The Russians Aren't Coming But The Terrorists Are

The Russians Aren’t Coming,

              but the Terrorists Are

Those of us who can remember the hottest time of what came to be known as The Cold War can recall people actually building bomb shelters in their backyards. A secret place was built to hide the entire Congress and other key individuals in case of atomic attack. As I recall, it was an excavation under the famous Greenbrier Hotel. I have written before that when I was in elementary school, we actually had bomb drills with all of us climbing down under our desks.

Well, the Russians didn’t bomb, nor did they come.

Our concept of that threat was one nation attacking another nation.

Over time, the threats have changed---dramatically.

We do not currently have any nation that worries us much. But there are a growing number of clubs, angry groups, religious fanatics who hate us. And they have the money and the training to seriously concern.

For years the citizens of the nation of Israel have faced the fact that just going to the grocery store, boarding a bus, or going to a club could result in their dying in a terror attack.

Recently we have seen this type of fear spreading across the world. One angry man can bring down on us the worst of consequences. A group of angry people working on a subway or airport or sport arena can easily kill many of us.

I am sad to say that the new way to make political statements is beginning to occur in many places in the world, but the primary target will ultimately be the United States of America.

We cannot guard against this. We can only try to learn about the plans before they are activated. More than ever, we will need to depend on the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the National Guard, various state militias, and local police.

I find it interesting that at this moment all of those organizations, in one degree or another, have been called to task. They are not feeling much love from the American people or the American press.

Did it occur to any of my readers that this might just be an integral part of the enemy’s plan?

At the end of the day, Americans have few places they can look to for protection. Are they always right? Are they faultless? Of course not. But there is a much more disturbing reality that all of us need to keep foremost in our mind.

Those hostages this week in Australia went in for a morning cup of coffee. Sixteen hours later two of them were dead, a number injured, and all probably emotionally changed.  And you know this is not the only recent incident.

The world has changed rapidly. The way we look at the world and at our country has to keep up with the change in the threat.

Breaking Bread

                                          Breaking Bread

Lately my wife has been accusing me of overfeeding our dog. The dog does not get weighed at home but women have this sort of special way of eyeballing things they think are getting larger.

In any event, Lucy and I continued our hidden habit of enjoying Biscotti with our coffee in the morning.

Recently Lucy has been limping and not as active as she usually is so I was the designated driver to take her to the veterinarian. I have done this hundreds of times.

Was I concerned? No.

Should  I have been concerned? Yes.

At the appointed hour Lucy and I head out to my SUV and I open the back and tell her to hop in. She looked at me like I had just suggested she grab a couple Sherpas and head up Mt. Everest or whichever mountain the Sherpas work these days.

I begged.

I cajoled.

I offered treats.

Nothing worked. So it is now obvious I am going to be late for the appointment and I am going to have to lift her into the car.

This would be a good time to admit my wife’s weight estimating eyes are in good working order. After four attempts to lift the dog off the ground and into the car, I was on the ground panting for breath.

One decision was made right on the spot No more Biscotti for either of us. I grabbed my cell, called my wife at work and gave her two choices: come at once and help me with getting the dog to the vet or pick what is behind Door #2 which will be taking me to the emergency room.

She picked the first choice. Between us we got Lucy into my wife’s car, which has a lower threshold.

So there I was, driving down life’s highways and byways, trying to avoid the exit ramps, when I arrive at the vet. Lucy makes the rounds of all the trees and stumps trying to find one not yet marked by another dog, and in we go. My vet always weighs the dog first thing.

Oh boy. And I have to tell my wife.

All went pretty well. The dog is under house arrest and not allowed to run around and play and the two of us are on diets.

After a nice lunch I decided to bake some bread. I get this urge 2-3 times a year. The one thing I have learned from bad past experiences is that you better have good yeast. So I go to the store looking through hundreds of packets of yeast all of which clearly state: best used by November 20^th. It being December 2^nd I bring this matter to the attention of the cashier who, at my request, brings it to the attention of the manager. I tell them they have hundreds of packets of yeast that are past their “use by” date and I would like them to open a new box, filled with healthy yeast.

It was around then that that the manager held up the packet of yeast and request I consider that the “use by” date of November 20 was followed by 2015.

Back to the house. Lay out all the tools for making bread. Happy, happy, happy to have good yeast. I do all the work. Everything gets mixed just right. Then I get to read the paper while the yeast does its thing, something called rising. When next I look at the bread it will have grown twice the size it had been and will have little bubbles.

Nope.

My yeast didn’t rise. I cannot think of any excuse other than maybe I wasn’t supposed to use it UNTIL NOVEMBER 20,2015.

Anyway I soldiered on. Clearly I was going to have a hamburger size loaf of bread but I was going to eat it anyway. So every 15 minutes I am kneading it, covering it, and wishing it well until we get to the final step, put it on the cookie sheet, sprits the top, and let that baby brown for about 25 minutes.

I head back to the newspaper in the living room. After about 10 minutes my ADT alarm is going off. I look up and the house is filling rapidly with smoke. I race to the kitchen and try to put in the code that says “don’t send every poor fireman in town to my house cause it really is not on fire.” Well, that isn’t one of the ADT choices. Their choice is to assume your house is burning down, send the fire department and then call you to see if you are breathing.

Since I had put down all the storm windows I couldn’t find any way to get rid of the smoke. In the meantime, red lights were flashing out in front of the house. The dog was barking, not because of the smoke or the sore leg, she just didn’t like the red lights. I am frantically entering the STOP CODE for ADT. But their equipment in India or whatever banana republic has people who work for 24 cents an hour keeps telling them FIRE FIRE FIRE.

In the meantime the three firemen who are now in my house could not be more helpful. I learn they have a mega fan that sucks smoke right out of your house. They were kind enough to tell me that  while it is sucking smoke out it is sucking cold air back in. I asked them if it might be able to make bread rise but they were not amused.

But the guy in India must have gotten the news because the alarm stopped.

Immediately I get a call from my wife who is at work. Seems they called her when they couldn’t get me and she was tasked to see whether I was still walking above ground and taking nourishment or whether I looked more like a corn fritter.

I learned in college that the best writers always leave some mystery at the end of their stories. So here is mine: just exactly what do you think I am going to do with that damn bread?

The Mystery of the Disappearing Turkey

NOTES OF CONCERN…

   …Jack Blair

                 The Mystery of the Disappearing Turkey

It is the day after Thanksgiving.

You are probably either wishing you had not eaten so much or you are sleeping on the floor of an airport hoping they will get you rebooked on a flight home.

But these are not the worst consequences of Thanksgiving. You see, every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the nation suffers a serious shortage of turkeys. For as long as these records have been maintained there is a sudden and significant drop in the turkey population on that one day.

This has gotten so out of hand that the people who have been worried about how the horned owl might be disturbed by a new pipeline or how the quick brown fox has been required to jump over the lazy dog for so many years, a clear example of animal cruelty, are holding a convention early next November to see if  picketing anyone seen leaving a grocery store with a dead turkey, shaming them all, might result in fewer disappearances of these noble birds. In some cities people concerned about turkeys actually break windows and take a new television just to show the depth of their rage about turkeys.

The regal turkey caught the attention of a Founding Father, Ben Franklin, who pressed often to have the turkey named the national bird. Ben lost out to the Eagle crowd.

He knew he was finished when they pointed out that while the beautiful eagle soared in the air and had talons for fishing the lowly turkey was too fat to fly, even though it often tried. And then there was the fact that many turkeys looked skyward during storms and often drowned. Franklin’s opponents essentially stamped STUPID on the forehead of every turkey and that is why they have that red ribbon hanging down over their forehead, to hid the STUPID mark.

I am hoping we can get some psychological help for turkeys. They have a serious inferiority complex and they have a bad case of “the shakes” early every November. Lots of scientists have been trying to determine why this happens but so far they have ruled out Parkinsons because the shaking turkeys that are examined in January seem miraculously cured.

I continue to hope we can turn this scarcity of turkeys in November around. There could be a Nobel Prize in it for the person who solves the mystery.

LET'S JUST CANCEL 2015

NOTES OF CONCERN…

   …Jack Blair

                                LET’S JUST CANCEL 2015

2014 was a disaster!

What a year.

It will be over in one month and it was packed with lots of charges, countercharges, political campaigns, non-stop ridiculous political advertisements, political signs on every spare piece of land along highways in 50 states, robocalls, unwanted mail, unwanted email, tons of unsupported speculation, and non stop television talk shows.

America needs a little breathing room.

So I suggest we cancel 2015.

This is a bold and unprecedented idea and I don’t know how it will affect global warming, the oceans, or even the required reprinting of calendars.

What I do know is that 2016 will be worse than 2014 and we have to give ourselves a chance to gird up for what is coming.

 There will be battles royal in 2016. Every Tom, Dick and Hillary who want to be president will be running up a gazillion frequent flier miles, reaching out to us in every possible way to get our support, personal and financial.

Whatever we experienced in 2014 will be multiplied in 2016.

In 2014 I received more email from my new friend Jeanne Shaheen than from my closest friends. She wanted to keep me informed of her love of New Hampshire. She wanted me to know how important I was to her campaign and to the future of New Hampshire. She assured me the Democrat party of New Hampshire considered me vital to the election.

Friends, I am a registered Republican and I live in Massachusetts.

 I never contacted Senator Shaheen. If I had been allowed to vote in New Hampshire, which is surely illegal, I would have voted for Scott Brown. So what stars aligned to make Senator Shaheen my pen pal? I have no idea.

Equally confusing is that I never heard from Scott Brown.

He didn’t reach out once. Since he undoubtedly knew a guy from Massachusetts cannot vote in New Hampshire he just strengthened his bona fides with me as a man who had a clue as to how to operate.

So since President Obama plans to make all sorts of decisions before the end of the year by executive fiat, without consulting Congress, I am writing to him and suggesting he cancel 2015. He could hide it in some other more important Executive Action and it might just slide by.

Actually, 2015 isn’t looking too friendly for Obama so he might see merit to my suggestion. If he cancels 2015 there can be no government shutdowns, no impeachment bills introduced, no time for Boehner and McConnell to beat up on him, and 12 quiet non-existent months to play golf without being noticed.

This could turn into a popular movement. It has a hidden benefit-all of us would be a year younger the rest of our lives.

The Best Laid Plans

The  Best Laid Plans

I planned a trip to North Carolina recently to visit with my cousin and some old friends. It was to be seven days in peaceful, scenic Pinehurst/Southern Pines. I was really looking forward to it.

It was not to be.

I drove into Boston on a Saturday and realized it was so much easier to fly on a day that did not involve fighting commuters on their way to work. Arriving at Logan Airport I followed the signs to the Economy Parking Garage.

This is the new name for what used to be called Long Term Parking, which then was a euphemism for “about as far away from the terminal as you can get.”  Now the new “Economy Parking” is a euphemism for “we are going to construct parking spaces as far away from the terminal as possible but close enough that we can still charge you $20 a day.”

I parked the car and got on a shuttle bus that treated me to a complete loop of the airport, visiting each of the terminals, until finally we arrived at my stop. My advice to fellow travelers is to give yourself a full extra hour just for this portion of your adventure.

I got into line to go through security. It was a huge line. While I was standing there I noticed another line that had only three people. It had a sign with a little symbol. I looked at my boarding pass and the symbol was on my pass. So I worked my way back out of the long line and went to the uncrowded line. I looked closer at the sign and saw that anyone over 75 could use this line. Well, I am a little long in the tooth, but not yet over 75, so I asked why I was treated to this privilege. Absolutely no one I asked had any idea, they just smiled and sent me on my way. I was through that check-in and security clearance in a New York second! It was wonderful. I passed all the people in the long lines, had my own screener, did not have to take out my laptop, remove my belt or shoes, just scurry through and on to my gate.

I never applied for any special treatment.

I never paid a fee for a fast trip through security.

I am not over 75.

But whatever put me there, it was a good sign that the trip was going to be great.

It was not to be.

I boarded my plane. Had a nice flight down to the Raleigh/Durham airport. I was met by my friend and his wife and we drove to their home. It happened to be their anniversary so we went out for a lovely dinner and then retired for the evening.

That was it folks.

The beginning and the end of a fine planned vacation.

Next day I awoke with a cold. I wasn’t worried. Midday my friend’s wife got a call that required she leave for a family emergency and drive to Indianapolis. So our planned week together changed drastically. My cold got worse.

The following day my friend got a call that his sister-in-law had passed away in Ohio. This news put him in an understandable funk as he tried to determine what his plans would now need to be. My cold got really worse.

I got to see my cousin briefly each day. But he is ill and in rehabilitation facility and I was worried about visiting him in my condition. We grabbed some time each day but it was not what it would have been if I had been well. We have visited often and each visit has been memorable but I felt lousy, he felt lousy and my friend felt lousy. The cold now involved laryngitis, post nasal drip, watery eyes and a painful chest cough.

As the days dragged on with me sleeping less and coughing more I finally got to Wednesday. I was scheduled to fly back to Boston on Thursday. There was no way I was getting on a plane with this head cold.

That began the negotiating with the airline. When you buy your non-refundable ticket you are pretty certain nothing can go wrong.

Illness can happen.

They wanted a fee of $200 to let me change my return flight from Thursday to Saturday. I spent an entire day. I spoke to my doctor. I spoke to a second doctor. I spoke to the airline. The bottom line was that if my doctor spoke to the airline they would only charge me $50 for their inconvenience. The cold got worse.

My friend and I spent most of our time in the family room. He watched television while I hacked and wheezed.

The cold started to run its course. I wasn’t completely well but I felt OK to fly. He took me to the airport. I was relieved to be heading home. I had enough Sudafed in me to qualify me for an alumni trip to  Hippie convention.

We boarded on time.

The flight wasn’t overly full.

We left the gate on time.

And then we sat on the runway while maintenance came out to handle an unlatched door problem. This door led to the emergency lighting system. They had opened it when a signal indicated it might not be working. They found everything in order but then they couldn’t shut the door.

Who knew that an airplane could fly with an open door on the exterior of the plane? Well, that reassuring news was given us by the pilot along with the less happy news that to do so meant they would have to fly at a much slower speed and that our 90 minute flight would now take over two hours, added to the wait time on the runway.

We took off and the flight attendant passed out pretzels, about 12 of them. This was an improvement because on the flight down I got about 6 pretzels the size of a quarter. Now I had 12 but my sharp eye noticed these were called mini-pretzels and they were about the size of a dime.

Landed in Boston.

Took another whole airport tour by bus on my way to Economy Parking. The cost of my economy parking was $140. The cost of my two day delay of trip was $50. The cost of the air ticket was about $300. The cost of the Sudafed was about $10. But Oh Happy Day, the pretzels were free, both ways.

Change or No Change

                        CHANGE or NO CHANGE

I am sure most of my readers have heard the phrase “practice makes perfect.” If you are like me, you probably didn’t know where that originated. I was curious and looked it up and found that it had various uses in Greek time but was introduced first in the United States in the “Autobiography of John Adams.”

The thrust of this admonition I think means that if you keep doing things over and over, you will improve, and at some point you will perfect that skill.

I know this is true because I am not a walker. I am much more a couch potato. However, when I was away a couple summers ago on an island for three months, I started walking my dogs every day. First day I tired after about a quarter mile. So I walked a quarter mile for about a week and then ventured forth a little farther along the path. Each week, I ventured further. By the end of the summer, I was easily walking six miles a day.

Now for you runners or serious athletes, that might not seem like much of an accomplishment but for me, it was Olympic Medal work!

Of course I didn’t keep it up over the winter, and when I returned to the island, I could walk only a mile.

Perhaps the moral of this story is that if you stop practicing, you have to start again at square one.

Many of my readers have probably also read at one time or another Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

I understand what he was saying, too, even though it seems to contradict Adams. Einstein was saying through trial and error one finds his way to the answer. If you try one approach and it fails and you make no changes in that approach, why would you expect anything but failure?  You will have to try many things before you may happen on the best answer.

I resolve these differences, using my examples, to mean that if I had kept walking only a quarter of a mile, I would not have known one day I could walk six miles.  But repeating my little accomplishment and then forging on in an attempt to see if I could do better rewarded me rewarded with success.

  

Doing the same thing again and again without change may equate with insanity, but making minor modifications or even small attempts at improvement can produce very good results.

Semantics

SEMANTICS

In the days of World War I and World War II people lived in a more straightforward America. As a student of history I had occasion to read many accounts of the “great wars” and it was evident to me that the American government and the American people acted in concert and with great patriotism and a pride in basic honesty.

In those days they agreed America was good.

They saw America as an example for the world. And interestingly, many other peoples in other nations saw America that way, too.

When bad things were happening in far away places America could, and did, make the difference. And the difference we made was for something good. And other nations were grateful and admiring of our character.

Because of this sentiment young men raced to the recruiting offices to be part of the cavalry America was sending to save the day. Bunting was hung in windows. Families with servicemen were honored and respected.

George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin and other composers were busy writing patriotic songs such as “Over There,” and “Keep the Home Fires Burning.”

Over there, over there,

Send the word, send the word over there

That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming

The drums rum-tumming everywhere.

So prepare, say a prayer,

Send the word, send the word to beware -

We'll be over, we're coming over,

And we won't come back till it's over, over there.

And we adopted some patriotic music from our friends in Britain to stoke the fires of our own nation, such as the following from Ivor Novello, the British composer:

Keep the Home Fires Burning,

While your hearts are yearning.

Though your lads are far away

They dream of home.

There's a silver lining

Through the dark clouds shining,

Turn the dark cloud inside out

'Til the boys come home.

And when the boys did come home they were greeted as they came off the ships, feted in their own hometowns, honored with parades small and large.

More importantly, they were celebrated throughout their lives with national holidays and times of remembrance.

Lets fast forward to today.

The ground under our feet has steadily shifted.

Many Americans don’t like America. They are critical openly.

In the intervening years the nature of war has changed and the instant communications possibilities have made conducting wars very difficult, never more obvious than when reporters were imbedded with our service people.

There has been very little unanimity about our foreign engagements. In fact there have been marches, riots and the public damning of almost all our involvements in foreign wars, which are now called actions, or internal revolutions, or by other appellations designed to pretend they are somehow different from what we used to call a “war.”  We even attempted to put a good face on some actions by labeling them an “Arab Spring.” We can call our involvements, interventions and just plain meddling whatever we want but we all know exactly what they are.

In these more modern incidents the young men, and young women, have not been racing to enlist so that America could put on a white hat, mount a white steed and rush to the aide of our friends. On some occasions, the rushing that was being done was to Canada, to avoid participation.

With the elimination of the draft we have changed drastically the type of person who serves in our military. Instead of a cross section of America we have what we have called a more “professional” army. To some extent we have lost the patriotic ardor that went with being part of a noble cause.

And “war” has become a word much less used. Now we have conflicts. We have missions. We stand more on the outskirts of skirmishes while providing materiel in the form of planes, guns and bombs to other people who actually do the fighting.

We have gone from transparency in world affairs to playing a role much more like the Wizard of Oz hiding behind the big curtain.

As Americans we are seldom united the way we were in the past. Our sense of national pride has been torn apart by internal disputes and political bickering.

When was the last time we came together as a people, a people who knew in their hearts America was good and was capable of leading and of vanquishing foes of good?

One could argue the world is a very different place. And that would be a fair statement.

But does that require a lessening of appropriate national pride?

Should it encourage us to be less demanding that good should prevail over bad? Must we pretend to be something we are not?

We don’t really send armies any more to fight evil. We send advisors. As I was writing this piece the president announced he was sending 474 more advisors to the Middle East. Why don’t we just say we are doing a troop buildup? Because we cannot as we have previously said we are withdrawing.

This is just a pretense to calm the people and to suggest we are not engaged. Well, if you take the time to read beyond the headline you find that the advisors we send often number in the hundreds and occasionally in the thousands.

And their uniform is not the Brooks Brothers suit and they are not carrying briefcases.  When someone actually captures a picture of an advisor he is usually in a camouflage uniform and carrying a pretty impressive rifle.

And when they come home there are no parades.

And while they are there no one is writing songs to keep those of us at home wound up and proud.

Not too long ago we were told “al Qaida is on the run.”  We were told that ISIS was a “JV team” not to concern us.  We were told Bashir Assad was a very bad guy just last year. Last week we were considering partnering with him against ISIS.

Sir Walter Scott could well have written his famous quote today: 'Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive'?

We are not the once proud nation of our past. We are not the beacon on the hill to the rest of the world. And as we have gone down this path of covert operation, infiltration, nation building (or tearing down) we have less respect for ourselves and much less respect around the world.

The future is not promising.

It would be hard to regain what we had in our hearts while fighting in WWI and WWII. True national pride seems to be slipping away. It can be argued that future disagreements may well be decided by technology not boots on the ground, If so, the nation with the best technology, the most advanced computers will rule the world.

Many see this as the natural progression of history.

I have a strong preference for the way we used to do it. 

Give me an Irving Berlin again:

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea, 
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free, 
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, 
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. " 



“God Bless America, 
Land that I love. 
Stand beside her, and guide her 
Thru the night with a light from above. 
From the mountains, to the prairies, 
To the oceans, white with foam 
God bless America, My home sweet home    

Maligning Our Pets

MALIGNING OUR PETS

Man’s best friend is widely believed to be the dog.  Running a close second is the cat.

Dogs are faithful companions, great sympathizers, always up for a romp,  eager for road trips and there are so many more accolades that could be listed. Cats want to snuggle and entertain and keep themselves immaculately clean.

But for some reason dogs and cats get a bad wrap by the wordsmiths.

There are those “dog days of summer.”

There are those over read books that are “dog eared.”

Some people look like “dogs.”

But they also get a few kudos, too.

As in “he was dogged in his pursuit of the goal.”

And then there are the sly, slinky, nine-lives felines.

Somehow the idea of getting a “cat nap” just doesn’t seem reasonable to me. Long naps are good. Short naps are, well, short.

I have two cats. They nap all the time unless they are eating or mousing. No short naps for these cats. So where does “cat nap” come from?

Then there is one of my favorite descriptive words: cattywampus.

I was at a board meeting one day and the guy at the end of the table was wearing a toupee. Somehow it went cattywampus on his head, which means askew or not quite right. Of course he did not know he had cattywampus hair but you could see the smiles appearing on faces around the table and I feel certain he wondered what was going on.

The derision of being cattywampus comes into play in many situations.

Ever drive down a highway right after they painted the white line in the middle?  Almost always someone drives over the paint and skews the line, bringing it to a cattywampus state.

Then there is the perhaps more commonly used phrase: catty corner.  When houses are diagonally across from one another it is said they are “catty corner from each other.”

When the secretaries in the steno pool are whispering about someone’s bad taste in clothes we say they are being “catty.”

And how about the “catwalk.”

There is something sexist here because the catwalk is where the female models show off a designer’s new clothes. So it certainly does not refer to the actual stage, but rather sexily to the “cats,” or the models themselves (no “dogs” there!)

There are many examples of wordsmiths taking in vain the noble qualities of dogs and cats. It just isn’t fair. I think we need to stop it.

My Labrador Retriever Lucy and my cats Maggie and Toby think this could be a movement.

I challenge each of you who agree dogs and cats should not be used to describe unfortunate situations to go outside right now and dump a 50# bag of Purina pet food over your head while standing in a dog dish filled with water.

Have someone film this and put it online. It will go viral. And you will have made your statement.

Then go back inside and pet your dog or cat.

They will thank you for it.

And by the way, Lucy, Maggie and Toby send along their thanks, too.

HAVE WE NOT LEARNED?

NOTES OF CONCERN…

    …Jack Blair

                     Have We Not Learned

One cannot look beyond the borders of our individual communities without witnessing turmoil. Tumultuous events occur both within and outside the borders of our nation. Some of them will never touch us personally; others will be very personal.  Too many are cause for future personal concern.

Internationally, dictators and despots have learned how to push our national button. Most recently, a nice young man serving as a reporter was beheaded on film. It outrages us, as it should. But in that same month terrorists were beheading people all over the Middle East to show their determination that everyone would join their effort or be considered a spy.

Since our President’s speech on Syria, which seems so long ago, 190,000 Syrians have died.

People in Israel and those who follow Hamas are dying at at significant rate, but saddest of all there is no resolution in sight.

Over my lifetime I have always assumed our government held a lot of information back that would be scary to the common citizen. Yet this week the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said publically that we have never faced a greater threat of attack on the homeland and that our enemies were not only living abroad but were people from our own country and the countries of our allies who could easily return to conduct internal terror.

Well if my old theory is correct, I can only wonder what the government is holding back from us now as it would appear the answer might be nothing.

Internally, we continue to have a battle between big financial institutions and the regulating government. Neither the banks  nor the government has done a very good job, and it seems that the financial crisis is going to have, as they say in the insurance business, a long tail.

Race still plays a big role in America. In some ways, the election of our first black president has simply made it more obvious. These last two weeks I have heard arguments that the percentage of white and black police officers should represent the percentage of citizens of color in the town. Same for jury selections. Those suggestions set back what Dr. King sought, a race blind America. The number of people of any color, including white, should not be a consideration. The selection of the best-qualified people for police forces, juries or jobs of any kind should be the rule.  If a case can be made that prejudice exists and is proven then that is a matter for the legal authorities.

 I feel bad that the Reverend Martin Luther King and his associates, admired by so many people, would never and did never condone riots, pillaging and looting in response to what was perceived as white indifference to their plight. It is as if nothing was learned from the historic civil rights movement. Gandhi’s movement further informed minorities on how best to win equality.

Tear gas, smoke bombs, and riot clubs are not far removed from the powerful water hoses and snarling dogs from our civil rights history. But by protesting quietly and orderly the protesters brought to the attention of the American people just what was really happening.

Today, after all the successes that led to a black president and a black attorney general, what message is being sent by current rioting behavior? It will gain little sympathy. After all these years we need to remember the success of Dr. King’s approach and the gains made in all walks of life for minorities since then.

Have we learned nothing?

Have we not learned that America is safest when she is strong?

Have we not learned that unsecured borders become a welcome mat for the terror that some want to bring down on us?  

Have we not learned that protests can be peaceful and still bring about change?

Time to revisit the history books.

IT'S MENTAL

 IT’S MENTAL !

Most of us know someone who is bi-polar, depressed, has panic attacks, suffers from a fear of heights or some other “mental” illness.

When someone has a heart attack, we know which organ is troubled and which doctors can fix it. Same for a stroke. If a leg is broken, the orthopedist treats it. If our back “goes out,” our doctor gives us muscle relaxants or our chiropractor adjusts the back.

But when you are just feeling bad, emotionally drained, without hope or happiness for days, months, or years, most people put off getting help, and some never seek it because for many it has been seen as a sign of weakness. It is thought the victim just can’t man-up or woman-up and grab control of his or her life.

Why anyone would see an illness of the mind as different from a heart attack or a stroke or a broken bone I have never understood. It is the callousness of the masses of ignorant people that serve as the foundation of the fear of mentioning or treating our bad feelings.

Some of this attitude can be laid directly at the feet of insurance companies and employers. For a very long time, company insurance did not treat bad feelings the way they treated all other human medical conditions. If they provided coverage at all, it was much reduced from what was provided for other illnesses.

Further, in the world of work, any sort of mental or emotional weakness was frowned upon. If you were recovered from a heart attack, the human resource interviewer would not give it a thought. Conversely, if you mentioned on your application or in the course of a pre-employment physical that you had been treated for depression, or panic attack or had a bi-polar disorder, good luck-no job offer coming your way.

As I recall, when I was a youngster, not a great deal was known about the illness of bad feelings. In those days doctors tended to use electric shock therapy, and it was very unpleasant. When it was displayed in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, many people had their first encounter with electric shock therapy.

With the development of better medicines to bring bad feelings under better control, and with a better public understanding of illnesses of the mind, and with more of us actually knowing someone who has been stricken with bad feelings, I think the curse of the bad feelings disease has lessened a great deal.

There is no intention in this column to address the many different types of mental illness that can afflict people. I am talking here primarily about depression. And I should point out that I am talking about serious long term depression not short term impression that might be suffered at the loss of a job, a parent or a child. Those are  known as situational depression.

Bad feelings don’t respond quickly to medication. There is a long trial and error period in finding the right combination of pharmaceuticals. We as a people are not very patient. We like quick fixes. So the very nature of trying new drugs over a long period of time without good result adds to the problem.

Very few people commit suicide because they have required heart surgery or had a dislocated shoulder treated or had to take pain killers for their back. However, some people commit suicide when they have the affliction of unending depression.

We have all recently read of the suicide of comedian Robin Williams. Most of us who knew him from his work would have imagined he lived a wonderful life devoid of demons. We now know that was not so. He was heavily in debt. He was in rehab for substance abuse. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.He was on his third marriage. And his career was in decline. He was a person filled with bad feelings. And he chose not to live one more day that way. Yet while successful treatment might be years away it also might have been days away. I wish he had been able to be more patient.

Keep in mind that Williams was seeing a doctor, presumably a psychiatrist, because he had recently been in rehab. We can also assume he was prescribed medications thought to be helpful. I read that he was faced with bankruptcy, but a man with his talent, even with the disease of depression, could have found a way to make money if he had been able to think straight. So I think we can fairly categorize Williams as someone for whom the right combination of drugs and therapy had not yet been found. Had he been able to tolerate living a little longer with depression, he might have been saved.

So let us recommit to trying harder to recognize bad feelings in those around us. A lot of understanding and encouragement to not give up hope might actually save a life.

Encourage people suffering from bad feelings to get a physical exam from their personal physician and ask for referral to a psychologist or psychiatrist for evaluation. Their doctor will not find this an unusual request, and the referral will come easily. Once the depression, or bi-polar, or panic attack is properly diagnosed, then the patient will be on the road, albeit a long one perhaps, to getting back to the condition of feeling good.

The Supremes Sing Again

THE SUPREMES SING AGAIN


The Constitution we all purport to love and support and cherish sets up a Supreme Court and arranges that it be an uneven  number of Justices so that tie votes are unlikely.

Then it was arranged that only the president could appoint a new justice. And just to be certain he did not get carried away his appointment requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate to ensure really potentially great jurists rise to that coveted spot.

You do not have to hold a graduate degree in political science to understand that when a liberal president appoints a liberal judge and gets the appointment approved in a liberal Senate there is great joy in the hearts of those Americans of the liberal persuasion.

When a conservative president appoints a conservative judge who is confirmed by a conservative Senate there is great joy in the hearts of those Americans of the conservative persuasion.

Since a president as well as everyone of the Senators are elected by the people of The United States of America to represent their own political philosophies it is an essential truth that the court typically represents the philosophical feeling of the American voters. History shows us that this swings back and forth over time.

This was intended and those with a long view of American history understand that essentially the conservative or liberal philosophy of the court represents traditionally the prevailing philosophy of the voters.

An appointment to the court is for life. So depending on the longevity of any particular appointee to the court it is possible for the court to lean liberal or conservative until a vacancy occurs. This permits the court for a short period of time not to reflect the philosophy of any sitting president who has failed to have a chance to make appointments. This situation occurs equally often between presidencies so in the end it tends to continue to guarantee overall fairness.

There have been occasions when a judge has been elevated to the Supreme Court by a president who thinks the judge is liberal (or a conservative president who thinks the judge is conservative) and after getting the approval of the Senate for their lifetime appointment their views change. Personally, I think this is not related to subterfuge but rather to experiencing the high level of intellectual and judicial argument that occurs among the nine Justices and finding one’s own philosophy changing over time. This might be viewed as “growth.”

There is no way to guard against these occasional hiccups in the process the Founders envisioned.

Why then when a court reaches a judgment on an issue a petitioner brings before it do people get so outraged. Many Americans simply do not understand that the court cannot broaden the issue brought to them for a decision. There is a petition brought to the court, often quite narrow and specific, and they rule on that. They do not offer a ruling with reference to peripheral issues that might be impacted. If an American wishes a ruling on peripheral issues they must bring their own brief to the court.

Regarding the two most recent and seemingly controversial rulings, only one of them deserves any attention at all and that is the one known as the Hobby decision. The court split 5-4 on this ruling.

Obviously, there were different views. Since there was a majority, albeit a one vote majority, the decision is the settled law of the land. Since this case involved moral issues it was interesting to me that the three women of the court were in the minority and the five Catholic justices were in the majority. That was of interest to me personally because it suggests that the Catholic church’s position may have influenced the Catholic Justices and the impact on women probably influenced the three female Justices. Conversely, I have no idea what motivated the single Protestant Justice!

Lots of people are writing about this as a liberal vs conservative thing with the swing Justice siding this time with the conservatives. He often sides with the liberals so I can not get to upset over this one.

Of greater interest to me was the unanimous decision of the Supremes that President Obama overstepped his constitutional authority in his recess appointments. Rarely is the court unanimous on anything. So it is fair to say that this decision had nothing to do with liberal vs conservative. Even the justices appointed by the sitting president voted against him.

So at the end of the day there are controversial decisions and non-controversial decisions and it will ever be thus.

I think the greatest liberal Justice is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I think the greatest conservative Justice is Antonin Scalia.

One can only imagine the verbal maneuvering between the two of them when the Justices sit together to discuss their decisions. But since the Ginsburgs and Scalias are reported to be very close socially, they are clearly able to see a difference between political philosophy built over a lifetime of experience and social camaraderie. They can, and do, respect each others intellect and probably enjoy the verbal sparring. Neither find it necessary to demonize the other because of differences in philosophy.

Would it be that the rest of us could be like them.

TANT PIS

TANT PIS


The French came up with this wonderful expression.

Merriam Webster defines it as:

“so much the worse :  too bad”


I don’t know when or how the French use this word, but my guess is that it would in their situation relate to bad food or drink! They may have used it when the Germans came in to occupy France during the world war. I imagine they used it when they learned their president had a mistress and a spare a couple months ago.

I think it has perfect applicability to the situation in which we Americans find ourselves today. So I write to suggest that we take it up as sort of a rallying cry every time we are treated to yet another ridiculous government decision.

Not too long ago I wrote a piece on the word KERFUFFLE. Many readers enjoyed  that and emailed me. So today I decided to offer up another word to add to your vocabulary.

It is a nice, short response.

It is fun to say.

It catches a listener off guard.

Readers, we have a chance to start a groundswell movement in our reaction to what we have caused in today’s world.  Let us give it a try.

When you are out and about the next few weeks and someone relates to you yet another unfortunate world situation in which our country seems to have played her hand badly, respond “tant pis!” For instance...

We will not send boots on the ground to Iraq. We will send advisors. I saw a picture of three of the advisors we sent in a leading newspaper the other day. I expected Brooks Brothers suits, round intellectual-like  glasses, and wing tip shoes. These three were in camouflage outfits and carrying serious-looking weapons, wearing helmets, and carefully searching the street around them. And they certainly were wearing boots that were, in fact, touching the ground!

TANT PIS

We encouraged those Syrian rebels to overthrow their leader. We said if the leader didn’t step down, we had a “red line” in the sand, and he would be sorry. Well, the red line disappeared, the leader is still very much in power, and the other day the president committed millions to aid the rebels. Most pundits think it is too little, too late.

TANT PIS

I read a report in a newspaper recently demonstrating that most of the new jobs created over the last many years actually went to illegals.

TANT PIS

The President couldn’t get the advice and consent of the Congress, which is required by law, so he appointed the folks he wanted to government positions in what are called “recess” appointments. Now, recess appointments are permitted under some strict guidelines. Evidently the President constructed his own guidelines. The matter went to the Supreme Court, and the verdict announced this week was unanimous. The appointments violated the Constitution and were null and void. The president said he would continue to make recess appointments because Congress doesn’t play well with him.

TANT PIS

Well let’s cut the “Prez” some slack and move into some other areas deserving of tant pis responses. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a moment of unclear thinking made the statement that she and Bill Clinton were “dead broke” when they left The White House. Technically, she may well have been right, but they did leave with multi-million dollar book writing contracts, and they both signed with speaking bureaus (the speaking fees alone of the former President exceed one hundred million dollars in a decade.) So it was difficult for normal Americans to find sympathy for Hill and Bill. She has spent the best part of the last week trying to back pedal on that statement.

TANT PIS

Evidently no one wants to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars to hear what George W. Bush might want to say so he has taken up painting. One of his first oils was of himself in the bathtub. I don’t think Sotheby's or the Louvre have shown much interest in his painting talent.

TANT PIS

Speaking of Bushes, the 90 year-old Parkinson's sufferer confined mostly to a wheel chair these days, George H.W. Bush, decided to celebrate by sky diving. He jumped out of a plane, opened his parachute, and landed safely. At his age, I don’t think he was looking for publicity; I think he actually likes that kind of stuff. He was well known both to the Secret Service and visiting heads of state to rev up his cigarette boat on the waters off Walker’s Point in Maine and slice through the ocean at breakneck speed. Yet somehow, his political opponents tagged him with the “wimp factor.”

TANT PIS

A Tea Party candidate down in Mississippi, attempting to unseat the incumbent Republican Senator in the Republican primary found that some of his supporters read up on Nixon’s reported “dirty tricks squad” and sent a guy with a camera into a nursing home to photograph the Senator's seriously ailing wife. That backfired, probably cost the Tea Party a win over the Senator, and led to the photographer taking his own life, probably as a result of the worldwide backlash that greeted such egregious behavior. Then the Tea Party candidate, in a show of zero class, refused to concede the election and promised to fight on, proving the people of Mississippi probably made the right decision in that primary.

TANT PIS

Valerie Jarrett, Special Assistant to the President and the Chicago woman who gave Michelle Obama her first job, is the real ghost of The White House. Although she is not in the cabinet, is not well known to the American people, rarely is covered by the press, she occupies the office in the West Wing previously occupied by Karl Rove. And she has a staff reputed to be around 27 people. She regularly is a guest in the family quarters, and she has survived four Chiefs of Staff during the Obama reign. Want to get the president’s attention? Best get Valerie on it.

TANT PIS

I have to stop writing now and head out to introduce this new word to my circle of friends.

TANT PIS

Reallocation of Population

Reallocation of Population


The good ole US of A has become very popular of late with tourists from the slums of Mexico and the wrong sides of towns in South and Latin America.

We must be doing something right.

They are pouring in. Some run across a border that it appears the President has decided not to defend. Others are arriving in box cars attached to trains.
Border guards are angry and confused.

We are talking thousands of illegals here, friends. Some of them, in fact recently most of them, are young children.

If the news reports are to be believed, our government--out of the kindness of our tax paying hearts--is providing these folks a box lunch, a change of clothes, and I suppose some other sort of “welcome to America.” Then the newbies are left on their own. News reports have them sleeping at bus terminals, camping out, sharing a combination of being grateful to be here and wondering what is next.

I have lived long enough to know that each of us American taxpayers has a growing family to care for and feed. Whatever you now spend on your natural family, your taxes have to be used to care for thousands more than last year. And, of course, if this continues, thousands more for the remainder of the administration’s time in office.

You may be living in a state far from the border, and you may feel insulated from this. Well, get yourself a strong cup of coffee and get ready. Sure, the first waves went to Texas and Arizona and all the usual vacation spots for illegals. But the feds are preparing to distribute them more evenly amongst us. I read the other day that some were expected to win a free trip to Massachusetts.  Maine, NH, and Vermont cannot be far behind.

Given the circumstances these folks find themselves in, they will work for next to nothing, and this will remove thousands of jobs as possibilities for currently down-on-their-luck, real U.S. citizens.  Our current unemployed survive on food stamps and unemployment payments and the good will of their fellow citizens. Whatever the size of the Federal honey pot is these days, it is now going to have to cover the needs of so many more ,and that, my friends, means less for the legal citizens currently without work in our country. The only other alternative is to raise taxes and have the rest of us cover the vacationing downtrodden. Now there is a viable idea during the huge downturn we have experienced in this country lately!

It boggles the mind that we are tolerating this. I do not understand it. For some reason, America seems tired, complacent, and ready to accept almost any government policy regardless of the wisdom or lack thereof behind it.

I was dreaming the other day in my hammock. America started with immigrants, our ancestors. They worked hard and built a pretty fine place. Maybe too fine. Everyone else wants to come here now. The current government policies, or executive actions, are turning our land into something very unfamiliar.

Maybe the answer is that we should all just take a vacation ourselves. I don’t know about you but I think Switzerland would be nice. Lets just all arrive on the shores of Europe and see if they can match the generosity we have shown our more recent visitors.

This would then leave this country to those who have newly arrived. If they wanted to survive, they would have to do what our ancestors did: work, contribute, build, and pay taxes,

I call this the Blair Project for the Reallocation of Population.

Some might call it The Blair Witch Project

AMERICAN COUP D'ETAT?

                                 AMERICAN COUP D’ETAT ?




All of us at one time or another while reading history in school have learned about Coup d’etats, “the sudden and illegal seizure of a government, usually instigated by a small group of the existing state establishment to depose the established government and replace it with a new ruling body, civil or military.” (Wikipedia) They are about as far removed from our experience living in a democracy as you could go. In my life I never gave any thought to the possibility of a coup in the United States.

So you might imagine how surprised I was to find, while reading a wonderful article written by Robert Kennedy, Jr.(son of President John Kennedy’s brother the Attorney General and later New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, in the December 2013 issue of Rolling Stone, that at least one of our presidents felt a coup might be in the works.

I will digress a moment here because most of my readers would be surprised to find me reading anything in Rolling Stone while others would wonder why I am just now, in June 2014, getting to their 2013 issue. Here is the answer: I was sitting in the doctor’s office, and unless I wanted to read about pregnancy or other female issues, I was left with a well worn copy of Rolling Stone. Happy to see an article with a political bent to  it I grabbed it up.

When the very young John F. Kennedy became president, he was following the highly-seasoned, military-oriented, fan of both the CIA and the Defense Department: General Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Eisenhower had two of his good friends helping him in the administration, both with the last name of Dulles. One was at the State Department and the other at the CIA. As we all know from history, at the time Kennedy replaced Eisenhower plans were in place to support Cubans living in the United States who would invade their own country and try to take it back from the dictator Fidel Castro.

The young new president did not fancy this plan, but he was reluctant to stop something so well along in planning and preparation. The CIA wanted it, the Defense Department wanted it, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted it. He had just entered office and must have been daunted by the unanimity that surrounded the invasion plans.

So he hesitated, and they moved forward.

As the ill-fated invasion was underway, the young new president refused to provide the air cover that would be required for it to be successful.

The invasion failed.

Kennedy, as outlined in his subsequent writings, was angry, mostly at himself for not acting on his own instincts. The Dulles at CIA was out. The Joint Chiefs were castigated. A lot of bad feelings were flowing around Washington, DC. 

In Robert Kennedy’s article he mentioned that his uncle, the president, trusted only two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and no one at the CIA. Tough spot for any president.


Let's also say that the young president was not held in great regard by the folks at CIA and Defense, Cuban Americans felt betrayed, and the retired general living at Gettysburg, PA, was not a very happy camper.

This mess was unfortunately followed by a very unsuccessful summit meeting in Europe between Kennedy and Chairman Khruschev of the USSR. The Chairman was blustery. Kennedy was sophisticated. The Chairman took his measure and probably said something like: Great. The old general/president is gone, and I now have a chance to put some pressure on this young whippersnapper. Well, in fairness, I expect Khruschev used a much stronger word than whippersnapper.

In any event, off went the Russians, hurrying along plans to load a lot of missiles onto Cuban soil ready to blast Americans into space if the Cold War ever became a Hot War.

Mostly the same advisors were collected together. to discuss this new situation in Cuba.  Most of them advised  bombing or invading Cuba. The Generals liked the idea and were probably writing little notes to one another in the Cabinet Room saying “told you so” in reference to the Bay of Pigs. The “spooks” at CIA liked the idea. They had been trying to kill Castro for years with poison, assassination, and other sundry tricks from their book of such things.

President Kennedy was willing to go to the brink, confront possible nuclear war, but he was unwilling to attack Cuba. Books written since imply that most of his advisors were in favor of a quick strike on Cuba. The president and his brother, the attorney general, worked hard through back channels to try to find a way out.

During all this, things were not going all that well in Asia, especially Vietnam and Laos.
What the CIA wanted to do and what the Joint Chiefs wanted to do was not what the president decided to do.

When the president realized that his generals were exerting pressure on him and were unhappy with his decision about the missiles in Cuba, he made an effort to see if Chairman Khruschev might be facing a similar problem in the Kremlin. It turned out that Kremlin hard liners were pushing Khruschev to rattle his sabers and nukes also.

I am not making an effort to parse what Robert Kennedy’s excellent Rolling Stone article said other than to tell you that for the first time in print, at least the first time I've seen it in print, and I read a lot of this stuff, Kennedy points out that his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, articulated a fear that if the Cuban Missile Crisis did not turn out better than the other times he failed to take the advice of the Defense Department and the CIA, he believed a Coup d’Etat could occur in the United States, where he would be removed as President by the military and that he communicated this fear to Khruschev.

The President died of an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, TX, not long thereafter.

Did America have a Coup and tell no one about it?

History continues to wrestle with what really happened in Dallas, Texas and a large number of people are unaccepting of the official reports. The truth in matters like this rarely comes out until most of the contemporaries have died. If there is a truth, other than what we have been told, my generation will not live long enough to know it.

Our Sacred Obligations

  OUR SACRED OBLIGATIONS


I am writing this column on Memorial Day.

It is always a very moving experience for me to celebrate our fellow Americans who have paid the ultimate price to protect us as well as to thank those veterans who returned home from their service.

I am not unmindful that many of those who survived their years of service returned physically or mentally wounded. For some of them, the rest of their lives included wrestling with the road to recovery and for some wrestling with the bureaucracy charged with caring for them.

I am told that problems have existed in the Veterans Administration for many years. Our current president, during his campaign for the office, identified these problems and promised to solve them.

How many Americans know that the Veterans budget is second only to the Defense budget in size. If we are allocating huge financial resources to serving the needs of our veterans, why is it not working?

One paper recently talked about millions of dollars spent on redecorating a reception area at a Veterans hospital while needy veterans were waiting weeks for appointments.

It was not so long ago that we read stories that veterans were buried in the wrong graves at Arlington Cemetery, were buried on top of each other in the same grave, and that a lot of back-up information as to names of the dead was incorrect.

Now comes news that 26 hospitals throughout the country were cooking the books. Pretending to serve vets but leaving them for long periods of time without care. Some of them died from the delay. This isn’t one problem hospital. This is systemic.

It has been my pleasure to have been asked to speak on a number of occasions on Memorial Day or Veterans Day at the Massachusetts Veteran Cemetery in Winchendon, MA. This year I felt it important to acknowledge that we are falling short of what Americans want with reference to serving our veterans and honoring those who have died.


Let us not permit our country to fail in the important task of honoring those who died for our nation and those who returned from the wars with serious physical or mental problems or to say thank you for your service to every man or woman who put their lives at risk.

Obviously we have not performed well with reference to our veterans. With such a huge budget and such a large number of people who need treatment the problem is one of management.

My message to President Obama and Secretary Shinseki: you need to INSPECT what you EXPECT.