NAIVETE & PRAGMATISM

Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair


Naivete & Pragmatism


I arrived at our cottage on Prince Edward Island earlier than usual this June as I had a commitment to attend the retirement of the president of The University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. When I stopped at the roadside restaurant of friends I found a picture prominently displayed of three kittens in search of a home. The picture, I learned later, had been taken by a professional photographer, a woman who also had mares in the barn where she found the kittens. She went daily to take care of the mares that were with foals.

It occurred to me that I might be able to help her find a home for these really cute kittens. I contacted her only to learn that not one person had responded to her plea over a period of weeks. She reported to me that she had heard meowing inside the wall of the barn. When she investigated she found four kittens, one not living, right where their mother had “dropped” them between the wallboards onto a bed of hay.

In order to rescue the cats she had to actually take wallboards down. Once she saved three kittens she simply left them in the barn, with mares, foals and stallions and the occasional dog. The doors were open to the fields. The kittens’ early experiences were with other animals and the out of doors.

She got worried that the little kittens would be devoured by wild animals or get caught in something out of which they could not escape. She brought them food each day. She took their picture. And she decided to try to find them homes.

The picture with this column shows the three kittens.
I agreed to take the female (the one in the middle of the picture) and begin a search for a home for her. I took her to the local vet to make sure everything that was needed was provided. I picked up a colorful collar and a leash. I got some kitty litter and some bowls. I had a friend make up posters to place around St. Peters Bay.

Oh boy was I naïve.

When the wife got wind of my project she emailed: “don’t even think I am going to fall in love with this kitten. We have two cats and we do not need a third.”

Ever the pragmatist.

Much to my surprise, the cat took quickly to my two Labrador retrievers and they formed a neat threesome for playing both inside and outside the cottage. The little kitten would occasionally hop up on my chair and fall asleep on my lap as I read or typed.

Boy was I naïve.

I again put out some fliers advertising this cute kitten, free to a good home. With the vet fees and the food and other items I already had about $130 invested in this barn cat. Nevertheless, I was determined I would find more people interested in providing her a home if she was “free” to them.

The emails from the wife were getting a little better and she was vacillating some on keeping the kitten. Then there were some Skype sessions on the computer when she got to see the kitten playing with the Labs, sleeping on my lap, enjoying the heat from the fireplace. But no full out surrender was yet coming.

Hope springs eternal. So does naivete!

My efforts to find a home began to be less each day. Also each day the kitten (unnamed so she would be easier to give away) spent more time on my lap, in my bed, and with my dogs.

When the wife arrived on the island it was really clear I had fallen for the kitten and the wife planned to be pragmatic.

So dear readers, once again nature has proved there are few things more adorable than small kittens; few things more foolish than thinking you could just walk away from one who needed a home; and nothing as naïve as a man trying to help an animal find a home while secretly hoping the home he would find would be his own.

So within three days the little kitten was gifted to our wonderful neighbors, a victory for pragmatics, who were happy to accept her into their home. She now has two boys, another cat, and a dog named Rio to keep her company.

I miss her but only have to cross the yard to see her.

Now I am hoping I can find her two brothers as great a home. Since I know for sure that home will not be with me perhaps it will be easier to work harder on the project.

GRAND THEFT? Social Security

GRAND THEFT ?


SOCIAL SECURITY was envisioned to make you feel secure in your old age.

SOCIAL SECURITY was envisioned to be a government run program on which you could depend.

The program was simple. People currently working would put money into the program and that money would be paid out to people who were retiring, providing them with security in their golden years.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

The answer is very simple.

The government took the money that was being deposited and used it to meet short-term needs. They did so in the expectation that workers would simply continue to put in large amounts annually and those future deposits would be sufficient to meet the needs of retirees.

So we get two choices, my friends:

Either our government borrowed the Social Security funds without our expressed consent, or

The government stole the Social Security funds.

In either instance, the government paying back the loan or paying back the theft can quickly solve the current crisis.

There has been a lot written about how we have fewer children, and that has decreased the number of people paying into Social Security to the extent that not enough is coming in to meet the demands of retirees.

This is true.

But if the huge balances provided by earlier generations had been held in trust, they would have carried us through the current crisis.

Excuse my bluntness: but I find much of what the government has been telling us about the failure in the Social Security Program is, simply put, “BS.”

The government miscalculated. What they anticipated would happen did not happen.

The same government would now like us to work until much later in life, say 68-69 or 70.

They would like us to delay asking for the benefits they previously promised

They would like us to consider cutting back on the benefits for future generations.

The answer my friends is for the government to pay back the money they took, money that would have sufficiently funded the benefits they promised.

There is no need for us to provide for them an “easy out.”

They collected the money.

They used the money for projects outside the social security fund promised to eventual retirees.

They made a bad judgment.

The remedy is for them to make it right.

The remedy is not for us to suffer any decrease in benefits or any dilution of the program in order to save them from making the hard, and honorable decision.

WEINER "SNITCH-ZEL"

NOTES OF CONCERN….
…Jack Blair



WEINER “SNITCH-ZEL”

Someone snitched on The Weiner.

Who told Andrew Breitbart about the pictures and the Twits from Congressman Weiner to a variety of women on line?

The wife was away traveling with Hillary Clinton-what’s a guy to do?Everybody knows you have to be a “little bit crazy” if you want to be Mayor of New York. And that was a dream of the Congressman.

Congressman Weiner is in “deep do-do” with about everyone he knows. Senators want him to quit. Congressmen want him to quit. Heck, even some Republicans want this Democrat to quit.

In a town that loves to kick a guy when he is down, Congressman Weiner must feel a lot like a ratty yellow dog in north Georgia. Lets just say he is lucky quarterback Michael Vick doesn’t want to train him.

If you look up the definition of narcissist you will quickly grasp what really fuels The Weiner’s ambitions. He didn’t get that body without a lot of hard work. You have seen the muscle builders posing in their competitions. In Congress, they let you pose but they insist you keep your clothing on. He must have had a lot of conflict to resolve between his daytime job and his nighttime preferences.

Unfortunately for The Weiner, those two incompatible worlds clashed and his life imploded.

The Weiner wants forgiven because he didn’t meet or have sex with those to whom he sent his twits (and racy pics) on Tweeter. He didn’t know who they were. He didn’t know how old they were. He didn’t know anything about them. But he assumed they would like to see him naked or that they were fantasizing about seeing him naked.

Only a politician could get from “I think I will do some social networking” to “all these folks want to see my naked body.”

If you want to grow up to be a United States Congressman, the news of late would lead you to conclude you should take some pictures of yourself in the all-together and send them to complete strangers.

There is a reason they call those messages on Twitter “twits.”

Here is your test. Which of the following describes Congressman Weiner this week?

A.“The Weiner”

B.“The Clown”

C.“ The Twit”

D.“ The Perv”

E. All of the above.

The Gingrich Who Stole Christmas

Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair


The Gingrich Who Stole Christmas

Many years ago a young Newt Gingrich captured America’s attention with his “Contract for America.” He was a dynamic young congressman from a southern state who had managed to group his colleagues under a new banner and enthusiastically appeal to the changes Americans seemed to want.

Not only did Congressman Gingrich have a good gift of gab but he was clearly quite smart. Intellectually, his command of the issues and ability to express his ideas made him a media darling. He looked smart and sincere. He sounded smart and bold.

We all know that the revolution in Washington that occurred at that time was both historical and a launching pad for Gingrich’s ambitions.

He was Speaker of the House. He loved the job.

And then it all came crashing down when we learned he might have been very smart intellectually but was devoid of common sense. While he attacked President Clinton for moral foibles Gingrich was engaged in his own tryst. The most that can be said for both these fellows would be that they were not deserving of trust. The worst that could be said, well, you know what that would be.

Gingrich disappointed many. He let down his supporters. He failed to live up to his resume. Like the Grinch, he stole “Christmas” from us in that the architect of taking back our country turned out to be, well, a hypocrite.

After a tour in the dessert, like Moses, Gingrich returned to reclaim leadership. As I have said so often in my columns, Americans are a forgiving people. The best example is the continued popularity of William Jefferson Clinton. So I was not surprised that Newt was on the come back trail.

Actually, I did not expect him to win his party’s nomination or to become president but I did think a well organized and executed campaign would elevate him to the list of “cabinet potential” Republicans and that if a Republican defeated President Obama Newt might well find himself in a major policy making role.

However, a lack of common sense has sunk more than one man’s boat and the “old Newt” reappeared. I am not referring here to any moral deficiencies but rather to a sense of hubris or entitlement that alienated his own presidential staff. Whatever he said or whatever he did almost all of them jumped ship. I cannot imagine what it would take to get a large number of people who signed on with your campaign and believed in what you were saying to take a hike en masse. But that is what they did.

No matter what Gingrich says and no matter what the press might write, he is done as a serious presidential candidate.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

Newt better dust off whatever other skills he has because he is going nowhere politically.

SACRED VOWS

Notes of Concern…
….Jack Blair


Sacred Vows

We have been reading about the infidelity of famous men lately.

Every salacious detail, it seems, has been placed before us as we read our morning paper or watch a news show.

The former Governor of California fathers a child with the family maid. The current head of the IMF attacks a maid in a suite in NYC. A current Congressman, and New York City mayor-hopeful is accused of sending pictures of his “privates” to a young woman he never met. The list goes on.

And while it doesn’t get nearly as much press, there are similar charges made about powerful women.

Recently, there have been articles in magazines looking deeper into what makes famous and/or powerful men such serial sex seekers.

I think most of these reports have it wrong.

Everyone knows that there is a strong attraction between the sexes. Everyone also knows that one of the basic reasons for having a concept of marriage is to formalize not only a union of two people, but to make a commitment to another person, in exchange for their commitment to you. Marriage is a way of institutionalizing trust between two people. Marriage is supposed to provide a good vehicle for the production and raising of children.

But where powerful men are concerned, the real story is their inability to control, or manage, their most basic of drives. The second story is their need to demonstrate that they really cannot be trusted. That being the case, is it not an indictment of us that we continue them in power.

If your banker happily stole from your account would he continue to be your banker. When our leaders prove we cannot believe what they say and remind us that they have the basest of values why are we so willing to take the position that “boys will be boys” and assume that they do not disappoint us in so many other areas of their lives as our representatives?

So instead of talking about sex drives we should be talking about integrity.

When one chooses to marry another person, and to commit to that person for life, there is an expectation that they will control their sex drive in the interest of trust, truth and commitment. It isn’t assumed that on the day one takes a marriage vow, offers up his word in a sacred place in front of family and friends and God, that his desire or attraction to others will magically disappear. What is assumed is that he has made a decision to control that desire and to be the person who can be trusted and loved without fear of betrayal.

If one wants to be a multi-partnered sexual person then there is no reason to marry.

Our society does not demand that every person take an oath of fidelity to another person. Deciding on entering into holy matrimony should be a decision taken only by those who have already determined to abandon nature’s built in drives, to control one’s impulses, and to make a solemn promise to one other person, a person from whom you expect the same kind of promise in return. If you don’t intend to perform on your promise there is absolutely no rational reason to make it.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad when we as a society were tougher on people who needed to bring adultery into their lives. As we became a society that forgave men for their unbridled sex drives, took a non-chalant view of men and women who cheated, we became a society that said integrity, solemn promise, trust and commitment were not so important to us anymore.

It should come as no surprise that many of us find much more to value in the thinking of the past.