Monday, July 13, 2015

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY......

What can the average citizen walking the streets of America do about the world swirling about hi
m, do?
     The nation of Greece is about to circle the drain financially and the " news " here is it might, could, "we'll see" if it affects us. Past US history ( the 1929 Depression 25% unemployment) still ragged around the edges here, banks shut, money gone, people living in lean-to's, cars, etc, still fresh in 0lder peoples' memories. I hear talk in my country of withdrawing money and hiding it in the mattress. No kidding.
     No one I know believes anything they hear about Iran "peace talks" on the nuclear issue. Not one. The television stations stake out their talking points, but the truth lies in history, and individuals and what they've said and done in the past. Who do you believe?  I do not trust my own government, from the president on down. and that includes the Supreme  Court. Congress couldn't organize a Sunday Picnic.
     I trust John Bolton, George Will and Charles Krauthammer.
     Obama is cutting military strength just when we are going to need it. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger. China's economy as well as Greece are shining examples of the failure of what the president should be touting to all of America - the failure of Socialism. SHOULD BE TOUTING.
     But, being a socialist, he won't.
     ###

Saturday, July 11, 2015

The American Government Under (De)Construction

 Let's analyze: so far in about six years, I can account for the Health and Human Services spending (untolled ) millions of dollars in just setting up a computer system for Health Care for the government and "Obamacare." The job to do it never went out to bid. The contractor has a hazy past, the press never did a follow up on it, who were they? The IRS..hmm. Lois Lerner failed to turn over emails, documents required by Senate subcommittees even under subpoenas blocking legal investigations. Several IRS big wigs, ditto, and then resigned under " clouds of suspicion."
     Subsequent IRS operations, loss of taxpayer records, loss of work hours to employee playing during work time on house computers as reported in press stories, then recent explosions regarding the loss of 20 million taxpayer files to hackers and IRS officials waving their hands in confused desperation over the matter.
     The official response from IRS manager Koskinen? Arrogance mixed with mumbled and vague I don't knows to the Senate subcommittee who subsequently have done nothing about it.
     Meanwhile I believe the Office of Management and Budget audited somewhere near $100 million dollars in over payments to either dead people, welfare recipients and over payments to some government contractors who deliberately over billed Uncle Sam. " We are investigating."
     Then there is the recent hacker of 200 million PERSONAL FILES from OPM, another government agency. That's everything they know about us, social security cards, credit cards, your grandmother's birthday to your kids prison records. EVERYTHING. And what do we hear from our government? Zip? Zero. Nada from the White House. That's because they don't know what to do about it. God forbid the Chinese attack        
         Then, there was the woman testifying before a Senate subcommittee this week. One Senator asked, do you need help.  "yes, please, thank God," and by the next morning, she's retracting everything she said and hiding under her desk. Government pensions are hard to come by these days.
     The San Francisco killing of a beautiful young American girl has turned into a political finger pointing game of " he said-she said" as the INS, ICE, SFO, sheriff's department seek to shift blame behind the cold, dead body of their collective guild
     The girl is dead. The Illegal Alien is an ILLEGAL ALIEN, not an undocumented Democrat.
     On retrospect, in spite of what the president says, nothing in the government seems to work. To me, every time I see someone on the national level making a pronouncement, I tend to believe the opposite. This is the first time in my life I AM NOT PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, with apologies to Michelle Obama.
###

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

BILL COSBY -- IF it's true

I grew up on the Cos. I watched every one of his TV episodes with whats his name, Culp, was it " I Spy?" The TV series way back when. He was funny, serious, I thought a knock down drag out comedian, I spent the front end of my young life, laughing My guts out at his humor. Cos was dynamite because he was a cross-over, he could talk to all cultures, black, white, neighborhood kids in North Philly and Congress.
    Everybody listened. I listened. The death of his son hit him hard and we all felt badly for him.
    Then this thing happened. The ....molestation stories, RAPE stories. I can't even say it without choking. He's acting so strange now, different.
    Fifty women, almost all white, have come forward with about the same story, pretty close, anyway. As I recall, I don't think many of them know each other. I have to admit, I'm losing my faith in Bill Cosby. Each time a camera catches him, his wife and another woman in public, his frown is a mile wide, and his wife smiles broadly.
   I'm sad when I think of the broader implications: IF IT'S TRUE....IF. It means two extraordinarily sad things. Bill thought so little of himself, he had to drug fifty women in order to take sexual advantage of them. His public image was that of a gentleman.
   It meant he felt that was the only way he could ever be good enough to gain their trust, and access to their bodies. How devastatingly sad for him.
   Next, if it did happen, the damage to those fifty women will never be tolled. The destruction of their personal sense of safety, femininity, their emotional stability in personal relationships may have been affected or destroyed. Who knows if some, a majority or all of them have been in therapy as a result.
   One hopes not.
###

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Films---Movies---JUNK

I recall twenty years ago when the church and religion sect decried the sex and corruption in our movies: enter the alphabet ratings. Remember X?  Well, that proved the kiss of death for most movies so it's not around anymore.
      Now we have R, gotta be kinda grown up to see it. I don't know any movie house that enforces that one, so - so what?
      The state of entertainment these days is awful, IMO. Check out the top draws at the movie houses: fit for kids and those young adults stuck in post pubescence.

  • ant man
  • jurassic park X
  • Mr Boob goes to college
  • rocket ship to playland
    In short, mature, engrossing thoughtful movies (hopefully based on a book) are not coming to the screen. Computer graphics are. Mush minded, goofy stuff designed to send you home to your telly and Criminal Minds and Blue Bloods.
###

" It is dangerous to be right, when government is wrong"....Voltaire

We can trip through the directory of US government agencies and we would be hard put to find one (1) of them not recently embroiled in a public fiasco, loss of confidence, rotting from the head downward, now the butt of public late night jokes.
        IRS unanswered questions, loose problems still blowing in the wind. Benghazi, 4 Americans deserted and killed? " Oh, that was two years ago, DUDE."  Arrogance from our current government.
        Obamacare now passes an activist Supreme court as doctors bail out over the country, burned out under the avalanche of paperwork justification (I lost mine), and increased premiums for millions, as "Healthcare" experts chest beat in DC about how they got the job done. 
        Billions overpaid to illegal aliens (oops, sorry, how did THAT happen??), some states now issue drivers licenses to illegals so they can now vote (California). Hence, their new official title is no longer " Undocumented Immigrants."
        It is now Undocumented Democrats.
        During the two years leading up to WWII, there was a sizable group of Americans called the Bunde comprised of German Americans. They held loyalty meetings regularly here in the states carrying American Flags, and wearing Nazi arm bands. They supported Adolph Hitler, and  petitioned our Government to stay out of WWII
        They were steadfast in their support of Hitler and NO amount of persuasion could change them: the German American Bunde. Think about it. I see the very same thing in American fringe thinking again. 
###

Friday, July 3, 2015

AND THE MADNESS CONTINUES

Fourth of July, so America has been around since 1776, and today, the day before July 4, it seems everyone is got a stiff neck, a headache, cops out on the street, ready for trouble. Why?
       Because of 30,000 lunatics in the middle east running around in black underwear with large knives and machine guns threatening the US. Seven years ago, we would never have put up with this.
       Our stellar president recently compared himself to Ronald Reagan. Proportions of the body politic are so delusional (as he is) that I fear they actually believe him. When Reagan was elected back in the 80's he actually changed the culture of America. No one believed he could, but he did.
Politics at the top can affect change - he proved it.
       Under obama he was elected by the poor, dispossessed and downtrodden. Fed a constant diet of pablum and lies, he was shown the front door of the White House. And, elected, again. We are the weakest as a nation that we have ever been since before World War I.
       Our current leader has racked up more national debt, total, than ALL the presidents before him, combined, and no one seems to notice or care. Under his tutelage, we've had credit ratings of our chief form of bonds - wrecked to a level just above "junk bond" status. That means if we wish to borrow money as a nation, we're going to pay higher interest rates.
       The City of Detroit has gone bankrupt, has an appointed receiver managing it, and is just now getting the street lights back on. Puerto Rico missed a payment on their debt and is a couple of billion in debt, which news reports say, they cannot meet. Bankruptcy or bailout is in the future.
       California as a state has a debt larger than all of the countries in Central America combined. In essence, their credit card is overdrawn 40 billion dollars. Payment is now due. The governor, Jerry Brown, is busy approving new building projects, signing checks which he probably can't cover and not paying attention inside his own finance department.
       Obama has fired all the Generals he disagrees with, kept the suck ups, and when those left tell him what he needs to know to keep the country safe - he doesn't listen. He ignores them. He makes jokes when he makes speeches, though. Good jokes.
       And the public, as slow now as they were to catch on when the Japanese hit us at Pearl Harbor, continue to look at our first black president as if to say, " ah, he's alright. Everybody makes mistakes. Give the guy a break."
       Oh Yeah?  Until when?
       The picture below is our stock of B-52s now in storage in the desert in Tucson, Arizona. Time to crank them up?
###G

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

OBAMA'S "FREE" COLLEGE

First time I heard about this, it was free college for everybody. Then, it was for illegal aliens (along with drivers licenses, bank accounts, etc). Today, I watched Obama SAY he hopes to accomplish before he leaves office, " free 2 year tuition at Junior Colleges."
     FREE. I wonder how financially that's all going to work out. Do the colleges bill the Federal government? Yes? Where do they get the money? Hmm. Us. Taxes.
     No, not us? Where then? Local governments? THEY RAISE LOCAL TAXES.
     One would assume the local junior colleges will not work for free. Somebody, somewhere is going TO HAVE TO PAY. Since Obama tosses that word FREE around, the $$ will have to come from somewhere?
     Where? I suggest some form of increased taxes on something: auto gas, real estate taxes, income taxes, Congressional debates tedium ad naseum.
      Obama may suggest (if the issue doesn't work out they way HE wants it to, he nationalizes all the Junior Colleges and the government runs everything like health care).  My opinion is this: name the last program the government instituted that worked wonderfully.
###

WHERE IS WALT LONGMIRE?

Just when I thought America had finally found a new hero, someone to step into the shadow of the "Duke" John Wayne, Walt Longmire, county sheriff of Abseroca County, Wyoming disappears.
      Ain't that just like Hollywood?
      In a time like now, where it seems to me, half the world is in a tailspin, our country feels so depressed, the voice of the people struggling to survive by the next paycheck, it feels like 1935 all over again.
      We need someone to admire, someone to emulate, someone to set aside as a hero with qualities as homespun as the simple country lawman and Wyoming rancher that he is. I've been to Wyoming and enjoyed it. Those folks are quiet, reserved, warm and genuine.    
      As he often said, " I'm 911."
 

s

Saturday, June 27, 2015

THE NO SPIN ZONE --PART 2 (for the worst?)

Back in my neighborhood in the 50s, we all watched Rev Billy Graham on TV and advise presidents on matters of national conscientiousness.
      Today, close personal advisers of this nature are Brooklyn pastors in hock to the Federal government for back taxes in excess of $5 million and he gets to eat dinner at the White House on us 82 times this year alone.
      Our country launched a major police action in Korea to attempt to save hundreds of thousands of its citizens from slaughter at the hands of crazy killer soldiers of the Communist Party. We invested our best in money, war materiel and American lives that President Eisenhower finally brought to a halt - peacefully and with honor.
      Today, ISIS slaughters Christians by the truckloads in Muslim lands without so much as a head ache from us, and from the White House? We get no word...nothing.
       A maniacal group of crazed killers called Boko Haram captures 300 young girls in Nigeria and hauls them off to somewhere and the only word from the White House we get is, " I'm really torn about those girls." And a barrage of hash-tag videos on line. That was it. Big rescue effort for 300 pre teen age and young teen age school girls.
     tTwo months ago, 200 of them were recaptured by the Nigerian military who finally found them. Most of the youngsters (all girls) were raped and/or pregnant. PREGNANT. At 11, 12 and 13, can you  imagine the barbarity? These are the guys who de=capitate people.
      During the WWII a small boat load of Nazi spies landed on the south coast of America. Very quickly they were captured, tried and executed. All of America was fine tuned in the capture.
      Today, news reports indicate that just below the American/Mexican border near Arizona, they have discovered an ISIS training camp.
      Have you heard ANYTHING from NBC? The White House?
      Things have changed in this country. It is time for another change. Soon, In my opinion, I hope.
###

Friday, June 26, 2015

" THE NO-SPIN ZONE" --- TIMES HAVE CHANGED

Bill O'Reilly mentioned something the other day that got me to thinking: " it was a different world."
      Amen. That's been gnawing at me. I was raised in the 40s grew up during the 50s and 60s. Different world then.  Back then, I didn't know anybody with a gun. Now, I don't know anybody who doesn't own one.  Back then, the girl on the block who was " easy," was known by all the boys. Today, the virgin on the block is known by every boy and she probably doesn't get asked to the dance.
      Back then in south Philly, everybody avoided the mob and their influences like the plague. Today, young kids like to dress up like them, carry stilettos, and make fun of their names, like "Snub nose Frankie."  Way back then, if you were depressed or in the dumps, you went to the ball game, bar or saw your girl friend for the night. Today, the single most popular perscription drug in the Pacific Northwest is Zoloft. They hand the stuff out all over the country like candy.
      When I was a kid, a girl who got pregnant and wasn't married practically got drummed out of the neighborhood. Today, she gets a movie contract or her own Reality TV show.
      In times gone by newspaper reporters, (Huntley/Brinkley?), doctors, POTUS, and others were considered among the more trusted by the public. Today they rank at or below used car salesmen according to nationally acclaimed credibility research foundations.
      The times, they are a changing. So, that leaves us with - whom do we trust?
###d

Sunday, June 14, 2015

ISIS AND THE USA --- A PREDICTION

" Lily Pads!!"....can you believe it? During Vietnam (ask a vet), they were " fire bases." Open up a fire base in the middle of hell and have them attack you. Barb wire yourself IN, ring the perimeter with all kinds of nast-iness and shoot the hell outta them when they attack. FIRE-BASES.
     Now, we're being fed a line, we're being languaged - Lily Pads. Sounds almost like Sesame Street, right? Can you say, snuffalupagus? I knew you could.
     Mission Creep was hung around Nixon's neck for just what Obama's doing. It's MISSION CREEP. America's longest war is about to become America's longererer war.
     " Just when you thought Obama got us out, ISIS sucks us right back in" with apologies to Tony Soprano.
      I do not want to think about the first POW ISIS gets and puts on our TV.
###

Friday, June 12, 2015

The Benn Theatre - SW Philadelphia `1950's

About the time Richard Nixon rolled up Woodland Avenue in southwest Philadelphia trying to gather votes for Dwight Eisenhower, I was working at the old Benn Theatre on that same boulevard. In the mid to late 50's it was a sometimes crowded, sometimes unsafe street depending on the day or night, how much you've had to drink or who was carrying a gun within a 20 foot radius of you.
     
At 16, I was as tall as I am now at 75 so, they put me on the gate as usher/security. Give you an idea of what the neighborhood was like, management gave me a choice of weapons to carry for protection. It reminded me of an old Arizona joke amongst bar tenders: coming in to their bar, they frisk you for weapons. If you don't have one, you get one. 
During my time here, "Rock around the Clock " debuted here to sold out crowds and two riots, a gang fight involving knives, me and the police. I won. Hopalong Cassidy dropped by. He became my personal hero. Nixon rolled by the front door, as did JFK. In those days, after 6 pm, the crowds went " to the theatre" dressed in suits, just like they did when traveling on airplanes. The manager's name was Kessler who dropped out of sight. Years later I saw him again when he booked passage in 1962 when he left for France on the S.S.France, the flagship of the French Line. The picture above was taken in 1960. It was a gentler time then. Black was black, white - white. Very few shades of grey, we asked questions back then and got straight answers, not like now when everything we hear is mush. The sad part of today is the air is so filled with meaningless words, we can't see the sky anymore. 
###

Thursday, June 11, 2015

OUR CULTURE IS CHANGING



Mentioned on Bill OReilly Show recently the aspect that the American culture is changing: taking a violent turn to the left. I agree, and point the finger at the Barack Obama administration for that turn of events.
      Obamanation (I jest, the book - Obama Nation) clearly spells out the projected doom and gloom ahead unless we change direction.
       One Russian General once uttered the homily, " you can't insult America into a war, you have to bomb them into it." WAKE UP AMERICA.
       The Lemmings who blindly follow Obama will be with him when it's time to jump over the cliff into the sea. Don't think so? Look into the eyes of the Germans on the History Channel when der Fuhrer marched into Austria as the cameramen filmed his triumphant entrance. We couldn't convince the Germans to surrender, or the Japanese. We couldn't talk them into a peaceful solution.
       Nor will we with the leftists in our own country. They will willingly follow him over a cliff, so save your breath trying to ' DEBATE ' them in conversation. They have swallowed the Kool Aide. '
       This culture has changed and for the worse. The Police are our friends. The worst elements in our country have demonized them and now Baltimore is a deathbed of turmoil, gangland confusion and fear. Texas pool parties are the new firestorm for racial discord and possible legal, criminal and God forbid, fire-fights.
       Our police HAVE to be protected. One Miami school Principal announced publicly his support for the Texas policeman, and he was subsequently FIRED by his school district. He needs the back up and support of every American.
       Change? You bet. In the sixties condoms were sold at pharmacies under the counter, no displays. To buy some, it was almost like a CIA clandestine transaction. Today, they hang everywhere for everybody to see and buy, usually at a cashiers station. PS, unwed births? At an all time high, especially in the minority communities. And the fathers? They are M.I.A.
       ###

Monday, June 8, 2015

America's Grandmother - Barbara Bush, " the Enforcer "

 It's time we elect, appoint, or draft a National Grandmother. Someone who can uphold the office of old time Grandmother standards now fast slipping away from the American scene.
      "Bar" as she is known around Kennebunkport has just turned 90 and declared her intention to wander the beachfront on her walker and "shut-up" about politics and world events.
      It is our job to draft her into National Service. At 90, the wealth of experience she possesses plus her blunt delivery is of overwhelming value to the nation, the public at large, and to the current administration in office.
      I propose that Barbara Bush emulate the late FDR and conduct "Fireside Chats" on radio once a week from her home. In that, she can give us the benefit of her wide range of experience, advice of 90 years background of life in politics, family, and civic duty.
     Our nation needs to pay more attention to our seniors, not less. Bar's insistence on now remaining silent at 90, is, in my opinion the exact wrong thing to do. We need to hear from her about EVERYTHING that's on her mind, and we need to hear now.
###

Saturday, June 6, 2015

VINCE VAUGHN, ACTOR ON GUN RIGHTS

Just when you thought Hollywood was weird, Vince Vaughn steps out of the darkness and delivers a ray of intelligence out of Hollywood & Vine praising Americans who value the Constitution, the 2nd Amendment, and firearms rights.
      Vince, I'll be in the audience for your next movie, pal.  Three cheers, Vince.
       Given the roles he plays, I've never had the privilege to get to hear or "know" him as I have the last couple of days in personal interviews. I am fully briefed on guns, firearms rights, the 2nd amendment issues, pro and con arguments currently raging in the nation.
       It was good to hear him speak out.
       On the other side of the coin, I heard briefly Liam Neeson, the Irish actor make a crack or two about his aversion to guns in America. Neeson says " America is CRAZY with one handgun for everyone here. " He loved the fact that Britain outlawed ALL handguns. Loved it. The hypocrisy of Mr. Neeson is he makes a damn good living SHOOTING UP our theatres in his TAKEN movies now playing.
Neeson
       ###

Thursday, May 28, 2015

DANA PERINO vs. THE WHITE HOUSE

I'm beginning to think Fox News reporter Dana Perino and former White House presidential representative would make an excellent president herself.
     Interviewed today on Bill O'Reilly show, she detailed President Obama's recent luck with Federal Court decisions (bad ones for him) on his executive orders that didn't fly. I believe one executive
order was on immigration, can't recall the other. The Federal Judge bounced both back in the negative saying NOPE, you can't do it illegal - ' without the consent of Congress.'
     What Perino's comments were that hit a nerve with me were, " you see, we have a government where there ARE three separate sections. "  Executive, Legislative and Judicial, and like it or not, or socialistic president just got his first lesson on how this country works.
      Perino went on to say that instead of acting presidential and massaging the disaster by " working around" the defeat, Obama attacked the judges involved Personally. (small ball politics.)
      So much for " if Congress won't do it, I will." or his famous - " I have a pen and a phone." And apparently, that leads him and our government up a blind alley.
###5

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The Rape of Iraq

I think it was General Colin Powell that said, if we broke it, we own it. About Iraq, in my opinion, he has been proven right.
     Jeb Bush's mixed up answer to a news caster's question set off a storm of political protest this week on that sorry excuse for a country - Iraq. First observation I draw is this: it is the cradle of civilization, some experts have told us.  most history professors will say that man crawled out of the dust bin of Iraq and developed into the dust bowl that it is today - a quagmire of tribal petty squabbles, unable to defend itself, caught in the perfect 13th century society. How do you throw out the anchor of progress and wallow in camel dung for 1000 years while man walks on the moon?
    Add WWI and WWII together and we've still been in Iraq longer, spilled American blood trying to help for people who, evidently have not the where with all to stand on there own two feet and fight for their own existence. Our army has trained up their "mighty Republican Guard" twice now, and in the face of ISIS bad guys, they throw down their weapons and run away.
Our veterans are mad, and I don't blame them - sacrifice for NOTHING. All for a quick political promise.
    The results are, just in the last 4 days, slaughter of innocent women and babies on a scale that would make the Camp Commanders of Sobibor and Dachau jealous. We have lost every major city in Iraq (after we liberated it, won the war, and handed it over to the Iraqi government) and watched the bloodthirsty ISIS fighters take them back and murder innocent women and kids there in the most vicious ways.
     Meanwhile, what does our golfer in chief do?
     Nothing.
###
   

Thursday, May 14, 2015

GEORGE STEPHANOPOLOUS - BETRAYAL

 The major network news anchor is supposed to announce and analyze news of the day to an obviously gullible American public.
       George, the former high echelon aide-de-camp of Bill Clinton when he was president, has apparently donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, the war chest used by Bill and Hillary much in the news lately.
        In an age today where the mere appearance of a conflict of interest invites a hangman's noose over a tree branch, Stephanopolous begged the usual mea culpa publicly. Howsomever the media brave enough to call a spade, more than a shovel are digging deeper into the story.
        George is being bumped off hosting the February presidential debates since at this writing the obvious "conflict-of-interest" of having him referee a contest between a Republican and Mrs. Clinton (someone who he patronizes with large sums of cash) would be a disaster.
        At this point in time, public knowledge of the above SHOULD pull down the wrath of everyone on the duplicitous behavior on Stephanopolous, and the Clintons for trying AGAIN, to pull a fast one on the American public. It is, in my opinion, a betrayal of the trust of Mr. Stephanopolous' viewers, the organization he works for, a veil of shame for the Clintons for they had to have known this, assuming America is that stupid.
###

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA

SIX YEARS INTO THE REIGN OF THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH HAS EXPERIENCED, AND IN MY OPINION, I MUST REPORT WHAT APPEARS TO BE A ROUGH RIDE, THUS FAR.
     The oath of office was followed by an oath that said, " President of ALL the people, all the time. We thought our nation was getting a great uniter. Now, 6 and one half years into his reign, our nation has never been more divided, more hostile between the races in my lifetime. 
     Subtle naunces filled pre-election run ups but we kept going. What I saw that struck a despondent chord within me was Michele Obama's master's degree thesis from college. It was under lock and key, unavailable to the press. The Obamas jealously guarded that work and prevented it from publication, a practice so unusual, certain elements of the press made note of it, and left wing press started a food-fight calling out racist to those opposing her secrecy.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

POLICE SHOOTINGS IN AMERICA: dumb and dumber

All of the shootings are a tragedy, no doubt. I'm sorry any of them happened, regardless of the facts surrounding the deaths. What tugs at me are the racial components here in America involved in all of them.
     In almost all of them it reads like this:              WHITE COP SHOOTS BLACK SUSPECT.
                                                                               Neighborhood (black) up in arms, riot ensues.
     Ferguson, Missouri, the ancestral home of the Jesse James clan, New York City,  and Baltimore have recently been sites of the most violent race riots following the killings of black men by white officers.kn
    Mostly black citizens of those towns violently rioted destroying anything they could, burning, looting, destroying everything. In all three cases. The police officers were charged after a careful investigation by police administration AND outside third party sources. Ultimately, Ferguson's officer was absolved, but you wouldn't know it by watching the nightly news cast.
Seven witnesses testified he was not guilty of any charges leveled against him. Acquitted and released, to this day, he endures daily death threats.
    The same story in the New York City case-demonstrations, city police in the streets.
    The Baltimore case against six police officers is so weak it is been judged as a possible dismissal. At the very least, they will move the case out of the city and probably out of state.
    Three hours before I write this another such case happened in Wisconsin - Identical. The DA, a young black man, released the officer after a two hour examination of the facts. He sent the cop home after clearing him of any wrong doing. All of this leads me to one conclusion:
    The racial animosity prevalent in all the large cities policed by white officers is this: as the white police are judged and found not guilty by a jury of their peers.
    A mob of angry blacks, seem to declare GUILTY before the sun goes down,& want vengeance. They still cry out for " justice."  They feel the " system" hasn't worked for them. There is a
mis-understanding of how the legal system works. Arrest, charge, booking, possible bail hearing, trail date, trail, possible imprisonment or judgement.
     The street people do not understand any of this. When they see the policeman go to jail in cuffs, they feel elated, When the system releases him, they're reaction is " the MAN" has let them down again.
     They do not know that they do NOT KNOW.
###

Monday, May 11, 2015

B-17s in England, WW II



As a docent in a B-17g bomber museum here in Tucson I had the privilege of speaking and making friends with old air crews of B-17s from the war who visited the museum. The 390th bomb group had acquired the airplane and tricked it out to exact specifications of the war-time bird in the ETO. It was perfect.  In my extended time there, I came to know every square inch of the aircraft, from the cockpit instrumentation to the tail guns. 
     The fascination for me was the interaction with the guests. Air crew members covered the gambit from tail gunners to pilots and everyone in between.  I worked with pilots and ball turret gunners, who were of course, pretty small guys. Surprised as I was to learn they weren't all shooting down there. They spent a lot of time, taking pictures of older bombing sites to assess damage.
                                                                                                  


Shooting for him was done mostly approaching the target, over and coming out of the target. The res of the time, he joked, was in intensive prayer.
      A full Colonel was on the staff, nearly 90 at the time. He had 3 airplanes shot out from under him, and he completed 32 missions. On one, he brought his 17 back with over 520 bullet holes in it. None of the crew had a scratch, no one was wounded, a minor miracle, said the flight surgeon. This same pilot flew another airplane back with 3 of the 4 engines out - feathered. Luckily, the one working was an inboard #2, the source of cabin heat inside the airplane. On that flight, he just made the end of the runway of Col Jimmy Stewart's air base. He didn't get to meet him, he was asleep.
     In about that same time frame, one pilot told me, Clark Gable was flying side gunner and Andy Rooney was strapped into the navigation department of another B17 on the Schweinfurt mission.
     There was a tail gunner from Montana who wandered in one day, one of the largest men I ever met. A farmer, he wore those Levi overalls. He looked like he just climbed down off of a Massey Ferguson. Clarence was at the back end of the B-17 fiddling with the twin .50 caliber machine guns, moving them back and forth. I found out he lied about his age and enlisted at 16. He was huge, easily fooling the enlistment people. He volunteered for air duty, got into the 17, and how he squeezed into the tail section is beyond me. He fooled his pilot for year, downing 6 German ME 109s. When he turned the legal age of 18, they found out about him, came to him and said, " we don't know what to do with you, arrest you, send you home, or promote you for your six kills," his CO said.
    "I'd like to stay, " Clarence told him. So, he did and went on to down another 13 enemy planes by the end of the war.
###

Friday, May 8, 2015

THE WHITE HOUSE FENCE - SILLY NEWS

As a metaphor, I saw a news item that made me laugh: the White House is making the iron fence
around it, higher and the top will have sharp pointy tops, like on the end of spears.
     That's very funny, I thought, when one stops to think about it - like spears standing up right. Recent history surrounding the White House has interlopers jumping the fence, vaulting over it, dashing past the guards, one even made it into the bowels of the first floor where JFK's body laid in state back in the 60's. He was finally captured by a cook or a houseman or something.
     The Secret Service assigned to protect POTUS have been acting a little like the Keystone Kops the last three years, drunk on the job, hookers in Haiti, AWOL at their posts and what 'not. They've even failed to out-run the fence jumpers around the residence. Embarrassing.
     To me, the joke of the high(er) pointy fence is the symbolism of a tobacco road fix on security system at this nation's most hallowed residence- pointy, higher spears on the fence. It's a slap-dab quick fix, just like numerous other attempts at FIXES applied to our government that haven't worked. And, I predict the pointy-fence fix isn't going to work, either.
     Recent press reports say the VA waiting list problem hasn't been fixed yet and it's been over a year since Princess Screw up hit the bricks and the new guy is at the helm. Oh, by the way. the old gal is suing to get her old job back. I wonder how she's going to explain the 40 guys that died on her watch, or LACK OF WATCH. Meanwhile, Holder is out, Lynch is in. July's out on that one.
     Meanwhile, the NSA, it has been found, is now spying on EVERYONE. You, me, the postal carrier, tv weatherman, you name it. Apologies to George Orwell. And that creep that runs the tax agency? He blames the tax cut backs can't hire enough people to answer phones, sorry. You're on your own.
      Keep this date in mind will you: January 20, 2017 - His nibs last day in office. Meanwhile, keep your firearms in a safe place, he is not to be trusted. Remember, if HE can ban one, he can ban ALL of them.
###

Friday, May 1, 2015

BALTIMORE REDDUX

I do not believe Baltimore is a city where justice can be levied honestly.
     After today, May 1st, 2015, listening to the prosecuting attorney stumbling through her first public statement on the case, fouling up the logic on the case, arresting six officers for complicity in the death of a drug dealer, I'm convinced.
     She's in over her pretty little head. Jaw cocked to one head, teeth gritted, voice sharpened, she spits her words out like bullets. Six officers arrested, oh by the way, 3 black, 3 white, one woman, and by the end of this day, all have made bail.
     Her public pronouncement?  " I tell the COUNTRY that I will get justice for Freddie Grey." She did everything except throw the noose over the tree branch.
     So much for the presumption of innocence and a perfect set up for appeal. This kid, the state's special attorney must be straight out of law school. (license issued by some auto store, no doubt).
     Racialism is everywhere in Baltimore now run by blacks from the Mayor on down. The police department is racially apportioned along Baltimore's population statistics. City employees, ditto. Their school system receives the second highest amount of federal largess of any in the country and their school system is a disaster. The rioters and looters on Monday and Tuesday were in the majority mostly Junior and Senior high school kids.
     Carbon Copy riots and marches have sprung up in a half dozen American cities. I predict gun sales will  spike again as they did after Obama's re-election. A Fox News reporter stopped a rioter who burned a CVS drug store and asked him where he would go now that the only drug store in the neighborhood was burned down.
    His reply? " I dunno, I'll have to drive somewhere else, I suppose."  During the WATTS riots of 1968, a reporter asked the same question of another person. He got the same answer. I guess nobody learns, or common sense is in short supply.
###

BALTIMORE

We are in a new age: reason and language, logic, fairness, history, all tumbling now in the spin dryer of tumult on the flaming streets of Baltimore.
     Reason is now rabid, and difficult to find under the burning patrol car. Logic? Out to lunch along with what passes for the city's chief executives passive compliance to play acting. Safety now under trash can lids for your kids. Let's talk? Sure, At the top of your lungs, non stop, and don't stop, never mind what the other idiot has to say, SHOUT over them. " Ministers" and logic? Not even in the same room, together. Presidential butt-buddy running interference for the Mayor.
     Peaceful is at the end of a fist full of rocks, just ask 15 hospitalized cops, told to retreat in the face of teen age attacks. Black Justice now streaming around the country, " marches" in ....what, a half dozen cities. " We want Justice" ( for a convicted drug dealer who sold drugs to teenagers in the same neighborhood that erupted in violence that started this)
     Facts on Cause of Death NOT YET IN. Marches for "Justice" a little premature for the drug dealer, eh?
   
MAYOR'S OFFICE SHOUTING FOR JUSTICE AND THE FACTS AREN'T IN. CITY APPOINTED ATTORNEY HAS CONNECTIONS TO POLICE AND HUSBAND IN CITY COUNCILMAN FROM DISTRICT WHERE RIOT STARTED. Conflict of Interest???
    "' hands up, don't shoot".......round #2?
###

Thursday, April 23, 2015

JULIUS AND ETHEL ROSENBERG......HILLARY AND BILL CLINTON ??

Long ago and far away in what seems to be on another planet far far away, two Americans who turned over confidential documents to the Russians were arrested by the FBI, tried by the American government, convicted of espionage and executed.
      In a book released today called Clinton Cash, it has been alleged that for multi=millions of dollars through a nefarious scheme the Clinton's accepted cash into their trust Fund from foreign governments, and helped a transaction that channeled American Uranium through to Vladamir Putin, president of Russia. Benefits Bill Clinton also received were the opportunity to deliver a speech in the Russian capital for over a half million dollars.
     It is also alleges that at time, e/mails were transacted between General Electric in New York and the Clinton's who brokered the deal. As of this date, the CEO of GE refuses to acknowledge the existence of said emails. This is beginning to sound familiar.
     Since Iran is a client state of Russia and we are presently trying to negotiate with Iran to " please don't shoot us with any nuclear missiles" it seems likely that our negotiating position might be a little weak at this point.
     The Rosenberg's were electrocuted for far less than what it is ALLEGED the Clinton's have done.
      Also, on this date, a new federal Attorney General has been confirmed and it is believed she will be saddled with the task of an investigation into the above. At least we all hope and pray that she does.
####

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

FOX NEWS AND ME? -- SPLITSVILLE

I almost plugged my  television tonight. I have been a steadfast loyal consumer of Fox News - " fair and balanced." Yadda, yadda.
      Tonight was the last straw. I flipped off mid-way through Hannity. I can't take Prince Loud Mouth anymore. The pressure to leave has been building over the last weeks and months. And it hasn't just been Hannity.
      I have grown tired of listening to that over bearing super-heated Blondie lawyer with the hyper inflated ego and big mouth. Her persistent interruptions of her " guests " drive me . A derisive term, guests, she brings them interrupts them at every term, and blows them off the set before the viewer can grasp why they are even there. This evening, an older woman, a " feminist " lecturer on campus rape couldn't get a word in edge-wise as to why she was poison at some college campuses because Princess couldn't stop expounding. Exit stage left. I had no idea what the hell was going on.
nutz
     Hannity? Same story, Rudeness times 10. Why don't the save some coins and not invite guests and just lecture us on their pious points of view? That seems, of late what they're doing anyway.
     I'm looking for news, not jaundiced points of view and lectures. Fox just hit the skids for me and headed south. Somebody better fix that program.
###

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

CIVILITY? WHERE THE HELL HAS IT GONE?

George Washington wrote a book back then on the rules of civility. Every and then, somebody steals the idea, copies some of it and re posts the book under a new concept....doesn't matter. As our civility continues to circle the drain, we need it, like a life raft to a drowning man.
     I'm going out of my mind reading and watching stories of young mothers drowning their new borne children, stabbing their husbands 27 times, driving over cliffs, drinking themselves into oblivion, murdering their fathers!!! And, I wonder, what in hell is going on.
    Born in 1940, growing up in the 50 and 60s, I was exposed to none of this. Sure, alcoholics existed, troubled marriages were around, divorces happened, but not the rupture of civil discourse that seems to riven our society today. And, I know it's not just the US. Similar distress in Europe bleeds there, and some, but not all of the Pacific Rim.
    In my young and formative years, mouthing back to my parents would result in a violent clash of wills with me losing. Today, parents seem lost as to what to do. We can a ll draw a straight line from awful movies, violent television, commercially available sex, computers without limits, language that is uncontrollable, AND no consequences for bad behavior. Civility as we knew it, is no longer is demand.
    The fault lies in our INACTION. The continues DEBATE. It is time to stop talking about it and pick up the truncheon and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I know that the timid will say, oh, don't go off half cocked,  mistakes and all that.
     My retort?  SO WHAT? How often does the State Legislature subject US to laws that are harmful, screwed up and costly, that we have to retreat, recall them, and start over? Better to act in good faith and sit quietly and count the damage.
     Blame it on a string of bad factors all you want, but get off your hands and do something. We have a lot riding on this, and chances are, they're looking at you at the dinner table.
###

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Whatever Happened to WALT LONGMIRE ?

There was this deep voice, ragged piercing stare, and huge hands of his that when he sat behind his desk, leaned forward and asked you questions, you knew he was in control of the situation. 
     Everything was going to be alright. Walt was on the job.
     "I'm 911," he once said. 
     His limited extended family ran the gamut across gender, race and age. His best friend was the Indian bar tender at he town's watering hole. " Walt" he called him. 
     Walt's past haunted him and it wasn't a secret, wife murdered down south in Denver, daughter - a pretty little woman - growing closer to him. Eventually quiet close as the story went on. 
      Although he packed a six gun, rarely used, Longmire's signature was a long rifle, a tradition Winchester 30-30. He was never without it. Occasionally, he hit what he was aiming for.
      Like John Wayne, he was big and powerful, yet gentle, quiet and in control. His temper rarely flared but when it did, furniture flew. His audience was faithful, every week, missing dinner, appointments, school plays, what - not, to catch Longmire. 
      Like John Wayne, Walt Longmire was teaching a new generation of American Men how to act like men, something they seemed to have forgotten in recent years, a softening in the culture. A sense that we are weakening in our resolve.
      Let's just say the backers of LONG
MIRE grew weak in the knees. Money, ratings, reputation, something transitory this way comes. We'll give them that, won't we? BUT, THERE ARE LARGER THING IN LIFE THAN JUST MONEY. There are moral principles, truth character, country. And occasionally, power meisters see behind the pale, like the owners of Star Trek and they keep on funding it until it catches on.
      And now, eons later, we still celebrate the character and culture of that artistic and character building venture out of Hollywood, don't we?
      Don't we?
###

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Geneology - Mine

My grandmother (mom's mother) came from the mountains of central Pennsylvania. She had a delightful country/mountain twang to her voice. She was my favorite. When I was a boy, I often talked to her about where the family came from: i.e. our roots, our history.
    Her favorite retort was, " be careful not to go too far back on the family tree, you never know who you're going to find hanging off it." Grandma was a card.
    Now in retirement, I've decided to look.
    She was right. A long lost uncle was one of the more famous architects in America, living and working in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. Married to a beautiful young woman who loved to flaunt her ....attributes, she worked in a gentleman's club of the day entertaining rich New Yorkers. One night after entertaining one a little too much, my great, grand uncle arrived pistol in hand and shot the suitor in the head, killing him. Headlines, everywhere, the trial of the century ensued.
     In 1804, Lewis and Clarke set out from St. Louis on the Oregon Trial with a bunch of people trying to find the Northwest Passage. In the group was one lone Army Lieutenant whose duty was to armament of everyone else, the horses and provisions. Lt. Alexander Graham Willard went on to be the only member of the Corps of Discovery every photographed in his 90's. I am one of his descendants.
     The Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692 hosted the Witch trials. Among the  12 witches hung was John Willard, last to be executed for witchcraft. Testimony at his trial indicated he caused one young lady in town to cause her to cease urinating. Verdict, guilty of witchcraft. I, also, am a descendant.
     Gettysburg battlefield was the largest conflict in this hemisphere and among the thousands of killed and wounded was Colonel Alexander Graham Willard, commander of the 124th New York Volunteers, my grand uncle. He died at the front of his troops during Pickett's charge on July 3 at about 3:30 in the afternoon. He was a descendant of Generals of the war of 1812 and of the Revolution.
     Little did he know, he fell in battle two days after General John FULTON Reynolds died just northwest of town on the first day of Gettysburg engagement. General Reynolds was an ancestor of my family's other branch, the two gentlemen did not know of each other.
     All of this comes as a shock and surprise to me, this late in life. I continue to investigate, to explore. To date, I have found no axe murderers, petty thieves or pirates.
###

Thursday, April 16, 2015

GUNS, INSANITY, POLITICIANS, VOTERS???

Why do they do it? The crazies are alive again, roaming the landscape, stirring up voters, they think. " We gotta get control of guns" they holler. Another town mayor tried to pass a law against pistols in his town and his own town council voted him down. Guess he's off his meds. 
     Things are so bad here in the USA, fringey, as my youngest daughter used to call it, that everyone is getting armed, and I imagine, stuffing them in their pockets. 
     I detect, as they used to say on Star Trek, a rip in the space time continuum. Communal stress if you will. Everybody is just a little up tight. The beginning of the funny season, a year and a half out, the politicos are out running around for president. Obamas staying out of traffic, which is hard for him to do, sucking up to every tv camera in Christendom. 
     At this writing, there are 27 Republicans running for the nomination. Our current president hiding under his desk in the White House as a Florida mailman just flew a helicopter right up to the Capitol Bldg, violating this country's strongest military air space without so much as a scratch. 
     National moods are below apathetic: nothing works, all the agencies seem dysfunction, most of us feel unprotected from the outside, at the mercy of an uncaring, predatory government on the inside. 
     Tax season just ended, the health care act has fostered nation wide stories of tax implications on Mom and Pops all over the country, late filings, lack of assistance from the agency, surly agency management personnel, indifferent government officials. Never have we felt so ignored and powerless than now. Without a voice.
     And this we must endure for another 15 months or more. 
     Or worse.
###

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

AUTO-GYRTO LANDING IN WASHINGTON WEDNESDAY

At this early stage, facts yet revealed, no matter how you feel about the dramatic video of the auto-gyro that landed on the grounds of the Capitol building, I believe it should have been shot down.
     The pilot, whomever he is, got within 100 yards of the wall of the Capitol. Nearby was a group of children touring that vast lawn leading up to the Capitol. The aircraft used it in his approach and landed on a patch of grass quite close to the building.
  • He came so close to those children, he could have crashed into them.
  • He could have been carrying a bomb.
  • Explosions near or on top of those kids would have been preventable disaster and loss of American lives.
  • Again-----where was the Secret Service? Where was Security? 
How often will Washington's Federal Air Space be violated without protection from those agencies who should have learned by now, from the experience paid for by American blood that this should never happen again? Some whacko with letters for Congress could have easily dropped them in the front door and given them to the mail clerk. Someone has to have the stones to make the decision and protect us.
      The man in charge of all this is the top guy - President Barack Obama. The VA hasn't improved it's waiting times, the IRS seems to be in cardiac arrest, late night comedians make fun of the NSA spying on us, Obama's own family are fodder for Saturday Night Live.
      Someone has to step up and do something. The time for talk should be over. We are in danger!!
###

THE KIDS ARE GETTING STUPID PART DEUX

I fear for our future. Author and commentator Pat Buchanan writes that our culture has no guarantee that we will last forever. Citing histories of others once thought to have ruled large portions of the planet and no longer exist, so too, he feels, our dwindling IQs seem to signal that seem inevitability.
     Public outcry over lack of credible local candidates for jobs from doctors to taxi drivers forces American industry to beg, borrow or steal from abroad. Late night TV hosts joke about Middle Eastern New York cab drivers and 7/11 clerks from India, while recent studies show whole towns in our country staffed by doctors from Arabian, Middle Eastern locals and Pacific Rim graduates.
     An immediate example that comes to mind is Yuma, Arizona where it's worth your life to get a doctor who was born in America, Anglo Saxon and speaks English. Former city administrators from Yuma, religious leaders and other folks of mid level importance, mount their automobiles and travel to San Diego or Phoenix for their medical care, eschewing local docs.
     Yuma has one psychiatrist from India who in her late 80's.
      As a result, medical costs to the public are through the roof.
      Our educational system not only fails or current crop of children, it doesn't seem to even care. Swayed by the politics of the moment, one can move from class room to class room and flip a coin as to the probable curriculum in each location.
       Meanwhile, our children are fed a diet of action movies where not one, three or five testosterone driven actors shoot up the screen, blow up each other or strip naked some poor defenseless actress for $6,00 a ticket, it's considered an " art-form." Police report some of the crimes in the movies are beginning to appear on the street. Some fun.
       Television backs up the inevitable collapse of the mind bending tortuous fall from sanity with reality shows that tweak the bottom of creativity. "Real Housewives" of someplace or other show adults acting like children, Motorcycle shows highlight huge brutes breaking down motorcycles that look like something out of a Hollywood horror movie, these guys are extras from a Muscle show, and the evening's entertainment runs the gamut from the 60's Leave it to Beaver down to today's "Abortion on Demand" and where to find it.
        Mom and Dad (if he's still around) are busting their humps making a living, the kids are latch key, a hold over from the 80s, if they bothered to go to school at all, and if the parents are lucky enough, they don't have to do guard duty in the school security office for having beaten up a 65 year old teacher.
        Not enough jobs for the young people?
        Bill O'Reilly's program on Fox News hosts " Watters World" an interview show where the young man hits the street stops young people and asks tough questions like, " who is the vice president?, or Who Won World War II?"
        No. They usually cannot answer correctly. Usually, Watters catches them on the beach, tennis court, at lunch, generally at play. NEVER WORKING.
        Not as many students are applying for college. And, those that do, more are girls now, than boys. Colorado just legalized drugs. You know what happens when you do something like that?
         Nothing. Nobody cares anymore.
###

Sunday, April 12, 2015

WILD BUFFALO WYATT HICKERODY

( dedicated to and authored by the late Glenn G. Boyer, author of many biographies of the Earp Brothers of Tombstone)

The gosh true ballad of Wild Buffalo Wyatt Hickerody
who was near as pizzen as the bad man from Bodie.

His job was on a bar stool down in sunny Arizoney,
fillin' them funny tourists full of historical baloney.

He rid the pine forest with Custer when his grand dad was a boy,
and camping with the James Boys was his other standard ploy.

He fit Injuns with a Bowie knife, he erred and he bowed,
and you should have seen them pizzened broncs that he hickerode.

Injuns are his specialty, why podner, he knows the oldest one alive.
For sure, he looks, 70, without the balooney, he's only 65!!
###

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

WATTER'S WORLD ----O'REILLY FACTOR ----FOX NEWS



I watch O'Reilly practically every night. I"m hooked. At times, I have to turn him off, his constant interruptions of guests and interviewees is too much and I turn on the music channel - I admit it.
      But, when he has Watters World on, I watch him faithfully. This is not funny to me, it's sad. Note the news clip. His weekly contribution to the collective ignorance of our younger generation is beginning to frighten me. Young druggies hanging out on beaches living on government hand outs while we cater to foreigners with advance degrees to fill in hi-tech jobs here in the US has my hair falling out with worry about our future.
      Watters World on the street interviews are much like this. What I fear most is " THE KIDS ARE GETTING STUPID." And, like the flu, it's catching,....upward into the news media. Look at this stupid paper.
       They actually paid some reporter AND editor to publish this moronic story.
       I know I'm above average in the IQ department, people have told me, but pulleezzee, this is too much. This must have gotten past two or three fact checkers and editors to even get into print.
       A collage of occurrences - what else in print is this egregious? And where?
###

HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENT??----THE GHOSTS OF BENGHAZI

Four Americans caught in the gunfire, running out of ammo, desperately looking for a helo, caught on a roof top in Benghazi. CIA people told to cover a base in Benghazi, an ancient base of ours that goes back beyond the second World War where we once launched B-24 bomber attacks against the Nazis in Europe.
     Our Ambassador, now dead at the hands of the savages bent on killing everybody, seek out the last remaining Americans. Coded messages for help.
     Remember the TV ads for president? Who is going to answer the 3 am phone call in case of a national emergency? Remember? Well, guess who DIDN'T ANSWER?? Hillary Clinton. No where to be found.
     Troops were ready to go, " an order" was given to STAND DOWN.

  • WHO GAVE IT?
  • WHEN ISSUED?
  • WHY?
  • HOW FAST COULD THEY HAVE GOTTEN THERE?
  • WHERE WERE THE JET FIGHTERS?
  • WHEN COULD THEY HAVE DONE A FLY/OVER?
  • WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE?
  • WHY COULDN'T THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SEE/HEAR THE HEARINGS WHERE ALL THOSE RESPONSIBLE COULD TESTIFY TO THOSE QUESTION
  • WHY ARE THE TRUTHS COVERED UP? THE ARMY/MC CARTHY HEARINGS WERE MORE OPEN THAN BENGHAZI. WHAT IS HILLARY CLINTON HIDING? " WHAT DOES IT REALLY MATTER?" HILLARY. FOUR AMERICANS ARE DEAD.
Before Americans rush head long into electing another ERROR, we need to clear up this mess. Answers to this national disgrace should be brought before the American people for decision. 
     To say nothing of the lying and cheating over MISSING EMAILS.
###

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

IN PRAISE OF AMERICAN INDIANS

I don't know what your experience may have been with American Indians, or Native Americans as they like to be called, but I doubt that it has been in depth.
     Here's mine, having worked with them for years.
     They deeply value old folks, Indians venerate elderly tribal members to almost an exalted position within the tribe. They often seek them out, listen to their words and revere them for their " wisdom's."
     Younger Indians face modern day pressures left far behind by older, mature, elderly Indians and often they seek guidance from these council members. They, having traveled these trails of tears and often give advice in shedding their own tears to the young people. Tribal Councils often are peopled by seniors and they usually have the last word on what happens on the reservation.
       The old ones, they say, we stay on the reservation to stay close to them. That is a good thing, Many have told me.
      Another family quality not found outside the Indian Reservation is their habit of having children at home, at the dinner table at a certain time. No excuses, no lateness - home, supper. Mom and Dad.
If one of the children are absent at the proper time, it's a major problem. I've known Indian fathers in their trucks, riding up and down darkened roads, checking other houses looking for their " strays."
     Their community means the world to them. When they make a decision that affects them all, they meet in a large open house called a Hogan, Long House, Kiva Room, or other names depending on the tribe. Chairs are placed around the edges of the room and everyone in all the families sit in chairs,      The chief sits in the large chair by the door and conducts the meeting. He carries a big, very ornate, tribal stick, or truncheon. While holding it, he talks about the subject at hand and the decision that must be reached by the whole tribe. When done, he hands the stick to the first person on his left who begins to speak his mind for as long or as short as he wishes.
     The process takes a long time, going from person to child, to person around the entire room. When done, they decide. The whole community must be on the same page or they do not move on the subject they discuss. Total agreement, total uniformity.
     These are some of the warm and wonderful aspects of the Native American peoples that I've observed in the decade I've worked with them in Oregon.
###

Thursday, April 2, 2015

THE KINGSTON TRIO - TODAY

Back in the 60s there was a musical group called the Kingston Trio out of San Francisco. Can't remember what club they hung out in, the background for the photos was a brick wall. Years later when I worked for an airline I flew out there, and caught their act in that club. Loved it, they became my heroes. They had a signature song.
     Now, in my mid 70's I find myself humming it again, because so much of what goes in around me, in my neighborhood, in my town, certainly in America, and now in the world - brings back the uneasy, unsafe, jittery world of the Kingston Trio's song.
     " They're rioting in Africa ding, dinga ding, ding. ( musical notes.) Their starving in Spain. There's hurricanes in Florida - dum, dumde dum dum, ........and Texas needs rain. 
      The whole world is festering with unhappy souls: the French hate the British, the Germans hate the Poles. And we will be happy, and tranquil and proud, for man has been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud. 
       And, some happy day, when someone will pray, I will set the spark off ---and we will all be blown AWAY.!!!"
      (Reprise)
      We all felt that way in the mid 60's when Johnson sat in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Funny, now, that " The Amateur" as author Ed Klein paints him (into a corner) our national conundrum seems oh, far worse? 
       " they're rioting in Africa........'
###

Saturday, March 28, 2015

BERNARD GOETZ RIDES AGAIN

REMEMBER GOETZ?  Way back in the hysterical days of Jimmy Breslin author of " the gang who couldn't shoot straight." Bernard Goetz had it up to " HERE" with black punks riding the New York City subways intimidating white riders (remember the movies - "Death Wish?" starring the late actor, Charles Bronson.), so Goetz packed a .38 caliber pistol

and started a payback in Manhattan.
     Memory fades on how many he gunned down that day, but I recall the weeping and gnashing of teeth by Breslin and the left wing of the political spectrum. "Oh, ....those poor boys never had a chance."
     To say nothing of their victims. White on black, call Rev Al, black on white, New York Times is hiding in the mens' room.
      The cops threw the book at Goetz, trash can, City Hall, the works. Hell, that was over twenty years ago, and he may still be in jail.
      Since the race riots of Ferguson, New York, and the uncounted insurrections connected to it around the country, mostly black crime on targeted white people, it baffles me how the Goetz syndrome hasn't taken hold in the populace.
l      Bernard Goetz must be puzzled. Or giggling.....or reloading.
###

Thursday, March 26, 2015

President Obama's New Rules

Let's review: the prez had his teeth handed to him last election in November. No need to review the results here, Except for his brother's hut in Africa, an occasional sled drivers in Alaska probably don't know that outcome, otherwise, we all got it.
     His reaction thus far has been, shall we say, snotty as some national media characterize it. " Two years more of doom and gloom."
     So, pen in hand, he writes ( or directs his minions to do so) the following: we can look forward to having the temperature and quantities of water in our showers monitored. Some sort of national crisis up there with ISIS no doubt looming.
     National mandate on voting coming our way-mandatory for all of us. If you're of voting age, you will be steered (I imagine all sorts of gruesome scenarios of herding us in trucks to the polls.) on election day. Can't wait to hear the justification around the Constitution on that one.
     Obama and Holder's plan on disarming the American people takes on weird outgrowths as we progress onward into his 7th year: dry up ammunition. His ban on importation of less expensive foreign cartridges is being held up in a court fight. (God bless Federal Court Justices beholden to no one). His administration's constant attack on the 2nd Amendment has been the most continued assault on the Bill of Rights for the entire 6 miserable years of his presidency. Lack of space here prevents me from listing all his progress BUT, his latest is an attack on the banking industry attempting to dry up banking services for gun stores, gun retailers, adult stores, and other outlets deemed contrary to his arbitrary choosing. Remember, no public input was involved in the establishment of this " so called public nuisance " list, only comprised inside the White House.
     Dozens of such shops have lost their businesses because of their inability to transact financial deals through local banks: credit cards, deposits.
     The point?  The Obama Administration can't close GITMO on the first day of his office, 6 years ago. It is STILL OPEN. Keep a list of the items the president has promised, then check off those that he has jumped the shark on - " If you like your doctor, you can KEEP YOUR DOCTOR." (I lost my doctor of 12 years only yesterday, a victim of ACA stress.)
     My wife's doctor said to us yesterday, that "if it wasn't for this building we are in that we have to pay off, I'd go be a waitress someplace else." She, a Harvard graduate.
     My question? Are we out of control?

Monday, March 23, 2015

Losing Control of America

   It feels like it. I am a man from the last century. Remembering when Dwight Eisenhower was in charge, one felt safe, covered, relaxed, and settled in a way of life that was comfortable in a work - life - religious routine that progressed through t terms of political stability.
   Ike called a meeting of his "Board" chatted with his supervisors, asked them ' hows it going boys?" took a day or two to go around the table, told them to go back to work with the admonition, " keep in touch, and no surprises, please. 
   And he went back to a clumsy press conference and a golf game. Except for ending the Korean War
as he promised he would, a bout with ileitis and a stay at an Army hospital in Denver, his service to the country was exemplary. Everybody loved his steady hand and the feeling that everything was going to be ok. 
   When the economy sagged for a bit, he made an announcement that everybody should go out and buy a refrigerator or stove. We all did. The suppliers groaned under the demand. 
    Today, our president is overexposed on television. Each day, he appears with different messages on differing subjects that appear to change, flip-flop and counter each other from day to day. It's impossible to count on a consistent message, plan or policy that the public can count on, coming from the White House. The president's hired hands are equally inconsistent. Elements of the national media have fallen to calling the chief executive of our current government, " amateur." The current government has, in some domestic circles been labelled, " bush league." One is caused to wonder if such bad form is anything but purposeful.
    Few if any corroborate what he insists are his dictum's from day to day, which must leave spokespeople, line workers and certainly political pols in a state of confusion. With the constant state of shifting sands on foreign and domestic policy for what was once the greatest nation on earth, is it any wonder the bad actors of the world are shifting tanks, planes, guns, murder and death around the globe at a frightening pace. The lunch organizer of south Chicago seems to be in over his head on the world stage, showing up at the G-8 summit in Europe chewing gum.
###

Saturday, March 14, 2015

I MARRIED A FEMINIST

It didn't happen overnight. We got pregnant by accident.
     " I'll be alright, " she said over the phone, " as long as you stand by me."
      I'm a man from the old school, the last century, born in 1940, John Wayne, Steven Canyon,voluntarily enlist in the service, you know, stand up and do the right thing.
      So, I did. I married the little lady and set down to make a life with her. Our child came along, a beautiful lovely little red-headed girl with an IQ, BTW that was extraordinary. ( got it from...).
      My wife was a sewer. Made everything by hand: sweaters, gloves, all baby clothes, she loved doing it, I loved her doing it. Breast fed our little girl in magical moments I'll never forget.
      Flash forward to two girls, early teen age years, wife is home doing Mom things, wifely things, now BORED to death. Too much Betty Freidan, I guess. Love that Ms. subscription.
     Now things around the house are never good enough. Arguments over money, who/what/where kids go,do,how often - ALL THE TIME.
      One day, she springs the following on me without any advance notice: " I'm tired of being Mrs nobody. I'm not fulfilled. I'm going to get a job. Being a housewife and mother doesn't satisfy me anymore. I want you to know I'm actively looking for outside work."
      Thunderstruck, I babbled something like, " can we at least talk about this?"
      " Sure, talk. But, I'm doing it." (so much for negotiations)

       Our children were too small to be left alone after school, so they became latch-key kids. Me? I was off running the 7th largest mall on the globe, 10 hours or more a day. She? Blowing a whistle in a school yard, chasing 3rd graders away from water fountains.
       " I've got to be me," she said.
       As John Wayne used to say, " conversation sort of dried up."That was the last century, and, the last time I'll ever let anyone decide my future. As Doctor Phil says, it's better to be FROM an unhappy marriage than IN one. I wasted 18 and 1/2 years of my life. I should have gone to law school, or journalism, or stayed in the Air Force and retired there. What a waste.
###