such poor esteem definitely says something about that movement's core philosophy. Manure might be more useful.

Democracies thrive when cooperation rules the day, and the Tea Party's obstructionist ways add nothing positive toward solving our nation's woes. Let's hope their polling numbers continue to fall.

IGNORING THE OBVIOUS IN TEXAS

2011-08-19T15:27:00.000-04:00

It's hotter than ever in Texas, with its record breaking streak of days with 100+ degree temperatures as proof, but Texas governor/presidential candidate Rick Perry says that global warming is a bunch of hooey and his adoring fans keep nodding. Texas is also suffering from one of the longest droughts ever recorded in the region, but Texas governor/presidential candidate Rick Perry says that climate change is just a bunch of hooey, and all his adoring fans keep nodding at that one too. The same goes for melting polar ice caps and the large increase of tornadoes in America. According to Perry, it's all a fluke!

I understand the notion that everything's bigger in Texas, which includes the tales of Texas politicians, but what I can't understand is why Texans suffering under the relentless heat tout Perry as some kind of hero and think all he says is gospel truth. Perhaps the heat has fried their brains and mass dehydration has set in. I hear that both cause hallucinations, which might account for some of the hero worship, but, come on. Perry's education hasn't included a single science class on the environment, so it's not like the guy has any legitimate scientific credentials – unless taking in tens of thousands of dollars of fossil fuel industry donations counts for anything.

Climatologists warn that melting sea ice will raise the height of our oceans by three feet over the next twenty years, but few in the political arena seem to want to confront exactly what that will mean for the tens of millions of folks who live within a few miles of shorelines. Much of that area will be inundated with water, and if folks think that barriers will keep the rising oceans at bay, they are seriously underestimating the power of Mother Nature. Perry's pandering will not hold back high tide, let alone a storm surge, nor will sticking heads in the sand keep folks dry.

Global warming is already here, whether the good folks in Texas want to acknowledge it or not. The proof is right outside their front door.

SCAMMING YOUR WAY INTO A FIRST CLASS SEAT

2011-08-19T10:59:00.002-04:00

The headline on a Comcast Internet article I saw this morning read, "Trick Your Way On To First Class". An airliner was pictured in the background with a note that indicated the article contained tips on how airline passengers could finagle their way into a first class seat. Flying somewhere is not in my foreseeable future, so I didn't read the article, but the headline made me think about a topic I've been mulling over for some time – our society's affinity for get-rich-quick schemes.

At a time when our nation is experiencing severe economic distress, lotteries have grown more popular by the day. Games with the highest payouts attract the most players despite the fact that the odds of any given individual winning are infinitesimal at best. Casinos and gaming parlors are spreading like wildfires with promises of new found wealth and riches. Almost daily, our newspapers reveal that another Ponzi scheme has been uncovered. What do they all have in common? The promise of riches for next to nothing in return!

Whatever happened to making money the old-fashioned way – by working for it?

I remember the first time I stepped into a jet airplane and started walking down the aisle toward my seat in the rear of the plane. I glanced at the "suits" sitting in the first class section and wondered what kind of work each of those passengers did to earn the kind of money necessary to afford a first-class seat. It didn't occur to me to scam my way into first class or think such a seat would fall into my lap. No, I wondered how much work it would take to earn my way there.

It's not like that anymore. It seems like a lot of people are more interested in the scam than the work, which is regrettable, because society suffers when a day's worth of labor is ignored and devalued. The truth is a nation of workers can become wealthy quicker than a nation of scammers, but it takes effort and appreciation of labor to do so. Those things have been in short supply lately, and unfortunately, our nation has produced little fruit because of it.

DRAFTING SUSAN IN 2012

2011-08-18T20:27:00.000-04:00

I've tried to convince my wife, Susan to run for the Republican presidential nomination. I know she's not particularly interested in spending the next fifteen months traipsing around the country on the campaign trail, and I'm positive she's not keen on the idea of moving from our humble abode into the White House, but after watching all the hoopla surrounding Michele Bachman's so-called victory in the Iowa straw poll last week, I know Susan would be a contender! Here's why:

Bachman laid claim to a resounding victory in Iowa's Republican presidential candidate straw poll after collecting only 4,823 votes from across the entire state of Iowa. That's one vote for every 2,073 hogs Iowa produced last year, but who's counting? In 2009, when my wife ran for judge here in York County, she garnered 3,869 votes in the Republican primary. Granted, that number is approximately a thousand less votes than Bachman registered in Iowa, but Susan's votes were just from this county (Pennsylvania has 56 counties) and Bachman's votes were from an entire state.

Put in another perspective, while Bachman took first place with 4,823 state-wide votes and Ron Paul took second place with 4,671 statewide votes, the third-place finished (Tim Pawlenty) drew only 2,293 votes, which means that Susan would have been the third place finisher with 3,869 votes – ahead of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Huntsman, Cain and Rick Perry…not a bad showing since she never campaigned in Iowa.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that Susan couldn't have duplicated that show in Iowa. Au contraire!

Like Bachman, Susan was born in Iowa – Clinton, to be exact. Like Bachman, Susan grew up in the Iowa. Unlike Bachman, Susan attended high school (Clinton High) and college in Iowa (Cornell College in Mount Vernon) and visits relatives in the state on a frequent basis, not just when an election rolls around. Susan's late mother, Doctor Margaret Smythe Emmons, was a well-known philanthropist in the state who supported many local and state organizations and educational institutions. I realize one shouldn't rest on the laurels of their parents, but Susan's generosity and sense of obligation to her community doesn't fall far from her mother's tree. People in Iowa appreciate that kind of thing.

Susan has a proven record of public service accomplishments that far outshines anything that Bachman has achieved in her brief congressional career. That matters to Iowa voters too. Plus, on any given Saturday in the fall, Susan wears a Hawkeye sweatshirt. You won't be seeing Bachman wearing one (She's a Golden Gopher fan)!

So, to any Bachman fans out there who might accidentally come upon this liberal blog, you can thank your lucky stars that Susan is married to a guy with more skeletons in his closet than a Wal-Mart superstore could hold. Otherwise, you wouldn't have such silly grins on your faces and Bachman would be looking up in the polls at a much more qualified candidate.

Maybe it's a good thing that Susan has no interest in running for the Republican nomination. As her liberal Democratic husband, I have a vested interest in keeping peace in this household.

RANGER RICK MOUTHS OFF

2011-08-17T06:50:00.000-04:00

The Republican's newest presidential candidate, Rick Perry of Texas told a radio talk-show audience the other day that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was guilty of committing treason for carrying out the Federal Reserve plan known as "quantitative easing". The plan entailed the Federal Reserve printing extra dollars and using those funds to purchase municipal bonds on behalf of the federal government. The plan's intent was to add more liquidity to our nation's money supply and promote investment and job growth by making more cash available for businesses to borrow. How much success the plan garnered is a debatable question, but doing nothing – as Hoover did, which caused the Great Depression – was not an option and the Federal Reserve was trying to achieve a public good.

Unfortunately, for Tea Party folk like Perry who hate the Federal Reserve and see it as a front-man for "big government", anything the Federal Reserve does to stabilize financial markets and promote job growth is treasonous. Ordinarily, I'd pass Perry's comment off as just another wing-nut rant, but Perry is the guy who, earlier this year, said that Texas should secede from the Union. Perry calling Bernanke a traitor sounds a lot like hypocrisy to me. Then again, Perry is no stranger to hypocrisy.

And then there's Perry second comment about Bernanke. Perry said that if Bernanke came down to Texas, they'd treat him ugly. You know, that's what the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan say about American troops, and we all know what the Taliban mean. That's what white Southerners said about Black people, and we all know what the Southerners meant. That's what Perry meant too.

A politician threatening American citizens with death over political differences does not belong on American soil, so it's time for guys like Rick Perry to be soundly rejected by everyone. Dictators and brutal regimes do that kind of stuff. Americans should never tolerate it, no matter what party the politician represents.

FALK ON THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

2011-08-17T06:49:00.003-04:00

Richard Falk, the Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University recently wrote a powerful essay for Aljazeera entitled, Why the Afghanistan War Wont End Soon. Falk's piece details America's collective lack of understanding regarding the dynamics of Afghanistan and our failure to recognize that military intervention is not the answer for achieving a lasting piece in that region and other places around the globe. It's a very thought-provoking piece and I'd urge everyone to read it. The article can be found at the following web address:

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201181592644232878.html

ASSAD'S KILLING MACHINE CONTINUES

2011-08-17T06:47:00.001-04:00

Syrian President Bashar Assad apparently didn't get the Koran memo about not killing his own people during the Muslim holy month of Ramadam. He's ordered his military to lay siege to the Syrian city of Latakia where his regime's opponents have seized control of the local government and inspired other anti-Assad protests around Syria. For a guy like Assad, that's not the kind of protest a brutal dictator can tolerate. After all, look what happened to Mubarak in Egypt. Mubarak allowed Egyptian protests to take hold and he ended up in jail facing trial and calls for his death. Assad read the tea leaves. He's opted to use violence to quash the rebellion and the Syrian military is only too happy to comply.

Syrian navy vessels have bombarded the city of Latakia from coastal waters with rockets and scores of Syrian tanks have attacked the city from the east with a constant stream of mortar fire. Innocent civilians, whose only crime is their desire for freedom from tyranny and oppression, are caught in the middle of an unmerciful assault intended to level their city.

We've seen this story countless times before, in places like Iran and Libya and Bosnia, where brutal totalitarian regimes resort to senseless violence to hold onto power, and are willing to sacrifice any number of innocent civilians in the course of doing so.

I wish political would come to appreciate that killing is not the answer. Dare I dream?

GOOD NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SMALL FINANCE

2011-08-16T09:57:00.002-04:00

Every now and again, I like to sit down and examine my "investment portfolio" and pretend I'm a hedge fund manager surveying a vast financial empire from my corner office on the seventeenth floor of a Wall Street office building. In reality, my office is a converted bedroom on the second floor of my home. My window looks out over our two-car garage and the view is mostly of my neighbors' house across the street. The portfolio I mentioned doesn't really qualify as a vast financial empire, but that's okay too. It's still a treasure in my book.

You see, my portfolio is a KIVA portfolio, a roster of micro-lending loans I've made to individuals around the world. KIVA [found at www.KIVA.org] is a micro-lending organization that matches individuals and groups of lenders with individuals and groups of borrowers in third world and developing countries who seeking to provide a more fruitful life for their families. Many KIVA borrowers live in regions where obtaining traditional financial backing to improve their lives is impossible, even though the sums of money requested are quite small by Western standards. That's why KIVA has stepped in and filled the void. You can too! Visit the KIVA website and join the crowd of micro-lenders.

I'm amazed at the fact that not a single one of the borrowers I helped fund has ever defaulted. The big-wigs on Wall Street can't match that record, nor can they really appreciate having made the difference in an ordinary person's life the way KIVA lenders can.

As I survey my own portfolio, I can see that Ramadan's zoo in Palestine is up and running again and turning a profit. Rahmeh in Jordan purchased more goats for her family dairy and cheese sales have expanded. The clothing inventory Eleazar from Mexico bought for her clothing shop has been selling well and 90% of her loan has been repaid. Karabek from Tajikistan just harvested the crops from the hector of new land he purchased and now he can pay for his children to get schooling this coming fall. The coffee bean plants that Edward from Costa Rica purchased are now in the ground and the additional livestock that Kadyrzhan from Kyrgyzstan bought are living happily in his barn. I could go on, but you get the picture.

You can lend as little as $25 through KIVA and make a difference in the lives of people you might never meet. Check out the KIVA website. www.kiva.org

AND THEN THERE WERE EIGHT

2011-08-16T09:04:00.000-04:00

America's political version of a World Wrestling Federation free-for-all, the G.O.P's field of 2012 presidential candidates, just booted its first contestant from the ring, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. Apparently, coming in third out of a group of eight candidates who campaigned in Iowa (Perry only joined the crowd on the day of the Iowa straw poll) wasn't a good enough showing for Pawlenty to continue fighting, so he bowed out of the ring the next day and packed his bags for Minnesota. Cheer up, governor, the good citizens of Iowa might have done you a favor – they saved your soul!

I don't agree with a majority of the positions Pawlenty takes on political issues, but he's the only genuine individual in that field of presidential pretenders, including Perry, who truly understands the plight of common ordinary Americans. The other Republicans are great with the rhetoric, and Perry or Romney might even beat Obama in the voting booth, but none of the remaining G.O.P. candidates are in the same league with Pawlenty when it comes to authenticity.

Political pundits will assign blame for the failure of Pawlenty's campaign on any number of items, but something tells me that Tim's authenticity is what proved to be his undoing. He's not the angry, frothing at the mouth warrior that Tea Party followers and evangelical extremists are looking for in a presidential candidate. He's just a very intelligent, level-headed, respectful kind of man who'd have to sell his soul to garner the Republican nomination. It's a good thing for him that it never came to that.

WHY I'M NOT A TEA PARTY MEMBER

2011-08-15T06:37:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday, Doctor Pandelidis, posed a rhetorical question in his [8/7 York Sunday News] column: Why aren't you a Tea Party member? I'd like to respond to the good Doctor's question in terms he will understand. I am not a Tea Party member because I am not a narcissist, I am not delusional and I am not afraid to check my reality and take responsibility for my actions. Plus, I believe in compromise and the notion that every person's voice and opinion has merit.

Pandelidis pointed out that our $14 trillion national debt now equals our national GDP (gross domestic product), that forty percent of this year's federal spending is borrowed money, and that the 2011 federal budget deficit equals 11 percent of our GDP. He's right. Those are the facts. He also asserts that those figures are the result of "destructive government policy." That's his opinion, and one that I also happen to share.

Where Pandelidis and I part company is over the question of which government policies are destructive and which policies promote the general health and welfare of our entire population. Doctor Pandelidis thinks that having social programs is the destructive policy. I think the destructive policy is not paying for them when we as a nation have the ability to do so.

Pandelidis suggests that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment compensation, food stamps and guaranteeing health care and medicine for every citizen are destructive government policies that run afoul of our traditional American economic principles, among which he lists individual freedom and the responsibility to take care of one's self. He calls those economic principles healthy and holds them up as an American ideal. I call them self-centered and narcissistic – and want no part of the notion that I am not my brother's keeper. That's a Tea Party's belief. It's not mine.

The God I worship is not the God of American capitalism, it's the God who instructed us to love and look out for our neighbors.

I'm not delusional either. I don't pretend that cutting government waste will magically make the deficit disappear. I don't pretend that you can fight two wars without paying for them. I don't pretend that the wealthiest one percent in this nation, that controls forty percent of our nation's wealth, are overburdened by taxes and cannot afford to pay more toward reducing the national debt. I don't pretend that our corporate CEO's, many of whom pay less in taxes than their secretaries, deserve the tax loopholes they enjoy. I don't pretend that corporations who earn billions in profits should pay no taxes. I don't pretend that by laying-off tens of thousands of government workers from their jobs, our nation's unemployment epidemic will suddenly be cured, and I don't pretend that sacrifice on the part of all Americans is not a necessity. Those are Tea Party beliefs, not mine.

I'm also not afraid to check my reality and take responsibility for my actions. I owe a great debt to this country. Government grants and guaranteed student loans helped me secure an undergraduate degree and a law degree. When I could not work and had no insurance to cover the medical services I required, the government helped fund that too. Now that I'm productive again, it's my obligation to help shoulder the load for others who find themselves similarly in need.

Doctor Pandelidis, on the other hand, shows great disdain for the very entity that helped educate and continues to feed him. You see, the good Doctor received his medical degree at the Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, a state-owned institution that invested more taxpayer dollars in Doctor Pendelidis' medical degree than he paid himself. Oh yes, he paid tuition, but the actual cost of that degree far exceeded the tuition he paid. We taxpayers picked up that tab. Plus, many of the insurance providers that Doctor Pandelidis accepts in his practice are government-funded, so he's eating from the same government trough he routinely vilifies. That's the Tea Party way. It's not mine.

Finally, I believe in the need for compromise in order for a republic such as ours to flourish. I believe that the concerns of every political party are entitled to be considered and reflected in all actions taken by our government. I do not subscribe to the "it's my way or the highway" approach to democratic government. That's the Tea Party way. It's not mine.

FOR SALE : Crystal Cathedral

2011-08-14T10:57:00.000-04:00

The bankruptcy sale of Reverend Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral has all the drama of a genuine holy war, but the entire mess boils down to who's going to get the "Almighty Dollar" – actually, dollar should be pluralized. Schuller's mega-church is $50 million in debt and the church's creditors are tired of waiting for their payments. Earlier this year the creditors forced the Crystal Cathedral into bankruptcy after the ministry defaulted on its debts. Ministry assets, including the Crystal Cathedral are currently being liquidated in a court-ordered sale to satisfy the ministry's obligations, but the church's ministry is still fighting to prevent the sale.

Here's where the Catholic Church entered the fray. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County wants to build a Cathedral. By their own estimates, building such a Cathedral would cost the Diocese well over $100 million dollars. On the other hand, buying the Crystal Cathedral at a liquidation sale would save the Diocese over $50 million, and they wouldn't have to deal with all the hassles of a construction project. So, the Catholics have submitted a $53.6 million bid.

Not so fast, you papists! Officials at Chapman University, a university with ties to the Disciples of Christ – a Protestant denomination, want the Crystal Cathedral too. They've only bid $50 million for the building, but they're sweetening the deal by agreeing to lease the building back to the Crystal Cathedral ministries. I'm sure the Pope is crying foul.

David Green, an evangelical CEO reportedly filed a bid of over $50 million too.

Finally, the Cathedral Ministry has put out its own call for a miracle…asking listeners to show that God is on their side by forking over donations so the ministry can pay off its debts and avoid the sale.

It's hard to figure out which party will get God's endorsement, but there's one thing for sure – the endorsement is going to cost over fifty million dollars. I hope God's good for it!

QUASHING SPEECH IN THE CITY BY THE BAY

2011-08-13T12:17:00.000-04:00

The lyrics to the old Tony Bennett tune, "I left My Heart in San Francisco" will have to changed, now that San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authority has started playing foot-loose and fancy-free with our Nation's constitutional free speech rights. This past Thursday, BART officials shut down cell phone communication services at the downtown rail stations to prevent people from coordinating a protest rally. The planned rally was intended to protest against the actions of BART police officers who shot a man on a station platform on July 3rd of this year.

I appreciate that BART officials are tasked with the job of facilitating travel by citizens from point A to point B, but that's no justification for engaging in Gestapo-type free-speech suppression that typically happens in third world countries and dictatorial regimes. And just because England recently stooped to such low-level behavior doesn't mean BART officials have to follow suit. I thought America was supposed to be above all that; apparently, I was wrong!

When our government agencies start interfering with the right of citizens to communicate with one another, and to peacefully assemble, our long-cherished First Amendment right to freedom of speech is placed in serious jeopardy.

Tony Bennett may have left something in San Francisco, but it wasn't his cell phone!

RIOTOUS LONDON MOBS - A SPARK THAT BECAME A WILDFIRE

2011-08-10T21:03:00.000-04:00

In London, and in other cities in England, crowds of angry, restless youth have taken to the streets during recent nights to riot, loot and create social unrest and disorder. They've burned down homes and businesses, demolished automobiles and looted shops of all merchandise. Whole neighborhoods lie in ruin.

As British officials seek to quell the disturbances, many are painting the rioters as a band of outlaws in need of swift and unmerciful justice, but that type attitude does nothing to solve the discontent of England's youth that underlies that which sparked the riots in the first place.

Let's not forget that mobs have a mind of their own. People in mobs frequently do things they'd never consider doing on their own. Mobs provide a kind of release from the constraints that normally keep people on the path of acceptable social behavior and a mob's occupants often get swept up in the tide. I'm not suggesting that mob behavior is necessarily justifiable. I'm just acknowledging the reality of the situation.

In many respects, a riotous mob is like a wildfire. With a wildfire, a single spark can touch off a blaze that quickly erupts into an unstoppable inferno. The wildfire spreads, engulfing and destroying tens of thousands of acres in its path. Riotous mobs frequently carry the same kind of destructive force. After a wildfire has been brought under control, efforts are undertaken to determine the spark that touched off the blaze, but lost in the shuffle and often suppressed is the question of why the wildfire spread. The same goes for rioting mobs.

In England, they know what sparked the riots. The police in Tottenham killed a black man and a crowd gathered at the Tottenham police station demanding an explanation to what happened. The police were not forthright in their explanation and the crowd's anger reached a boil. Okay, that was the spark, but what has kept the fires burning? That's the question people everywhere should be discussing, because I believe the answers to that question are not answers that are unique to England. They apply everywhere social unrest boils over into riotous mobs.

On the whole, youth in England suffer from extremely high poverty and unemployment rates. Large segments of their generation feel that hope for the future is gone because of severe cutting of government funding for education and other social programs. The resulting anxiety has lead to restlessness and anger – dry tinder waiting for a spark. It doesn't justify the rioters' behavior, but it does help explain why their behavior has spread. Societies that ignore those answers do so at their own peril.

RAPIST WARREN JEFFS SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON

2011-08-10T07:06:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, a jury in Texas sentenced rapist Warren Jeffs to a sentence of life in prison. Jeffs raped 12 and 14-year old girls and demonstrated no remorse for his monstrous actions. In fact, he claimed that he was entitled to do so as the leader of a Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Warren Jeffs is not a spiritual man. He's a cult leader. He's a scumbag. He's a rapist, and now he's a prisoner with a life sentence too. Good riddance!

VOTERS SHOULD TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR

2011-08-07T17:59:00.001-04:00

Congress has sunk to a new low. According to a CNN poll released last week, eighty-four percent of the population disapproves of the job Congress is doing. With those abysmal numbers floating around, you'd think our Congressional delegation would be worried about their prospects of being re-elected during the next campaign cycle, but that's not necessarily true because they know those numbers don't mean squat. What matters is a politician's approval rating in his or her own district.

Disapproving of the way Congress is handling matters is as old as this Republic, but returning our same representatives to Congress year after year is a tradition of almost equal age. That means that while the majority of the public disapproves of the job other Congressmen are doing, they're happy with the job performance of their own representatives. The only conclusion that can be drawn from those facts is that our Congressmen are not responsible for their abysmal job performance – we are. If we elect representatives who pledge to adhere to strict ideological stances and refuse to engage in negotiations or compromise with representatives of folks with opposing viewpoints, we are, in essence, voting for failure. That's our fault, not Congress.

THE MASTERS OF SHILLING

2011-08-03T08:01:00.001-04:00

The ink on the debt ceiling law hasn't even dried and the 2012 Republican presidential candidates are already shilling in unison that the law is bad and that raising the debt ceiling spells disaster for America. I use the word "shilling" [slang term for the act of posing as an innocent bystander at a confidence game but giving aid and assistance to the perpetrators of the scheme as a decoy] because it aptly describes the candidates' collective hoodwinking of American citizens.

The confidence game in question is the Republican policy of fiscal irresponsibility, a flashy carnival game called smaller government that's anything but small and nowhere near as fair as the average layman thinks the game should be. Then again, carnival games never are. The trick to a financially successful carnival game is to offer the contestants the illusion of fairness while rigging the game to maintain an advantage for the house. Republicans have that down to a tee.

In early 2001, President Bush inherited a budget from President Clinton that was producing an income surplus over government expenditures. During Clinton's final years in office, those surpluses were being applied to paying down the national debt. Instead of continuing on the Clinton's path of financial responsibility, Bush and his Congressional backers (which included a majority of the current batch of G.O.P. presidential candidates) switched course and sold Americans on the notion that the budget surplus belonged to hard-working taxpayers and the government should give the money back. Republicans were silent about the national debt, but let's be honest here. It wasn't in their interest to be fiscally responsible when there was more political headway to be gained by giving taxpayers a handout.

Then, September 11th happened…and the G.O.P. war machine kicked into high gear…and American soldiers marched off to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…and anyone who dared to ask, "Who's going to pay for these wars?" was labeled a traitor, unpatriotic, un-American and drowned out by the drum-beats of war. Instead of asking Americans to pay higher taxes to support the war efforts (as was done in every previous war in American history), the G.O.P. urged Americans to borrow more, spend more and demand lower taxes to support the public's endless wave of consumption. Like carnival barkers, G.O.P. politicians told Americans they could have it all, and a gullible public fell for the scam.

For seven full years, the Republican carnival game called smaller government financed our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by placing all war-related expenditures on our nation's credit card – the national debt. Not a single dime was appropriated out of the normal government budget for the war effort, nor was any attempt made to ask Americans to sacrifice for the war.

Meanwhile, business for American banks, investment houses and insurance companies was booming, thanks in large part to the Republican-led dismantling of banking and securities regulations that were previously instituted to prevent a melt-down of our nation's financial sector. Profits were everywhere. Fortunes were made. The public was happy – until the house of cards began to fall, as will happen with any Ponzi scheme. Suddenly, our country's largest banks, investment house and insurance conglomerates began to fail, and the effect of those failures was so strong, that it threatened to bring about the collapse of our entire banking system and plunge America into another Great Depression.

To prevent another calamitous depression, Congressional Democrats and a reluctant President Bush passed a massive financial package (publicly called "the bailout") just weeks before the completion of the Bush Administration. The "bailout" saved what was left of the common man's retirement account and investment savings, but you'd never realize that fact if you listened to what Republicans were saying. They were doing what they do best – shilling!

What the average American hated about the "bailout" was not that critical financial institutions were saved. People were angry because leaders of those saved institutions, whose shady practices and greed caused the failure of their institution, use government funds to give themselves millions of dollars in bonuses and pay raises, instead of using the money to stabilize their institutions. In essence, the public was hurting while the greedy got rich on the public's dime.

I bring up the subject of Republican shilling because, while Republicans were decrying the government bailout of the financial sector in order to win the approval of angry voters, and fanning the flames of what has become known as Tea Party politics, Republicans were also giving aid and assistance to the perpetrators of the financial sector's scheme. Republican politicians were acting as a decoy – the very definition of shilling. You see, while Congressional Republicans were loud-mouthing the bailout package, they were also opposing all provisions in the bailout package that were designed to prevent government funds from being used for bonuses and raises. Those same G.O.P. politicians were also collecting millions in campaign donations from political action committees controlled by leaders of the financial sector.

For Republican politicians, our nation's financial calamity proved to be a win-win situation. They were able to attract huge numbers of voters by publicly declaring opposition to the bailout package while, behind the scenes, they were able to protect financial sector leaders who contributed millions to G.O.P. campaign coffers. The irony of the situation is that millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled into Republican campaign war chests, and Democrats got the blame. Republicans have truly mastered the art of shilling.

Our recent debt ceiling debate provides another good example. Republicans added trillions to the national debt by not paying for the wars they initiated, but painted Democrats as the party responsible for our burgeoning national debt. Republicans lured the public with the profession of a desire for smaller government, but in actuality, and away from the public's eye, advocated for the public's decreased wealth.

Unfortunately, the public is still mesmerized by the glitzy lights of the G.O.P.'s carnival game and cannot see that the game's been rigged. Good shilling will do that.

GOD'S APPROVAL RATING

2011-07-28T07:14:00.000-04:00

You'd think that the world's best-selling book, The Bible, which sings God's praises from cover to cover would help raise God's image in the public relations department, especially in a Nation like America where Christian evangelicals claim that a majority of our citizens want Christianity adopted as our national religion, but you'd be off base if you thought so. According to the results of a poll just released by Public Policy Polling, a North Carolina firm, only fifty-two (52%) of Americans approve of God's job performance. While only nine (9%) flatly disapproved, thirty-eight (38%) percent had no opinion on the matter.

Pundits across the religious and political spectrums will no doubt spin those survey results to support whatever position they champion, but I'm kind of interested in finding what criteria those who answered the poll used to judge God's job performance. Were answered prayers a factor? Was prayer response time taken into consideration? What about assistance with smiting one's enemy? Inquiring minds like mine would like to know.

The one amusing point that emerged from the poll in question is that Americans see God as doing a better job than our politicians. I guess that's a plus for God, but to those of us who see God as being all-wise and understanding, a 52% approval rating seems kind of low.

BOOGITY, BOOGITY, BOOGITY, AMEN

2011-07-28T07:13:00.000-04:00

I admit that I'm not a car racing fan, but I was tickled by the reports of Pastor Joe Nelms' pre-race prayer at a racing event in Nashville, Tennessee last Saturday night. During Nelms' invocation, he thanked God for Dodges, Fords and Toyotas. He thanked God for Sunoco racing fuels and for Goodyear tires. And just for good measure, he thanked the Lord for his, and I quote, "smoking hot wife." I've never seen Pastor Nelms' wife, so I'll just have to take him at his word. Nelms finished his prayer with the following words: "In Jesus' name, boogity, boogity, boogity, amen."

Some think the pastor's prayer was blasphemous. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. All I know is that my wife, an ordained pastor, has never referred to me in a public prayer as her "smoking hot husband"…and I feel a bit slighted. Boogity, boogity, boogity, amen!

WORLD NEWS FROM RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS

2011-07-27T11:22:00.002-04:00

Let's start at home with our very own radio talk show host, Glenn Beck. On his Monday broadcast, Beck trashed the government of Norway for running the Utoya Island camp for youth interested in careers in politics. The Utoya island camp was the scene of last week's massacre where a right-wing extremist, Anders Breivik, brutally killed scores of youngsters and camp counselors. Beck suggested that the camp was turning out "Hitler Youth" and said, "Who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing."

It sounds like Beck was justifying Breivik's mass murder, at least that's how the Norwegians took his comment, and why not? Breivik's so-called "manifesto" contained the same anti-Muslim immigrant ranting that Beck's been spouting since the day after September eleventh.

Here in the United States, Beck has made a name for himself by touting the Second Amendment as in insurance policy for common citizens to overthrow the government if it doesn't cede to their demands. In the next breath, Beck says the U.S. government isn't listening to its citizen's demand to keep out Islamic immigrants. Breivik said the same about the Norwegian government and he used his firearm to get the government's attention. It's no wonder that Beck focused his indignation on the Norwegian government instead of on Breivik. Deep down, Beck and Breivik are two-of-a-kind…except that now Breivik has a higher body count to his credit.

P.S. My daughter is attending church camp this week. Who does a camp for kids that's all about God?

~~~

Heading East to Africa, over 11 million Somalians face starvation as a result of the worst drought in that country over the past 60 years. In some parts of that country, it hasn't rained for over five years. The United Nations and European Union are trying to arrange airlifts of food supplies to the region, but right-wing extremists (of the Islamic variety) are doing their best to thwart outside assistance from reaching the starving masses.

Of course, that's nothing different from what the Tea Party and the Republican Party are attempting to do here in the United States. I guess starvation is one of those tools that the right-wing finds most effective.

~~~

In Syria, right-wing dictator, Bashar al-Assad continues his bloody and torturous crack-down on anti-government demonstrators in an attempt to keep the "Arab Spring" from flowering in Syria and ousting him from power. Syrian tanks routinely bombard anti-government towns with mortar fire and the Army has carried out systematic executions of known political dissidents in a move to quash criticism of the Assad regime. Plus, the neighboring right-wing theocracy in Iran is lending Assad all the support it can muster. Last year's "Green Revolution" in Iran woke the Ayatollahs to the fact that no rulers in the Middle East were safe from overthrow. That's one problem situation the Ayatollahs are trying to prevent.

~~~

A right-wing Taliban suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar earlier today in Afghanistan. The Mayor, Ghulam Haidar Hameedi, was killed when the bomber detonated a pack of explosives hidden in the bomber's turban. It's just another day of senseless right-wing violence!

I'm guessing we'll see a "ban the turban" bill in Congress in the near future.

~~~

Farther west, China continues its right-wing government led crackdown on Internet users who employ that medium to criticize government policies. Apparently, free speech is alive and well in China, as long as you don't exercise that speech to criticize anybody in power. I doubt Glenn Beck would last five minutes in that environment.

~~~

Let's end this tour back in the United States. FOX news (America's right-wing mouthpiece) continues to tout the claim of Texan Republican Congressman John Culbertson that VA officials at the Houston National Cemetery refuse to allow Christian prayers at military funerals. Culbertson claims he conducted his own undercover operation to confirm his accusation. There's no video or audio recording to back-up the charges…just the word of a Congressman – whatever that's worth.

But let's not be hasty here. After all, this is a FOX news story we're talking about. The last thing you'd expect is 'fair and balanced' coverage…and FOX doesn't disappoint.

At issue is the Veteran's Administration's requirement that military honor guard personnel first receive permission from the widow or family of a fallen soldier before using the word God in remarks at a graveyard service. The regulation was put into place to prevent military personnel from offending any grieving relatives who were atheists or agnostics or did not believe in the same God as the majority of our military personnel. The regulation was not instituted to prevent the mention of God at military funerals or to prevent Christian prayers, as Culbertson and FOX news charge. It was instituted to respect the wishes of grieving relatives.

Buried in the print of the FOX news story was Congressman Culbertson's admission that military honor guard members didn't want to have to bother a grieving widow with such a request. To Culbertson, I guess having the honor guard make such a request is a trite and senseless task. However, if I were an atheist (which I'm not) and I had just sacrificed my son or daughter's life for the benefit of this nation, being asked about my wishes at a graveyard service seems like something I'd be entitled to. If that's too much to ask of the military, FOX news or Congressman Culbertson – tough!

AMERICA'S RIGHT-WING KILLERS

2011-07-23T00:13:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist brought terror and death to scores of people in Oslo, the capital of Norway, via bombs he planted and detonated in government buildings and by shooting innocent youth and counselors on the island of Utoya, a government run youth camp. Breivik's actions were the work of a sadistic individual with no sense of compassion for humanity.

Closer to home, U.S. House of Representative Speaker John Boehner and his henchman, House majority whip Eric Cantor, right-wing extremists of a home-grown sort, planted and detonated their own political bombs by walking out of debt-ceiling talks with President Obama, a move that will trigger a default by the U.S. government on its debts and indirectly cause the death of thousands of people world-wide who depend on assistance from the United States for their very survival.

Boehner and Cantor don't care that they are sending thousands of innocents to their graves. All they care about are the dollars millionaires and billionaires will save when the tax man visits. Their actions are the work of sadistic individuals with no sense of compassion for humanity.

It's maddening to recognize that a man like Breivik could be considered a greater humanitarian than Boehner or Cantor, but Breivik's killing days are over. Boehner or Cantor's have just begun.

PIZZA AND PARTY POLITICS

2011-07-22T07:25:00.000-04:00

For all the zeal Republican presidential candidates put into flag waving and other patriotic themes, you'd think they'd be equally zealous about guarding the rights guaranteed by our U.S. Constitution, but you'd be wrong. Only guns and flags are sacrosanct. The other stuff is window dressing.

Take Herman Cain, for example. "Who's Herman Cain," you ask? Well, he just the most recent addition to that pantheon of Republican gladiators vying for an opportunity to slay the Christian Obama in next year's presidential election. Cain first made a name for himself in the pizza business, which everybody knows was very appealing to gladiators with an appetite for dough, tomatoes and cheese, but Cain has found a new calling – laying waste to the U.S. Constitution.

Cain asserts quite forcefully, that communities in this nation, where the First Amendment unequivocally guarantees freedom of religion, nevertheless retain the right to ban Islamic mosques and the practice of Muslim religious traditions within their boundaries. Cain also stated that he would not permit any individual of the Islamic faith to work as part of his Administration; never mind that such a stance is forbidden by Article VI, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes which ban discrimination in hiring based upon religious belief.

After hearing Cain speak, it's hard not to imagine him wearing a toga like Caesar, the emperor, because the ideas that he champions belong in a dictatorship, like Rome of yesteryear. It's too bad that Little Caesar pizza chain isn't looking for a new spokesman. Pizza is clearly Cain's forte.

NOT AS SELF-EVIDENT AS PALESTINIANS WOULD HOPE

2011-07-21T14:41:00.002-04:00

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." – The Declaration of Independence (unanimously adopted by the Continental Congress, July 4, 1776)

Every time I read this section of our Declaration of Independence I am filled with a sense of awe by the language contained therein that recognizes the God-given right of every people to self-determination and the right to form their own government. Our Declaration of Independence begins with a profession that those rights are "self-evident", but judging by the United State's current position vis-à-vis the Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, those God-given rights are not as self-evident to America's leaders in 2011 as they were in 1776. If they were, America wouldn't be threatening the Palestinians to prevent them from declaring themselves an independent nation and seeking recognition of that status in the United Nations. We'd be steadfastly backing their bid to self-determination.

Instead, America has chosen to sacrifice our founding principles in favor of maintaining close foreign ties with the Nation of Israel, who by its continued military occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory, denies Palestinians the very right of self-determination we Americans claim is God-given and self-evident to everybody. No wonder people in the Middle East view Americans as hypocrites and hold such distain for our principles. Apparently, we don't think much of our principles either, because we don’t follow them. That's a shame. Thomas Jefferson put a lot of time and effort into drafting the Declaration of Independence and the Continental Congress showed their wisdom by debating and then adopting it. You'd hope that such wisdom would survive the ages. Apparently not.

BACHMANN & RACE-BAITING

2011-07-20T23:33:00.001-04:00

When Republican candidate George H.W. Bush unleashed his race-baiting Willie Horton ad against then Democratic candidate, Michael Dukakis during the 1988 presidential contest, politics in America reached a new low in terms of using bigotry and racial hatred to advance a political cause. In doing so, the Republican Bush co-opted the race-baiting mantle of former Dixie Democrat, Governor George Wallace, and used that mantle to secure the White House.

Bush's campaign chairman, the infamous Lee Atwater, confessed in a Life magazine article published a month before he did in 1991 that the Willie Horton ad was "naked cruelty" and apologized to Dukakis for the dishonest tactics Atwater authorized to advance the Bush campaign. Atwater acknowledged that his actions were reprehensible, but he forgot to apologize to the people most hurt by his campaign smear tactics – the Black community at large. Dukakis only lost an election. The Black community lost a measure of equality to which they were absolutely entitled.

I'd like to think that the political race-baiting days of Bush and Atwater were relegated to the dustbin of history, but that is just a pipe dream I have about racism and politics. The reality is that race-baiting still sells in many parts of this country. Just ask GOP presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann. She promotes race-baiting every day, to thunderous applause.

Here's how it works. Bachmann stirs up her adoring fans, an angry pack of Tea Party followers hell-bent on the elimination of the federal government, with claims of oppressive taxation and regulatory burdens that would make living under Stalin's thumb a Sunday school picnic. Then, she further enrages the crowd with a litany of government expenditures that she characterizes as government theft of an honest man's wages. The crowd claps and chants with adoring approval. Then, Bachmann goes for the jugular. She angrily charges that the President (who we all know is Black) authorized $1.2 billion in payments to Black farmers and the payments were waste.

What Bachmann doesn't say is more telling. She doesn't mention that Congress, in a bi-partisan measure, approved the payments first. The President simply authorized the payment of the checks, under Court supervision that required verification of claims. She doesn't mention that the Black farmers were entitled to that compensation for official discrimination committed by agents of the federal government over a period that spanned 40 years. She also doesn't mention that in 2010, she voted to provide over $20 billion in farm subsidies to corporate farms, largely owned by whites, not to grow crops.

Candidate Backmann's message is clear. It's not okay to subsidize Black farmers for decades of government discrimination because it's wasteful. It is, however, not wasteful to pay $20 billion to white farmers to sit on their butts and let their fields stand fallow. If that's not the definition of racism and bigotry, nothing is!

THE LOGIC BEHIND INVESTMENT STRATEGIES OF THE WEALTHY

2011-07-19T10:19:00.002-04:00

My wife is a Republican. I'm not. She has an investment counselor. I don't.

Recently, I accompanied my wife when she met with her investment counselor. He's a die-hard Republican. He's also a very good investment counselor. Despite this country's current economic situation, my wife's investments have grown thanks to his guidance. My wife's happy about that. I'm happy about that too!

During the course of the meeting, the investment counselor reviewed my wife's financial holdings with her and explained how each investment was doing in the marketplace. He reviewed the profits, dividends, increases and decreases in stock share price and his company's current view on the likely future rate of return for each of my wife's holdings. The counselor indicated that a few of my wife's stocks were under-performing and he recommended that she sell those securities and move her money elsewhere. All in all, it was a very productive meeting, and I'm very confident that my wife's investments are in very good hands. She is too.

I bring up the topic of my wife's investments not to boast about her good financial situation, but to comment on an observation I made with respect to the stocks and mutual funds recommended to my wife by her investment counselor. My wife's goal is to increase the value of her financial portfolio. I presume that's a pretty standard goal, and my wife's financial adviser tailored his advice toward achieving that objective. Like I said, he's a very good investment counselor.

My observation was this: only one of the twenty-two companies that my wife was advised to purchase or retain in her portfolio were companies seeking to add employees. Ten of those companies have laid off at least 10,000 employees over the past year.

The fact that a company has to lay off workers is not an indictment on a company. In fact, it's frequently an absolutely necessary step to insure that a company remains viable during an economic downturn. Sometimes, trimming payroll is the only way for a company to turn a profit. That's basic economics and I have no beef with that situation. After all, it's helped boost the value of my wife's portfolio.

My beef is with another situation – the refusal of Republicans in Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy (coupled with spending cuts) to bring our national debt under control. Their steadfast opposition to making the wealthy share in our national sacrifice is maddening. It's also based on a bold-faced lie.

The lie goes like this: "We can't tax the wealthy because that money is needed to create jobs."

Bullshit!

The wealthy handle their investment portfolios in the same manner as my wife does. My wife's goal is not to create jobs. She invests her money to create a profit. Wealthy people act in the same manner. My wife invests in companies that turn a profit and pay dividends. The same goes for the wealthy. In bad economic times such as these, the companies that are turning a profit are the ones that are laying-off employees, not the ones hiring them. If you handed a wealthy man a million dollars, he wouldn't invest it in a company that was not turning a profit. He'd pour the money into a company that was profitable. It's a lie to say otherwise.

The truth is the wealthy do not create jobs. They create more profit for their own benefit. That's called capitalism.

Jobs are created by demand for a good or service which are not currently available. When large sectors of the population are unemployed or have no money to pay for a good or service, there is no demand to fill and wealthy individuals will not invest to create a job where there is no demand, and hence, no profit to be made. That's capitalism too.

The only national strategy for job creation that has ever worked has been a government-funded job creation program wherein the government itself has hired millions of individuals to work on our nation's infra-structure. The demand for products and services created by millions of those new working individuals then fueled the potential for profits that lured the wealthy into investing in companies that would hire more workers.

With Congress unwilling to increase the debt ceiling or tax the wealthy to enable the government to create more jobs, America is further miring itself in the mud, and wealthy investors won't be offering a shovel anytime soon.

HATRED IN ACTION

2011-07-18T20:16:00.000-04:00

There are few words in any language that can adequately describe the horrible nature of Afghan Taliban fighters whose recent execution-style killing of sixteen Pakistani policemen has lit up the Internet across the Middle East. The Taliban fighters in question filmed the killings and the subsequent abuses committed to the corpses, and posted a video of the massacre on the Internet, no doubt meant as a generator of fear to all who would oppose them. Instead, the video exposes the Taliban as the vilest form of evil that anyone could become. Their acts are all the more repugnant since they claim to be acting on behalf of God.

This recent massacre hasn't been the first such evil performed in the name of God, nor will it be the last. It does, however, give me pause to consider how men could commit such atrocities in the name of a deity. What fuels their lust for killing? What drives their thirst for blood? I surmise it is hate…and the more the world encourages hatred, the more atrocities will be committed.