THURSDAY, June 30, 2005

• Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announces retirement.  "Let the games begin".  One thing is certain: Senator Arlen Spector will surely complicate matters in the process of nominating and selecting a successor.   As I have said several times in my Rapid Response regarding abortion and related topics: all I seek is honesty regarding when human life begins, and due process regarding when such life can be risked or taken for cause.  Maybe this will allow the country to have a constructive debate on the most distorting and divisive national issue since slavery...but I doubt it.
• If you want to find a good summary of what the USSC did in the recently ended session, see "Major Rulings of the 2004-2005 Supreme Court term", USA Today, Wednesday, June 29, 2005, Washington, pA4.
• The Democratic Party seems stuck on tactics that resemble "The Big Lie".  For a long time, George W. Bush was just a country bumpkin.  Then he was a pretender to the Presidency, "stolen" from Algore.  Most recently but for nearly three years, "there is no connection between world terrorism, 9/11 and Iraq, and no reason for having invaded that country." Articulate; Arrogant; Asinine.  Find a transcript of President Bush's recent report to the nation and read it.  You cannot learn what he actually said in any other way, thanks to the liberal media.
• But not all Democrats belong to the AAA Club.  Mario Cuomo articulates a reasonable position on domestic economics and social policy in his article entitled "Let Good Sense Trump Ideology" (USA Today, Wednesday, june 29, 2005, The Forum, p13A).  At least such presentations do not immediately suffocate debate, as is so often the case with Democratic diatribes.
• While we ponder China, which is now discussing mutual cooperation with Russia, don't forget the frequently forgotten and potentially pivotal country,Turkey.  See "Turkey At A Crossroads", by Morton Abramowitz, WSJ, Wednesday, June 29, 2005, Opinion, pA14.

SUNDAY through WEDNESDAY, June 26 through 29, 2005

In no particular order...

• The Endangered Species Act is in danger.  As a moral corollary to our own Constitutional right to due process, no species of living thing should be knowingly allowed to become extinct without due process and just cause.
• The NAACP has a new leader.  It is hoped that he will see the future of his black constituents based upon integration...and not on segregation, as has been the tendency of recent leaders.  Integration is possible together with retention of one's roots and culture, as so many other races and immigrants have shown.
• Africa.  The President and David Brooks have it right.  Jeffrey Sachs and the European leaders have it wrong.  No more give-aways.  Pay for performance, beginning with honest local and national leadership in that still-dark continent.
• China.  Nobody knows how to deal with that behemoth.  One WSJ commentary recently drew a suggested parallel with the way the British Empire decided to deal with fledgling America in the 1800's: through cooperation and accommodation.  But then...what happened to the British Empire vis a vis America?
• It seems that "Old Europe" (France, Germany....) have learned little from the recent defeat of the proposed EU Constitution.  They oppose expansion of membership to such applicants as Turkey.  If Europe is to have any united identity, it must look to new blood, the "New Europe", to do the do-able.
• Should terrorists be accorded the benefits of a nation's criminal justice system, or do they deserve swift and summary justice?  The U.S. does not admit it, but this administration has, correctly I believe, chosen the latter path.  That is the basis for controversies regarding Guantanamo and regarding current disputes with Italy and with other European countries.  Do they need to lose the Eiffel Tower or St. Peter's Basilica before they wake up?
• Iraq.  To paraphrase the warning of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell:  "You break it...you fix it".  It is our responsibility to restore security in Iraq.  That will take much more power than we are now bringing to bear in Iraq and in Afganistan.   In this regard, political considerations should not take precedence, as they did in Viet Nam.  However quotable, President Bush's time-table ("When the Iraqiis stand up, we will stand down"), is just not enough.  Also, let's stop using that bromide: "the generals will get all they ask for".  They have not been allowed to ask for more, by order of General Rumsfeld.
• Kelo v New London.  When the controversy over the use of Eminent Domain began in New London, Ct.,  I advised several who could be adversely affected to use all legal means to protect themselves.  They did.  Some profited handsomely.  Others now have lost, legally.  Time to move on: and time to change the state law for others in the future.  To do otherwise could have civil and/or criminal consequences in this nation of laws.   In this instance: right cause; wrong case.

SATURDAY, June 25, 2005

Time for a bit of catch-up.

• Now a Chinese oil giant is making a hostile bid for one or America's major oil companies.  This focuses the question: "To Trade Or Not To Trade" in the new global economy.  I believe that we must trade openly across national borders, with four conditions: the playing field must be level...which now it is not; we require that any multi-national American corporation must have at least one American Public Director on its Board, in order to monitor the foreign policy-making effects of these corporations' business activities; we decide what America's "family jewels" are...including the human impacts...and prohibit trade in them; and American corporations must pay fair taxes, without access to tax-avoiding foreign loop-holes.
• Medical Marijuana...yes, under Federal control - but not with the ham-handed and ineffective Dick Tracey methods typified by the current controls over the medical use of methadone.  Reflecting the history of alcohol use and abuse, illicit drug addiction is a disease...treat it. Illicit drug production and marketing is a crime...punish it severely.  This is not what is now taking place.
• Ineligible and greedy Welfare recipients should be cut off, at all ages of life.  This includes those elderly people of means who use carefully devised loopholes to "divest" themselves of substantial assets in order to go on the public dole.  See a recent article in the WSJ on the subject.
• Once again, America is lagging behind the international community in a health-related issue.  I used to wonder about this; but given the FDA's recent stumbles, wonder has given way to suspicion.  Why not use a very inexpensive test (the EKG) to screen every student what wants to begin engaging in competitive sports...in order to avoid unnecessary deaths from the hereditary disease called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy?  Whose ox would be gored by this simple approach.  "Follow the money".
• Given the state of the world, we can't know too much about Islam and the Muslim mind.  Any works by Bernard Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Princeton University are very useful.  Also see Thomas L. Friedman's compilation of experiences and articles entitled "Longitudes & Attitudes." (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 2002).  We will be dealing with this in one form or another for one or two generations.
• Above all, encourage and stimulate frank debate on such problems, including where self-defense ends and torture begins, instead of suppressing honest dialogue in storms of vituperation.   If our current representatives cannot do this, throw them all out and get a fresh and more enlightened batch.   "In a democracy, the people always get what they deserve."

FRIDAY, June 24, 2005

There are certain times when a confluence of apparently disparate news stories reflects a pattern.  The following can be called: The Fruits of Rigidity, Polarization, Radicalism and Excess...of the Right and of the Left.

• Conservative reaction to the outcome of the Eminent Domain case of Kelo v New London, as expressed today by George Will and by today's WSJ editorial.  Apart from a substantial mis-statement of the facts of the case in New London, both conservative commentators get lost in their own hyperbole about "strict construction" of the U.S. Constitution of the Founding Fathers...at the expense of common sense.
• Ethical conservatives and their liberal counterparts both lose themselves in their strict adherence to equating abortion with artificial contraception - or ignoring both, including the abomination of partial birth abortion...as in the case of liberals.
• Those "average Joe's" who believe that they have a God-given right to the same job for their entire work careers, and the right to live for life in the same house, no matter what the future holds.

Only the common sense of the people, as distinguished from the rigidity, polarization, radicalism and excess around us, by becoming more involved than they ever have been, can avoid the decline and fall of the great and so far fabulously successful American experiment.  Certainly, don't take our future for granted.

GS

MONDAY through THURSDAY, June 20 through 23, 2005

• The USSC case of Kelo v. New London.  As I predicted a long time ago: right cause; wrong case.
• Can't the Democrats get their story straight?  Either President Bush retreated on Social Security by allowing several other approaches to reform to be offered by Republicans.  Or this is some kind of trap.  Whatever it is, Democrats just cannot do anything but react.  Not a winning strategy for November.
• The time has come for a rebirth of Nuclear Energy in this country, where only 20% of America's energy needs are so met, and where no new nuclear energy plant has been built in the last 30 years.  That's because the "Atomic Energy Industry" of the 1960's lied to the people and lost their trust and good will.  But that was then.  This is now, in a new world order.  It's time, and environmentalists had better get on board...or they risk irrelevance for their just causes and ours.
• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio.  Should they get tax funding despite being palpably biased to the liberal side of national discussions?   Probably.  But they should not complain so loudly - and disingenuously - when so many other important projects are also being cut.

SUNDAY, June 19, 2005

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY...to all those who are playing that role every moment of their lives...and not just for one fleeting moment.  Here I honor my father, who had the patience of Job when dealing with me for a time. "When I was 16, I thought my father was an idiot.  When I reached 18, I was amazed at how much he had learned in two years".  Here I honor my son, Adam, a great father...and so young.  And I honor my son-in-law, Tim, who has had to be both father and mother to my two grandsons after the death of their mother, Maura.  And I honor my wife of 46 years, who made it all possible.

There is another father we should honor: The Holy Father, he who just departed this life, and he who has just arrived.  For this, I can do no better than refer to the recent article by George Weigel: "Light In A New Dark Age" (WSJ Thursday, April 21, 2005, Opinion, pA16).  As the late John Paul ll said: "In the designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences."

GS

SATURDAY, June 18, 2005

Here's an opportunity to show that, in this Rapid Response offering, I am not just "bloviating".  See Newsweek Magazine, June 20, 2005:

• "Lost My Secrets?  Pay Up, Buddy", by Steven Levy, p12. "Companies are all too cavalier when it comes to protecting financial info that can lead to identity theft."
• "Realism and Responsibility", by Fareed Zakaria, p42.  "Listen to some of the new wise men of Africa.  They insist that unless Africans get their own house in order, aid will not fix anything."
• "Choice Under Fire, Yet Again", by George F. Will, p74.  "Teachers unions fighting school choice for the children of poor families in Florida use 19th century bigotry and 21st century obscurantism."

GS

FRIDAY, June 17, 2005

• The dream of a European Union is beset by tribalism, nativism and nationalism.  In America, the immigrants (even those on the Mayflower) were able to overwhelm the "natives".  In Europe, they're all "natives": German, French, Italian....And even in Great Britain, becoming a multicultural nation as a legacy of its colonial days, it's tough going.  The Europeans should give up their the pipe dreams and the delusions of grandeur of their leaders in Paris and Brussels.  They should concentrate on what is do-able, like defense, some trade and possibly some other economic integration.    They should also forget the French dream of becoming an effective counter-weight to the United States.  Only the U.S., by its own mis-steps, can lose its pre-eminent position in the world for a long time to come.
• The "True Lies" discussed yesterday are becoming rampant in political and ignorant attacks on scientific fact.  If you don't like the facts about the creation of human life, about the origins of life on earth, about the dire predictions associated with global warming, about specific autopsy findings, about the limited supply of oil...just ignore them and lie about them - at least until an occasional post-retirement confession.  Let your children and grandchildren deal with the chaos you permitted to occur.  That will be your legacy.  Considering that, will you be able to "rest in peace"?

THURSDAY, June 16, 2005

• "You can't live with it; you can't live without it." Government, that is.  At whatever level, government is always doing something stupid or greedy.  The Bush Administration Department of Justice just trumped its own attorneys in the massive Tobacco Industry case by politically reducing its 140 million dollar demand to just over 10 million. Sellout!Connecticut Governor Rell recently vetoed a much needed school nutrition bill that would finally have removed the junk food from school cafeterias and halls. Sellout!The New London City Council successfully included a "poison pill" provision in the City Manager's effort to save needed money by privatizing garbage pickups.  Sellout!   But then, once or twice in a while, a true leader comes along and actually tries to address the really big issues facing us, the governed.  President George Bush is one of those true leaders...and another is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.  For that, they are being attacked from all sides.  In these cases, that's a very good sign.  See "Popularity Isn't Everything", by Fred Barnes, WSJ today, Opinion, pA16.  And, of course, the Democrats are in the forefront of all the attacks...the "Do-Nothing" Party of today.  See also "The Doughnut Democrats", WSJ today, Opinion, pA16.  "Whatever happened to the party's middle?"
• In addition to the above situation, what really fosters cynicism about Government are the True Lies  that government fosters and that the populace tolerates.  Lies like: human embryos, abortion and "stem cell" research.  Lies like Persistent Vegetative State, life and death.  Lies like the total lack of logic behind "wrongful death of fetus" statutes vs "partial birth abortion".  Lies like "interrogation" vs. "torture".  As suggested recently in this section, all we would need would be a little truth-telling...like "an embryo is a human being from conception", and "a person in a persistent vegetative state is still a live human being"...in order then to discuss extraordinary circumstances regarding life and death and how to deal with them.  This society's present approach to these issues...True Lies...are demeaning and coarsening all of us beyond civil recognition.  That is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930's and what is happening all over the world today.  Such actions will have severe consequences for us all...and not too far in the future - if we do not return to our collective human dignity.   There is a critical choice here and now.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, June 13 through 15, 2005

A few ideas, in rapid succession:

• Michael Jackson.  Around our house, I predicted the courtroom result.  "Beyond a reasonable doubt" is a high standard, never achieved in this case by the prosecution.
• Africa.  A mess, and getting worse.  But what ails that ocean of misery will not be helped by more give-aways to corrupt governments.  They have already had and squandered a Marshall Plan's worth of aid.  What they need now is responsible help - by responsible donors as well as recipients.
• Wall Street scandals continue.  In fact, everytime a "business leader" opens his or her mouth in public, the self-interest at all costs is obvious and corrosive to public trust.  In that atmosphere, President Bush has little chance of success with his "privitazation" of Social Security plans.  How about some effective reforms and controls first?  How about we start with the airlines.  Give them the freedom to fail, the way it should be in a de-regulated market...rather than propping up the losers at the expense of their employees and of the public?
• If you want to predict the future, know human nature.  If you want to influence the future, study Demographics.  Applying both of these studies to the 21st century does not paint a pretty picture for the world.  But, we have to play the hand.

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, June 11 and 12, 2005

A busy news cycle.  Let's try one-liners again.

• The USSC, about to render its decision in the Kelo v New London case about Eminent Domain, may have signalled its intentions through the recent Lingle case holding, which upheld the right of legislatures to apply this Constitutional prerogative of communities.
• Those wrestling with the vital issue of Social Security reform are now said to be wisely including in their deliberations both the ever-extending longevity of our citizens and the fact that one man's fulfilling work is another man's quiet desperation.
• As with adoption, the issue of extra-embryo donation, the by-product of in-vitro fertilization,  should be made legally as easy as possible, consistent with "the best interests of the child" and not the selfish interests of various pressure groups.
• We continue to be treated to government lies and other misdemeanors, the most recent of which is the decision by the U.S. Justice Department to reduce a proposed settlement amount with those "dissembling miscreants" of the Tobacco Industry from 140 billion to 10 billion dollars.
• Then there is the issue of American "torture" at Gitmo and at other venues, a distressing review of which is found in the article by George J. Annas, J.D., MPH, especially since it also implicates physicians and lawyers...each charged in different ways to protect and not to harm.  ("Unspeakably Cruel - Torture, Medical Ethics, and The Law", New England Journal of Medicine, 352:20, May 19, 2005, p2127 - www.nejm.org).
• With Israel and Palestine entrapped in a Gordian Knot, the U.S. should recall that...in order to solve that knotty issue, Alexander the Great had to think and act outside the box - with an ax.
• The editorial in the NYTimes today (The Center Can Hold, Opinion, Wk, p13) places its hopes on a handful of Senators instead of on the vast majority of American citizens who - however divided on any given day or subject - still believe that American democracy is a majoritarian venture.

THURSDAY and FRIDAY, June 9 and 10, 2005

• Our local newspaper (The Day, theday.com), recently published an editorial entitled "Corrupticut", referring to the evident state of ethical affairs in Connecticut.  It was clear, both before and during the tawdry stories revolving around former Governor John Rowland, that State government had been up for grabs for some time...and that the State Legislature was not inclined to do anything except to hang Rowland for his stupidity and apparent avarice.   Nothing has changed.  The 2005 State Legislature failed to pass ethical reforms, and will be given yet another chance by Governor Rell in a Special Session in July.  Placing any bets?
• Iraq.  The Sunnis appear to be holding up the country with their demand for 25 of 55 seats on the Constitutional committee, despite the fact that they represent 20% of the Iraqi population.  They also are crying about "other militias", ie. Shii and Kurd, of course in addition to their own heavily supported terrorists.  The only way for the interim Iraq government and the U.S. to negotiate this matter is from strength...by establishing security at this late date.  The alternative will be civil war.
• Ultra-liberals are really firing up the rhetoric, relating to President Bush's judicial nominees, stem-cell research, and of course that old favorite...why we invaded Iraq.  Led by Howard Dean, by Senator Shumer, by an increasingly anxious National Public Radio, and by several letters recently published in The Day, these Articulate, Arrogant and Asinine folks are now coming across Sputtering, Strident and Stupid.  (Do you notice all the "A"s and "S"s there?).  The political cartoon by Mike Luckovitch published today in The Day (theday.com) is a clear example of their state of affairs.
• It has taken the Canadian Supreme Court to blow the whistle on the state of Canadian health care.  Finally.  Meanwhile, a important related story appears in today's The Day entitled "Helping Make Health Care More Affordable" (Commentary, pA7).  What makes it really note-worthy, since some of us have been proposing Health Savings Accounts for the last 20 years, is the author, David R. Fusco, President of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Connecticut Market, North Haven.  I hope that this is not just another death-bed...or retirement...conversion.  If it is not, this would be a real break-through.
• The Catholic Church, and over a billion dollars squandered.  Gentlemen of the Clergy, this will take more than "three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys" to achieve repentance.  You can start by truly sharing governance of the Church with the body of the Church...the Laity...as was promised in Vatican ll - and never fulfilled.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, June 6 through 8, 2005

• Iraq.  More proof for the maxim: "If you seek peace, prepare for war."  Since the latest combined U.S. amd Iraqi military operation against the terrorists ("insurgents" to our politicaly correct crowd), there have been noticeably fewer bombings and other mayhem; and the Sunnis are beginning to talk of giving up support for terrorism fin return for a stake in governance.
• Yesterday, school grades came out...for John Kerry.  His finally released Yale College graduation transcript reflects a mediocre student with a 76 or C average, not the great intellectual we all heard about in the Presidential campaign.  It was President Bush who put the matter in proper perspective, in a college commencement address during that campaign, when he was being pictured as a country bumpkin: "To you who are graduating with honors...well done.  And to you C students...you too can be President."  BARA-BING.
• If President Bush is concerned about his "legacy", he would do well to read a fine book review - of 12 treatises by historians - that demonstrates the truth of the matter: it is historians who "create" the legacy, especially revisionist historians.  See "Forget The Founding Fathers", by Barry Gewen, NYTimes Book Review, Sunday, June 5, 2005, p30.  To use an over-used word...that's "humbling".
• Dr. Howard Dean.  Now there's a man who needs a overdose of humility.  Keep it up, Howard.  You're revealing the true mind-set of the Democratic Party; and in the process you are expanding Republican control of Congress in the next election.
• Prime Minister Tony Blair came to Washington with a "pig in a poke" to sell,  and President Bush is quite properly not buying.  The pig is a massive program of socialism for the entire African continent, regardless of the efforts and responsibilities - or lack thereof - exerted by the leaders of that blighted part of the world.  See "The Blair Debt Project, an editorial in the WSJ yesterday (Opinion, pA14) for a more honest and effective approach.
• Public Education, again.  The proposal for school choice was made 50 years ago by economist Milton Friedman, but "most school-choice programs...are still in their infancy and fighting to survive." ("School Choice Showdown", editorial in WSJ Monday, June 6, 2005, Opinion, pA10).  At that time, Mr. Friedman wrote: "Governments could require a minimum level of education which they could finance by giving parents vouchers redeemable for a specified maximum sum per child per year if spent on 'approved' educational services."  Fifty years later we have a public school that does not merit John Kerry's C average.  Talk about "legacy".  Union teachers, principals and other "educators": this is the legacy you are leaving from two generations of your efforts.  "Is anybody there?  Does anybody care?"

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, June 4 and 5, 2005

• Southeastern Connecticut certainly has cause for serious concern, now that the Submarine Base has been placed on the BRAC List of major military bases to close.  But this is a long and involved process.  We have a very good team on our side...in addition to having the facts and common sense on our side.  And it's hard to win playing defense. So, why is The Day publishing all these articles about "life after base closure".  Not good psychology for the region.  And not a winning posture towards our adversaries.  Whether it was first declared by Friedrich the Great, or by General George Patton, or by myself: ATTACK...ATTACK!   ALWAYS ATTACK!
• Dr. Frist, U.S. Senate Majority Leader, is having trouble leading.  Witness the recent activities of the "Mod Squad" and the Republican "Gang of Seven" relating to the Senate filibuster rules.  Dr. Frist should recall the first rule of surgical treatment of a wound: debride.  In this context, Discipline!
• The NYTimes today has an article that should merit scant attention by the remaining 99.9% of us Americans.  The topic is about the rich and the filthy rich; about old money and new money.  An old saying (that I made up) will suffice.  "There are three kinds of money: old money, new money...and Enough Money".   Meanwhile, all those 30,000-plus sq. ft. "homes" some people are building will be merely tombstones to their own mortality.
• Now the ACLU is shredding some of its documents.  What is this world coming to?
• And what about that peculiar USSC decision just announced regarding the Anderson accounting firm litigation?  Many employees of the firm were ordered to shred thousands of client and company records...after the company knew that it was facing Federal charges.  How come that is not the requisite "Mens Rea" to support the "Actus Reus" of a crime?  I'll have to read that case in its entirety.
• We keep trying to "fool Mother Nature".  The latest report relates to the impending demise of Lake Okeechobee, Florida, in the course of 60 years of trying.  That's why we have never been visited by aliens from other planets (that I know of):  they're too smart to have anything to do with us Earthlings.
• Here is a light sense of irony in the course of an article by Jerry Fischer, Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut, regarding Israel and Palestine: "Alas, Moses, after wandering 40 years in the desert, managed to find for the Jews the one spot in the Middle East without oil."

FRIDAY, June 3, 2005

• "Amnesty International" this week demonstrated why America should view anything "International" with a jaundiced eye.  Calling Guantanamo Bay the new Gulag was reckless hyperbole and provocation.  See Charles Krauthammer's article in today's The Day entitled "Stop Whining Over Alleged Quran Abuse And Defend The U.S." (Commentary, pA11).  Of course, we have many home-grown reckless voices sounding off as well.  Just remember who  they are at election time, while our soldiers are trying to stay alive in a tinder-box in the Middle East.
• We need all the facts we can get regarding the stem-call research debate.  An article in today's The Day is informative; ("Stem-Cell Standoff Involves Complex Moral Problems", by Richard Ostling, Beliefs, pC7)
• While Syria shoots Scud missles over Turkey, and Iran enriches Uranium, and North Korea develops intercontinental missles capable of reaching California, Prime Minister Tony Blair looks now for pay-back from President Bush in the form of substantial support for development efforts in Africa.  We would be out of our mind to add anything more to our plate.  Instead, what we need is some utensils...in the form of a fair Draft...to deal with that plate.  Good friend, later - not now.