MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30 through JULY 2, 2003

So many opinions...so little time.  And professional obligations keep getting in the way.

• After the recent decisions handed down by the USSC, Justice Scalia and especially the commentator Cal Thomas seem to fear that the U.S.Constitution is dead.  The Constitution would have died in childbirth if our Founding Fathers had not, for purely political reasons, finessed the great issue of slavery in this country.  And it surely should have died after Roe v Wade, a decision lacking legal, medical or moral basis. No, the Constitution is like the sturdy foundation of a great cathedral.  It survives the occasional building of an ugly outcropping or even an out-house on its bell tower.  It is the outcropping which is vulnerable, not the foundation.  Furthermore, its last decision of this session,  regarding California law and the Statute of Limitations - even relating to child abuse - is correct.  For how many years or decades must people wait for victims, after reaching the age of majority, to come forward and make their accusations.  There is such a thing as Due Process, and the Statute of Limitations is a basic part of that.
• "No good deed will go unpunished".  Yesterday's announcement by Kraft Foods Company that it will henceforth produce less harmful foods tor our Fat Citizens was promptly attacked as PR or as a way to improve their bottom line.  There may be more than one intention or outcome, but the action is bound to help anyway.  And, if we're looking for hypocrites, let's look at the soft drink companies and at school systems all over the country that enter into lucrative contracts with junk food providers for their Fat Kids.  And I don't mean "Phat".

SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2003

• Still more on Iraq.  One article in today's Day (the day.com), by Steven Gutkin of the Associated Press, observes: "No obvious front-runner to fill Iraq power vacuum".  True enough, but let's send a crystal-clear message to the people of Iraq.  "Clerics and other religious leaders need not apply for the future secular government".  An editorial in today's New York Times is also helpful, entitled: Rebuilding Iraq With Iraqis".  But while trying to distinguish good Baathists from bad Baathists, and especially in the current  guerrilla warfare period,  all Baathists must be counted among "the usual suspects".
• Here's a startling fact...startling to me, at least: in a report by Lisa Leff of the Associated Press published today in the Day, we read about "32% of same-sex couples now raising children...."  Please read my earlier Rapid Response and my Law School paper on this subject.  Despite serious reservations in this matter regarding the welfare of children in a society which is supposed to place paramount "the best interests of the child",  I believe that adoption by loving "parents" - more a relationship than an issue of genetics - is far better than the plight of tens of thousands of children in this country who are shuttled every several months amont multiple "foster homes".  What does that foster?

SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2003

More on the situation in Iraq.  Please see my Rapid Response dated May 30, 2003.  Since then, there have been more killings, even assassinations of our soldiers.  And it is now clear that some Iraqiis are acting to sabotage the recovery of their own country. Do we need any more reasons for massive and harsh counter-action?  And when are the majority of moderate Iraqi citizens going to earn their freedom from despotism by discharging their responsibility to suppress their criminal and pro-Saddam terrorist elements?  Two articles on this subject are worth reading: "Chaos in Iraq...", by Trudy Rubin; and "Rumsfeld: Not the Army's Favorite Boss", by Philip Terzian, both articles in The Day, Friday, June 27, 2003, Commentary, pA11.   Meanwhile, the Democrats continue carping on the sub-text of WMD's, not realizing that this war is far from over and that Americans unite behind their leaders during wartime.  It's not a reach to suggest that they are giving aid and comfort to our enemy at this time.

GS

FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2003

• A little more on the gay-privacy issue recently addressed by the USSC.  The dissenting Justices expressed reasonable concern regarding the possible "slippery slope" opened by the majority opinion.  Just read the expansive spin already appearing in the liberal press about the implications for other possible legislative actions on behalf of gays.  But fear not: Americans are fair, not stupid.  The recent action will not change the strongly held views of the vast majority on really unrelated subjects, like according "gay unions" the same status as that of Marriage in our society, a bed-rock issue.
• It appears that the Republicans may have found their stealth candidate for the 2004 U.S.Presidential election:  former Governor Howard Dean.  When he is fearless enough to express an opinion on matters of national import, he is a poster child for  ultra-liberal Democrats.  Good.  Those positions are contrary to those of the vast majority of voters today.  And regarding those issues on which he begs off, as he did recently on Meet The Press, perhaps he should read "Rapid Response".  He could do a lot worse...and probably will.

THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2003

Three items in today's news deserve comment:

• The U.S. Supreme Court got it generally correct with its decision regarding the privacy rights of consenting adult homosexuals.  Please see my earlier offering in this section regarding "gay marriages" as a counter-point.  It has always been my opinion, even before law school, that our constitutional right to "liberty",  includes a "penumbral" right of privacy.  Of course, that penumbra was distorted beyond recognition when the High Court used it to allege that one person's right of privacy trumps another's right to life.
• A report by the Center For Public Integrity has found that "thousands of prosecutors mishandled criminal cases", (by Michael J. Sniffen, AP).  Although that situation probably has been  a reaction to the decades in which judges acted like social workers of last resort,  it is intolerable - on the part of prosecutors or defense attorneys - to mislead the court and our system of justice.  Any attorney who cannot play the required dual role of advocate and also Officer of the Court should be disbarred.  And any attorney or public safety official whose intentional acts lead to the unfair conviction of a defendant should be made to serve that defendant's sentence.
• The U.S. economy continues to be in the doldrums.  In fact, the recovery that will eventually arrive promises to be a "jobless recovery" as part of the industrial devolution that has taken place since "that great sucking sound" called NAFTA and GATT arrived on our shores.  Isolationism is not the answer.  But neither is a totally skewed playing field world-wide in which only the "captains of industry" benefit. It's the Economy, and we Americans are all being Stupid about it.  We have the power to make fair changes.  Let's use it.

SUNDAY through WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22 through 25, 2003

Sorry about the interruption.  Duty called. A lot of news in the interim.

• Congress seems hell-bent on providing a faulty treatment for Medicare drug costs, and totally ignoring the plight of over 40 million Americanswho are still without health insurance coverage.  This is wrong and unnecessary.  The drug coverage should be prioritized by drug category and should be partially need-based.  Covering the chronically uninsured should have the highest priority.  Please see an earlier offering here regarding the efforts of former U.S.Representative Rostenkowski.
• The U.S. Supreme Court came down with two important decisions this week,   although its Solomonic approach is becoming chronic.  Yes, ethnic and class diversity are valuable goals...what America is all about.  But no, it cannot be achieved through racist descrimination, however worthy the goal.  The decision occupies a somewhat vague middle ground, useful but not definitive.  And it should have been definitive, in view of the fact that this issue has been rattling around since before their Bakhe decision of 1979, also vague.   We all deserved better.  What they could have and should have said is that the problem with low minority enrollment has mainly to do with poor preparation in our failed public school system;  and they should have pointed to a public requirement to provide remedial education for those who need it in order to meet undiluted college entrance requirements.  That would have been "affirmative action", helpful and fair, and would have enabled minority college students to walk around campus without a cloud of suspicion over their heads - not the case now.  Please see my earlier offering in this section on the same subject.  Then, regarding public library internet pornography access,  they were more helpful - until two Justices discovered an "opt out" option to filters which is not provided for in the Congressional legislation under review.  Another example of judicial legislation, and again unconstitutional. Maybe the National Library Association which challenged the legislation will now also begin to offer old dark overcoats at the door for all those who request them.  That would complete the image.

SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2003

• Is this summer...or what?  But let's not get into that.
• More on Iraq.  Two articles published in the New London Day today deserve comment.  The first, by Tarek Al-Issawi of the Associated Press is entitled "Attacks persist in Iraq; clerics decry Americans."   War entails casualties, and we are still at war in Iraq.  But even in the United States our Freedoms of Speech and Religion do not include "crying 'fire' in a crowded theater".  It is time to rein in the incitement to riot being fomented daily by Muslim clerics there, not in the name of God or Allah, but in the name of preserving and advancing their own power.  America will not have travelled  thousands of miles and sustained thousands of casualties in a foreign country just to allow the re-establishment of despotic theocracy in Iraq.  This, and severe and swift punishment for all remaining terrorists there, should be our home-front political call on behalf of our troops there - and on behalf of most Iraqiis themselves.  Another article by Thomas Friedman characteristically presents  measured and reasoned advice on this subject: "It's too soon to tell anything about Iraq", The Day, Saturday, June 21, 2003, Commentary, pA7.
• Hold on to your hat for more medical hyperbole regarding "the newest thing".  This time it's about Xolair, the humanized monoclonal antibody against  IgE, the body's prime mechanism for producing allergic reactions.  This is an important new approach to the treatment of allergic disorders; but it has some significant shortcomings.  It should be used only for moderate to severe disease, as in serious bronchial asthma.  It carries a price tag of about $10,000. per year. In contrast to Allergy Immunotherapy (see the selection on this subject under Categories on this web site), it works only so long as it continues to be administered, with no reported residual benefit or likelihood of true desensitization.  Thus, it will not and should not be main-stream treatment based upon present knowledge and experience.  Nor should it be, since we have good treatments, including allergy immunotherapy, if they would only be used by primary care physicians, by pediatricians and by other generalists.  With regard to bronchial asthma, the use of true immunomodulation to extinguish the allergic reaction long-term, is more and more important...as more evidence is reported that even the regular use of inhaled steroids as anti-inflamatory agents for asthma does not interrupt the "re-modelling" of the bronchial airways that is part of a scarring process.  So, as they say on television: "Ask your doctor".  But make sure that he or she knows the facts...or at least knows the questions to ask!

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2003

• First, an addendum to one of yesterday's topics, Journalism. This will also serve to introduce the reader to a great deal more that is offered on this web site, a public service.  Under Categories...The Involved Citizen...Misc. Topics, please see the offering entitled "Trust and the Fourth Estate".
• Yesterday we learned that, nation-wide, about 65% of fourth,eight, and twelfth graders in this country failed to achieve "proficient" grades on the new, nationally mandated, NAEP reading and math exams. Today we read in the New London Day the headline: "Connecticut kids at top of 'report card' in reading".  Read on: "Among Connecticut fourth-graders, 43% are deemed proficient in reading, compared to 30% nationwide".  Now doesn't that give you a soft and fuzzy feeling?   Or is this pap presented just to promote  "self-image", in teachers as well as in students?  Please see my extensive offerings on this perennial disgrace under Categories...The Involved Citizen...Public Education Politics, on this web site.  Get rid of play stations, hand-held "games", extended access to computers for whatever purpose; and also severely restrict time allowed for television.  In other words, GET REAL, Folks, and Take Control!  Then your children and students will not only do better in the three R's - they might even survive the fantasy world of "Harry Potter", while trying to prepare for the real world.
• Here's what we've been waiting for: the pre-determined white-wash from the U.S. Air Force Academy review committee regarding rape and other gender abuses tolerated for decades there.  Must we in this country tolerate Neanderthals in our military in order to feel safe.  Then again, are we safe with the likes of them?
• "Gay Marriages"...now there's a topic.  But before you anticipate what I'm about to write, please visit  Categories...The Involved Citizen...Society, the offerings regarding a particular type of Child Custody.  Now we're ready. Marriage is the institution, between a man and a woman, established in all religions and in all societies for the procreation of the human race, and also as a substitute for "survival of the fittest" in civil society.  To what extent homosexuals are the product of nature and/or nurture is not the issue.  Neither is the fact some homosexuals choose, sooner or later, to develop a stable monogamous relationship that should be welcomed by society over the promiscuous, in-your-face activities of others that gave us the AIDS epidemic in this country.  What is at issue is whether a foundation-stone of civil society should be undermined by giving legal recognition to a totally different relationship under the same rubric.  I think not.  Perhaps some legitimate financial implications can be addressed satisfactorily...but not by giving legal recognition as "Marriage".   There is room for compromise here - but not for surrender.

WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, JUNE 18 and 19, 2003

• The current furor over how much of soldier Jessica Lynch's story of capture and recovery in lraq was true (probably most of it, with some embellishment for state-side consumption) is being over-shadowed by the debate within the world of Journalism regarding the tying arrangements allowed more and more among news businesses and other businesses - like entertainment. Is this naivete or hypocracy?  It comes on the heels of the New York Times debacle and the ever-increasing latitude sought by and allowed for these mega-corporations by the FCC, resulting in ever-greater concentration of sources of news in the hands of ever-fewer individuals.  Not healthy or wise for a democracy whose life-blood is objective and factual information from many sources.  This may be an "identity crisis" for Journalism...but they can't have it both ways and expect to have the trust of the people also.
• The so-called Patriot Act is being challenged - as it should be - and is also being upheld - as it should be.  There are times in the life and health of a free society when some freedoms must be temporarily trumped for reasons of security.  The safeguard here is process.  Furthermore, I have long held, long before 9/11, that anyone charged with the crime of "terrorism", after having established a uniform definition of that crime, should be tried under a form of Military Law, with one opportunity for appeal - and then, if found guilty, should have the death penalty imposed and carried out.  The stakes should be clear.
• The recent law passed in Maine regarding health insurance deserves close scrutiny regarding what it actually enacts and how it is implemented. From what I can discern so far, it is not the "universal health care" being touted in the press;  but it may be "just what the doctor ordered".  Stay tuned.

TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2003

• Former Governor Keating, evidentally exasperated by his experience dealing with some American Catholic Bishops, sent a message, loud and clear.  In the process, he witnessed  a basic truth: "If you want to upset a person, tell him a lie; if you want to absolutely infuriate him, tell him the truth".  And another basic truth: "Power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely".
• Now it can be told:  many hospitals have too few inpatient beds to take care of present needs, not to mention future requirements.  Yes, "the first rule of service is survival".  But some hospitals are going too far in cherry-picking the medical services they decide to render.  There is a basic obligation to the public that they serve, especially in the case of tax-exempt community hospitals.  Also, the increasing use (abuse?) of "diversion" in transit should be evaluated against the requirements of the Federal law called EMTALA., the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
• Finally, I never thought that I would ever use the word "Hutzpah"  to describe a Swede.  But that's the word that comes to mind regarding Hans Blix.  This "inspector" of the "Pink Panther" genre,  who unearthed nothing but excuses to delay the U.S. action in Iraq, today was heard on National Public Radio contrasting the U.N.'s losses (ie.1) against U.S. losses (many), and contrasting the cost to the U.N. of his inspection activities ("$80million")  against  the cost to the U.S. of our efforts (billions).  How's that for trivializing America's efforts at pre-emptive self-defense, at removing a dangerous despot, and at making the world a little more safe, for Swedes and for everyone else.  :Now, he says, he will retire to picking blueberries and to swimming in the Baltic. Good Riddance.

MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2003

This is about the House of Medicine, the medical profession.  Among professions and career choices, including the Clergy, physicians rate highly for integrity and for results.  But there are problems.  The medical malpractice climate has produced a bunker mentality, not new (read "conspiracy of silence", still alive and well in some specialties) but worsening.  The value-neutral education of some younger physicians in their formative years has resulted in some of them forgetting the maxim "above all, do no harm" and supporting  "physician-assisted suicide", an oxymoron if there ever was one.  And then there is the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which for  many years has been pro-abortion, and has even been in favor of partial birth abortions!  What's wrong with that picture?  What a shame.  But there's more...the AMA also is against outlawing these abominations. Then they wonder why the membership of the AMA has declined to its current state, representing fewer than one-third of practicing  physicians.  There is a message here: "For your health care, choose...don't settle".

GS

SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 2003

Happy Father's Day, to all fathers out there, and to the Mothers who made that exalted state possible.
If there is any role, or ministry, that depends immeasurably on one's own experience as a son, being a father is it.  And for that I daily thank my father, a kind, patient and wise man who was my friend and mentor for all of his 72 years.  "Forte e Gentile", as was the motto of his native Abruzzi and the best description of the man.
It is a great pity, and in some quarters a great disaster, that so many men today face the challenge of fatherhood without such example.  The reasons are many.  Just one set of reasons was well articulated by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan in the late 1960's - in return for which he incurred the lingering wrath of a whole group of our population and their enablers.  But forget the prospect of their admitting now that they were wrong and that he was right.  They simply continue perpetuating the disaster, as over 50% of American "families" are now single-parent (read "fatherless") entities.
Something else should be made clear here.  Becoming and being a father does not simply mean contributing to a child's DNA;  in fact, it does not require that at all.  And there is a big difference between "fathering" and "siring".  The former is a deep and lasting human relationship.  The latter, without more, is simply an animal act.
And then there are those who actually kill their offspring by condoning or even demanding abortion!  What do we call them?
So, "Happy Father's Day" is by no means a knee-jerk acclaimation. For those of us who have earned it, enjoy the day - and our blessed life.

GS

SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2003

• Bad news in Israel and Palestine.  Now is not the time for President Bush to heed what must be some advice from his political gurus and from the State Department to go easy, play it safe, and not expend more of his political capital in that mess, in view of "the coming election".  There is always a "coming election".  And unless Mr. Bush wants to lose the next election,  now is the time for persistent and bold committment, using all our power with both sides to force both sides to do what both must do...now.  A recent Rapid Response has dealt with the details.  This will also require a committment of troops on the ground to assist in enforcing  a cease-fire, the main burden of which must fall to the Israelis and Palestinians themselves.  It was hopeful to note today that U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan is quoted as having come to the same conclusion.
• It is gratifying to see our troops once again taking the offensive against hostile forces in Iraq.  We went into Iraq in order to get the targets off our backs in America, not to wear them there.  Also, even in America Freedom of Speech does not give us the right to yell "fire in a crowded theater".  So, why are we allowing Iraqii clerics to yell "death to all Americans" in the explosive setting that exists there at this time?  Come on, people: use a little common sense and a lot of power that you have brought to bear there.  The worst use of power is its non-use; that's called a vacuum, and it is the most dangerous situation that can exist.
• Regarding more anti-American riots in South Korea, following a fatal auto accident there, why not take our troops out of harms way - at least in the early phases of any North Korean attack - and let the South Koreans defend themselves.  That would also lead to Japan re-arming in self-defense...and why not?  These are dangerous times all over the world.  We have to consolidate and maximize the availability and flexibility of our armed forces.  And the choices regarding our engagement should be always primarily based on our self-interest, as well as pre-emptive self-defense.  There are signs that the Pentagon is thinking along these lines.

FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2003

The bad weather we in the Northeast have been having this Spring should not surprise us: after all, in Washington D.C it is Christmas in June.  Look at all the give-aways being debated and passed by Republicans and Democrats alike.  Want to give a fish instead of a fishing pole to our poorer citizens?  Just call it a tax credit, even if they do not pay taxes.  Want to add drug benefits to a Medicare system having real trouble paying its existing bills?  Give it to everybody, regardless of need or rational allocation.  Every one of the elderly has a vote, right?  (By the way, there's an election coming).  We have come to expect this from Democrats; but will the real Republicans please stand up - the ones with principles, that is!

GS

WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, JUNE 11 and 12, 2003

What a shame.  The Israel - Palestine conflict continues to kill innocents and guilty alike and to inflame the entire Middle East.  This cannot be treated with the perennial neglect with which the conflicts and atrocities in Africa are being handled, currently notably in Congo.  This is, after all, the birthplace of three major religions; and then there is the matter of the oil!   So why do all parties involved continue to insist on ignoring the several elephants in the room?  Israel will never be the Israel of the Bible.  It must vacate all the illegal settlements, including the more substantial settlements, and it must do it Now.  Palestinians and other Arabs will always have a vibrant, powerful, and democratic Israel in their midst.  That is not negotiable.  For reasons of reality, there will be no "right of return", no matter how unjust that seems to all fair-minded people; and the neighboring Arab States must reconcile themselves to absorbing these poor people.  A viable Palestine will exist next to Israel.  That is also not negotiable.  Arab terrorist attacks,  perceived as such by most Arabs and non-Arabs alike, must stop Now. Until that happens, Israel has every right to pro-active self-defense.  And both Israel and the Palestinians must resort to effective internal force, if necessary, to suppress those citizens among them who would rather fight than switch.  Will that lead to civil wars? Possibly, but probably not, especially if a U.N.- U.S. force is introduced on the ground to assist both sides with their tasks in an even-handed way ( and not the way the French are operating in the Congo).  Remember: the U.S.A. required a revolution and a civil war to resolve its own problems before emerging in its present state.  How long do we have to wait before all the players with power get real about this?  On the answer to that question depends the security of the Middle East and of the entire world.

GS

MONDAY and TUESDAY, JUNE 9 and 10, 2003

There are some signs that our leaders at the Pentagon are starting to re-assess their projections for American military needs.  "Shock and Awe" and technology can go just so far.  Witness the difficulty are forces are having in establishing order and in supressing violence in Iraq, largely because there are not enough of them on the ground to deal with crowds and with mob violence.  Witness the totally predictable drop in National Guard and Reserve enlistments and re-enlistments after the recent excessive reliance on these "reserves" for first-to-go service.  Witness the news that we are about to re-deploy many of the tens of  thousands of our troops in Germany to areas where they can be better utilized.  Once again, we have to get real and not try to have security in this ever more dangerous world on the cheap.  What we need is re-instatement of the draft, for all male graduates of high school and for all willing female graduates.  This could be a win-win situation, especially if the first of a two or three year tour is structured for both military and remedial education, in preparation for being able to read the military manuals - problematic for some graduates - and for future higher education. I kid you not: this could work very well.  But expect some knee-jerk objections from some old military war horses and from some demagogic objections from "the usual suspects".  Meanwhile, a couple of years in the military during a formative time of life is just what the last two generations of young people have missed - to their detriment and to ours.

GS

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, JUNE 7 and 8, 2003

• The New York Times continues to be all wrapped up in itself with the sequels to the Jayson Blair debacle.  Maybe that's because it considers itself - and is considered by many, we read - the greatest newspaper in the World.  Sez who?  The Wall Street Journal, itself a more informative publication day after day, in my opinion, put it just right in its editorial entitled "Turmoil at the Times" (WSJ Opinion, Friday, June 6, 2003, pA10).  "As readers of the Times, however, our view is that what we have been seeing on its front page in recent years is less straightforward reporting and more advocacy journalism....The Times has hardly been alone in this trend....But at the Times its editorial-page views have been increasingly indistinguisnable from the attitude that infuses many of its page-one stories."
• Here we go again: the pro-abortion gang, through NARAL, is about to launch a $3 million ad campaign to "save Roe v Wade", the 1973 U.S.Supreme Court decision that had less legal, or medical or moral-ethical justification than any decision since Dred-Scot.  They are threatened by the recent passage of Federal legislation outlawing "Partial Birth Abortion",  the worst of the abortion abominations.  To echo the words directed 50 years ago at Senator Joe McCarthy: "Have you no shame?"  Of course they don't.  So, let's fight. (Please see the offerings on this web site, under "The Involved Citizen", entitled "Abortion").
• On a "lighter" note, we read from the Knight Ridder News Service an article entitled: A Big Fat Problem: Doctors Lack Training To Treat Overweight Patients"  Baloney...or should I offer tuna salad instead?  The only thing that doctors lack is patients who want to get serious about their fat and sedentary life-style.  This is not rocket science, folks.  You can actually lose weight, keep it off, feel great, and live longer and better...if you want to.  Just look in the mirror; and then ask your doctor.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2003

• Question:  When is a tax cut (or tax credit) not a tax cut?  Answer:  When the individual pays no income tax!  Here go the Republicans again, allowing the Democrats to articulate the issue and thereby to determine the outcome.  Or is it that any opinion except that of the ultra-liberals cannot get a hearing in the  liberal Eastern press.  In any case, there are specific merits to helping Americans who are near or below the poverty line...especially when they are members of our Armed Forces.  But this help should not be called a "tax cut" or tax credit"; and it should not be touted as any solution for the underlying problems.  This is especially applicable to the sanctimonious Democrats  whose insistence on a tax package costing no more than 350 billion dollars caused the elimination of that provision in the first place.
• We are all awaiting the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court relating to the issue of "affirmative action".  Has it been fair, to Whites or to Blacks and other minority groups?  No.  Here again is a "solution" that has created other problems:  antagonism among the races - which is not in itself "racism";  loss of legitimacy of accomplishments by Blacks in the eyes of others;  and not a single step toward remediation of the poor education which many students receive in public grammar schools and high schools before they are admitted to colleges under depreciated standards.  Let us hope that this band-aid on cancer will finally be removed so as to allow proper treatment.
• Shades of former U.S. Representative Rostenkowski:  our fearless leaders in Washington D.C. now want to add 350 billion dollars to Medicare costs by providing drug benefits to All Medicare recipients, regardless of income level.  This will assure that too little will go to too many, including to many who do not need such Federal help.  But it will also assure that our Senators and Congressmen will not have their cars rocked from side to side, when they return home, by "greedy geezers" who objected to a very modest means test and related premium that Mr. Rostenkowski had shepherded through Congress and into law about twelve years ago.  Congress repealed the law six weeks later.  Grrroooowwwl.
• On this anniversary of D Day, two recently released books are suggested for summer reading on the ever-relevant experience of World War II:  the second volume of a Trilogy on the subject by Rick Atkinson; and a biography of the military years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, by his son John.

THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2003

Once again the sad soap opera called Public Education is in the news.  It seems that some of the billions of dollars available through the Federal legislation called "No Child Left Behind" is being declined by some school districts, as in Michigan, because their availability has been tied to evidence of effective results.  What a quaint idea, and totally foreign to the Education Establishment.  These members of the articulate, arrogant and asinine "enlightenment" whom we have had to suffer through the last fourty years, are also using arguments like "art vs. science of teaching" and "local vs Federal control". Now suppose that the practice of Medicine had also developed as a group of fiefdoms where top-down control totally stiffled the professionalism of millions of good teachers through the decades; where adverse outcomes were all dismissed as "Acts of God" with no personal or institutional responsibiity acknowledged; where raw research was done on human beings with no controls and no accountability; where "local control" was able to ignore broad national and international developments in the field on the basis of "Art" trumping science.  Where would we be?  We practitioners of Medicine would be in jail...that's where we would be.   And that's where we would belong.  Wake up, America.  All those kids without a clue around us will be voting soon.  That will not be democracy.  That will be mob rule.  So, support actively the breakup of the perverse monopoly called Public Education with the only effective tool at our disposal...Competition.

GS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2003

How's that for a "stage whisper"!  President Bush said yesterday exactly what needed to be said about what Israel will, at long last, have to do to obtain its peace and security.  It's too bad that some Arabs still do not accept the permanence of the State of Israel.  That fact will always be underwritten by the U.S. and by the Western world, especially in the face of terrorism.  The only question is when there will be a State of Palestine, also viable and with peace and security - as there should be.  Meanwhile, back at home, the so-called Christian Right...and those "Christians" to the right of them...insist on continuing to give Israel a blank check for their actions...including all the illegal and politically stupid settlements which have been the gasoline for the fires in that area.  I am happy to say that Roman Catholics forever consider Jews their religious and historical brothers.  But we also know that "He Who Seeks Equity Must Do Equity".  So Don't count us among the "Christian Right" on this issue.

GS

MONDAY and TUESDAY, JUNE 2 and 3, 2003

At times,  there is nothing to respond to.  At other times...

• The different approach of President Bush to President Putin, as distinguished from that to Chirac and Schroeder is entirely in keeping with our national self-interest, especially after recent events leading up to the Iraq action.  We need to deal with Russia (just look at the world map); we do not need France and Germany in any way as much as they need us.  This is simply real-politick, and this Administration is becoming a good practitioner of this effective real-world approach.  The same is true of our approach to Iran.  Again, look at the map and to Russia's relationship with Iran.  We will encourage, intimidate and coerce Iran to effect change, the best way being to make something good happen in Afganistan and in Iraq.    But we will not use military action without Russia's acquiescence, out of their own self-interest.  What's wrong with that approach?
• The debates and controversy over "globalization" of economies remind me of the situation in this country at the turn of the 20th century, when the economy of this country was controlled by a handful of "robber barons" in no way regulated by law.  Teddy Roosevelt took care of that by enforcing, for the first time, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and its progeny. Globalization needs an effective set of international laws that will substitute for the law of the jungle.  Leveling the playing field can be approached by requirements relating to environmental pollution more realistically than by pointing to differences in labor costs among a vast array of countries and circumstances.  Do the Do-able.
• The Israel - Palestine issue must be resolved this time around, and President Bush deserves great credit for putting his and our prestige on the line to effect this.  But three things must happen: Israel must evacuate the illegal settlements; Palestine must relinquish any claim to "right of return"; and the violence must end - even if it takes an international armed force to destroy any recalcitrant terrorist group and to punish any of its State supporters.  A very tall order,  but again do-able.
• On the more nearby front, we finally have in one place an expose' regarding the corrosive effect that the national teachers' unions have had and continue to have on public education in America.  I have addressed this issue at length on this web site (see Public Education Politics).  Now comes  the book by Peter Brimelow entitled "The Worm In The Apple, How The Teacher Unions Are Destroying American Education" (New York:HarperCollins Publishers, 2003, pp296, $24.95)  As pointed out many times before this - and the teacher unions know it - the only way in which the sorry state of our public schools will be improved is through vouchers and other methods of applying competition to this  monopoly.

SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2003

At times, something just needs to be repeated, and repeated and repeated...to get the idea across.  The idea is why we went into Iraq.  The Democrats (having begun the 2004 political compaign), the French (trying desperately not to be seen as passe' in the New Europe), and other fellow-travellers keep insisting that the over-riding reason was to remove WMD's, weapons of mass destruction, which the world had a decade of reasons to know were being produced (and used) in Iraq. And now, when Deputy Defense Paul Wolfowitz recently made the frank statement, in an interview with Vanity Fair, that WMD's were emphasized as the "one issue that everyone could agree on", the U.S. is accused as having lied to the world.  What #@^^$%&*!  Get used to it, people: the main reason was and will be the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense.  We Americans are not going to go around  our neighborhhood, our nation and the world with targets plastered on our backs.  And we will find more evidence of WMD's, in time.  So, I regret having had to return to this topic.  But he who allows the opponent to articulate the issue has thereby determined the negative outcome.  That won't happen here.

GS