FRIDAY and SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31 and NOVEMBER 1, 2003

Today is time to catch up on some recent very informative articles on issues of the day.

• On our education system, public and otherwise: "It's Not About The Money", by Rod Paige, WSJ Thursday, October 30, Opinion, pA16; "Schools Say 'Adieu' To Foreign Languages", by Anne Marie Chaker, WSJ Thursday, October 30, Personal Journal, pD1; "The Devastating Climate At Our Universities", by Thomas Merry, WSJ Wednesday, October 22, Letters to the Editor, pA21. You will be hard-pressed to find any good news here.  Wake Up, America!  The foundation of a viable democracy is education and information.
• Several articles and stories chronicle the turn-around taking place in the economy.  And then there are the "but-heads" who have a "but" for any bit of good news (read "Democrats").  The recent article by Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, is right on point: "The 'But' Economy", WSJ Thursday, October 30, 2003, Opinion, pA16.  A historical perspective regarding the Democratic take on the whole subject is given by Robert L. Bartley: "The New Deal: Time for a New Look", WSJ Monday, October 20, 2003, Opinion, pA19. Also "Capitalism's Savior", by Conrad Black, WSJ Wednesday, October 29, 2003, Opinion, pA20.  Joblessness will continue in some sectors of the economy.  That has already been addressed in several earlier offerings in this section.
• Regarding Iraq and the Middle East, one can do no better than to read the book by Bernard Lewis, referenced above and entitled "What Went Wrong?",  and also the recent article by Professor Lewis and by R. James Woolsey (former Director of the CIA) entitled: "King and Country", WSJ Wednesday, October 29, 2003, Opinion, pA20.

GS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2003

Like everything else in this election season , the Medicare Bill is being hotly debated by Republicans and Democrats.  In danger of being lost in the debate are the critical issues:

• The present system will fall of its own weight as the baby boomer generation reaches "the golden years", any day now.   Part of the system must be privatized in order to save it.
• Means testing should be part of any Medicare and/or drug bill.  We cannot afford - and should not offer - another general entitlement without regard to ability to pay.  Democrats, Senator Kennedy and "greedy geezers" take note!
• A "one-payor" universal system of health care run by the federal government would be a disaster for the quality and availability of health care.  America must choose between two options: pay whatever it costs to receive whatever medical science can offer; or ration health care according to medical need, without regard to ability to pay.
• The argument about the importance of "preventive health care" as a reason for passing universal - governmental coverage is disingenuous and even cynical.  Everybody knows or should know that fully 50% of health care costs today are directly related to unhealthy lifestyles...something that only individual citizens can change.

GS

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 through 29, 2003

More on Iraq.  The President gave a clear outline yesterday in his press conference regarding why were are there, what our goals are, what the problems are, and why there are no alternatives consistent with our national security.  Of course, that has not stopped most of the Democrats from their constant carping while offering no clear alternative.  No alternative, that is, except the one clearly articulated by the internationalist Wesley Clark, most recently in an interview today on the Today Show with Katie Coric.  Even a cursory reading of his book reveals him to have long favored our giving up our national security and even some of our sovereignty to that bastion of accomplishment, the United Nations.  At least he provides a clear choice: national security and national sovereignty versus major reliance on a discredited institution.  As noted in a recent offering in these pages,  more must be done, and soon, by this administration in Iraq if it wishes another term.  But the whole situation reminds me of the choice that faced England and Prime Minister Chamberlain before WW2.  Rather than going down that dead end, the Daily News editorial yesterday probably voiced the predominant opinion in the country today:
"Take Off Gloves In Bloody Iraq".

GS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2003

And then there is the matter of Justice, occasionally divorced from Law.  An example of that disconnect has reached its 20th anniversary this month: "Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claim Settlement Act of 1983".   Anyone living on another planet - or at least not in Connecticut - may be unaware of this Federal action, which ended up creating the largest gambling casino in the world (Foxwoods), soon joined by another casino nearly as large nearby(Mohegan)...and by Indian casinos scattered all over the country.  For the history of this occurrence, the book by Jeff Benedict (Without Reservation) is required reading.  It reads like a Tom Clancy thriller...and it's all true.  For the latest update on the pros and cons in the continuing controversies, today's series of articles and the editorial in The Day are excellent (in Perspective, Section C, p1-4).  For a broader historical view of the saga of Indians and white men in America, and for its relevance to today's hyphenated America, please see my offering on this web site entitled: Christopher Columbus and the "Indians"...Facts and Deductions (in The Involved Citizen, Miscellaneous).  I have nothing to add at this time, except "Happy Anniversary".

GS

FRIDAY and SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 and 25, 2003

Has anyone noticed what has happened to our System of Justice, of Law and Order?

In the criminal justice system, where the mental intent (mens rea) must be proved, and the criminal act performed or conspired in (actus reus) must also be proved:

• In the O.J.Simpson trial, police and prosecutorial ineptness and Judge Ito's paralysis forever precluded the truth from being known;
• In an incredible and increasing number of death row cases, the requirement of "beyond a reasonable doubt" has been replaced by much more than reasonable doubt resulting from police and prosecutorial misconduct, inadequacy of defense, myopic eye witnesses, new results of DNA tests, and by the research at Northwestern University that led the then-Governor of Illinois to overturn an large number of death row convictions last year.
• The continuing travesty of the Amirault cases in Massachusetts, where panic reminiscent of the Salem witch trials and the joke of "repressed"memory" (read "manipulated memory") carried the day.  (See the recent WSJ editorial: Gerald Amirault's Day).
• Sexual predator cases, with sexual offender lists that...long after the jail time has been served, continue to incarcerate the felon.  There are other ways to protect the public without violating constitutional due process for anyone.
• Sexual assault cases, where the accused is in effect now guilty until proven innocent, and the victim or "victim" is off limits to the defense.
• Jury Nullification, wherein juries so disposed have been allowed to ignore both the law and the facts in declaring their "verdict". What's that about?
• The Bar, both plaintiff and defense, in both criminal and civil cases, has often been allowed to ignore the co-equal part of the dual role to be played by attorneys; ie., as Officer of the Court, charged with never misleading the Court and with never suborning perjury.

• "Justice delayed is Justice denied", and it happens all the time.
• Exorbitant awards that should "shock the conscience of the Court" but that rarely do.
• A trial Bar that owns Congress, on a par with the NRA.
• Judges who are either too lenient ("social workers of last resort"; corporate welfare donors in the form of ridiculously low penalties); or too strict ("three strikes, you're out").  Or judges who don't judge at all, but rather think of themselves as the wall in a hand-ball game.  (See "When Judges Won't Judge", by Philip K. Howard, WSJ Wednesday, October 27, 2003, Opinion, pA20.)

GS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2003

Today, my wife and I had our hearing checked.  My diagnosis: she doesn't hear.  Her diagnosis: I don't listen.

• If you have been reading the speeches and comments made by President Bush during his current multi-nation Asian trip, you will have had a good lesson in leadership.  Not "wet finger in the air" leadership of the prior administration, but actual "follow me" leadership.  A strong case has been made by others that the bold actions taken by world terrorsts and their supporters against American interests in the last decade, culminating in 9/11, were invited by our weak-kneed responses to those prior attacks, beginning with the killing of over 200 Marines in Beirut.  (This is the anniversary of that slaughter).  No more.
• But nobody's perfect.  We can only conclude that the continued arrogant and wrong-headed actions by Israel's Sharon have the tacit blessing of this administration, evidently intimidated by its fundamentalist conservative base.  As discussed several times in earlier offerings, these are not strategies for peace in the region, but rather tactics to gain and hold the Israel of the Bible at all costs, even at the cost of world war.  "He who seeks equity must do equity".  If the situation in the Middle East is worse rather than better by next Fall, President Bush will lose the election...and he should lose.
• When is a "leak" in Washington not a leak?  When the material is leaked by its author...which is probably what happened with Secretary Rumsfeld's "memo" to the Pentagon.   He was starting to notice shortness of breath in the rarified air "out on a limb" of the administration.  He decided to climb back a little.  Maybe now he and the Pentagon will get real: propose a fair military draft, and double the size of our forces in Iraq...with the imposition of martial law in some areas to restore order for all.  Those decisions can't wait for the 2004 elections either.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20 through 22, 2003

The common message to be derived from today's group of insights is reminiscent of what the people of California have just done: the people must take important matters into their own hands and out of the hands of our often-cowering representatives.  For, whether we look at politics or at the passage of laws or sometimes even at the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court,  our "leaders"do not lead us; rather they follow the lead of public opinion, or of the most vocal or most connected or most wealthy or most demagogic of its expressions.

• Without even discussing the general topic of abortion, which is opposed by over 70% of Americans, the issue of outlawing partial birth abortions should have been a "no-brainer".  And yet, it has been argued within our government since 1995!   Who are our "leaders" leading with these actions and inactions?  Certainly not the vast majority of the American people.  And even the finally imminent passage of a Federal law outlawing these acts of barbarism will be contested in court. To those obstructionists of justice and morality: have you no shame?
• The issue of school vouchers continues to be argued when it also should be a no-brainer.  (See "Congress Flunks Test On Vouchers", by Don Pesci, The Day Sunday, October 19, 2003, Perspective, Section C, p1---See also many other offerings on the subject on this web site under The Involved Citizen, Public Education Politics). To those "usual suspects" chronically opposed, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary: have you no shame?
• The successful mapping of the human genome, and the rapidly developing field of Genomics is already beginning to produce dazzling new discoveries regarding health, disease prevention and treatment.  And it is also producing massive moral dilemmas which - if not addressed and resolved - will produce a de facto class of "unter-menschen" in this country...as unprotected information regarding their (our) genetic make-up gets into the hands of their employers and their insurers, rendering them un-employable and un-insurable.  And yet, proposed legislation to prohibit the use of human genetic information in making employment and insurance decisions has gone nowhere, strongly resisted by the insurance industry and by the business world.  Have they no shame?  Of course not.

GS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2003

Regarding the Middle East crises and world terrorism, and to quote one of the authors listed, the following are "...required reading for everyone but the most wilfully ignorant".  (Timku Varadarajan)

1. How We Got Here:  Please refer to the books mentioned in Rapid Response, Friday, October 10, 2003.  In addition, the excellent book written and submitted before 9/11 by Bernard Lewis, entitled What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East, Perrenial - Harper Collins, 2002; "Lewis of Arabia". by T. Varadarajan, WSJ Tuesday, September 23, 2003, Opinion, pA24; "Conspiracy of Silence" - Book Review by Eric Lichtblau of "Why America Slept", by Gerald Posner (NYTimes Book Review, October 12, 2003, p26.
2. Where We Are Now:  "The Least Bad Option", by Thomas L. Friedman, NYTimes Sunday, October 12, 2003, Op-Ed, p11 wk;  also recent articles in the WSJ by Colin Powell and by Donald Rumsfeld.
3. Where We Are Going:  "Lessons of Terrorism", a book by Caleb Carr; "Small Wars Manual - United States Marine Corps - 1940", Sunflower University Press.

GS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2003

A somewhat different message today.  The flu and pneumonia season is beginning.  Timely immunizations are the best defense, especially in view of increasing antibiotic resistance.  Both Influenza Vaccine (yearly) and Pneumovax (every 6 years) are strongly recommended for all.  In addition, receiving DT (diphtheria - tetanus) for all (every ten years as a routine) and Hepatitis B vaccines (for health care and emergency workers) should be discussed with one's personal physician.  The story regarding Smallpox vaccination or re-vaccination is unclear at this time.  Other childhood immunizations and special situation and travel recommendations should also be kept in mind.  Immunizations are the best and cheapest protection you can buy.  Please see also the offering on this web site under: "Allergy and Immunology...The Bigger Picture".

GS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2003

"HOW ABOUT THAT?"  You could hear Mel Allen, legendary sports announcer for the New York Yankees, repeat his trade-mark exclamation from his ultimate box seat if you were awake early this morning.   As a native of the Bronx, what else can I say?  Except that it was poetic justice for Pedro Martinez after his outrageous actions the other night.  But you've got to admire those Red Sox...a great team this year.

On the local level, in New London, CT, three issues warrant comment.

• The Day editorial (theday.com) today got it just right regarding the tawdry actions of the Connecticut College administration toward Lyman Allyn Museum.  Good times administrators are a dime-a-dozen; bad times administrators are worth their weight in gold...and just as rare.  Come on, folks: find a more decent way to solve your problems.
• The continuing farce called the New London Board of Education has yet more egg on its collective face, this time regarding the soap opera called "the Julian Stafford story".  Never mind "fuggedaboudit".  Take whatever civil action the case warrants...and then go home.  This entire Board should disappear come this Election Day.
• Regarding the New London tax referendum, I have yet to hear from an opponent of the budget already passed who can give me any idea of "what then?"  "What should be cut?"  Meanwhile, we hear that new funds have recently become available to the city to bridge the $600,000. amount in contention.  Will anybody give the citizens some facts before Election Day?

TUESDAY through THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 through 16, 2003

Congratulations and all blessings to Pope John Paul II on this, the 25th anniversary of his papacy.  In a world beset with evil, venality, stupidity, and just plain human nature,  to continue to experience the life and work of a likely Saint in our midst is as uplifting as it gets.  Especially for this active, vital man to work through serious disability in plain sight of the world is inspiring and Christ-like.  I believe that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, news of his death is premature, and that there is more of his legacy to be created by him.

And what is his legacy?  The most traveled Pope.  The most accessible Pope.  The most ecumenical Pope, as regards other Christians and also as regards Jews.  One of the few longest-serving Popes.  One of the most consistent Popes in his insistence on 2000 years of traditional teachings in the face of World Wars and unprecedented social upheavels...a never failing compass.  A rare Pope who, by actively intervening in world politics, avoided likely nuclear war.  We as Catholics, and all others of good will, can deviate from or dispute the direction he points out for us in our efforts to save our souls.  But we can never allege ignorance of that direction.  Pope John Paul...per centi anni.

GS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2003

Many Muslim leaders just don't get it.  As reported in an AP story on Saturday by Patrick McDowell ("Islamic Nations Call for GIs to Leave Iraq"), the first gathering of the 57 nation Organization of the Islamic Conference since 9/11/01 could so far come nothing more insightful than that "the war against terrorism has turned into a war against Muslims".  Wrong!  Despite the overwhelming preponderance of despots and tyrants running these nations, with the accompanying enslavement of women and the general absence of anything resembling human - to say nothing of civil - rights, the United States has been willing to deal with these nations...to help them, to do business with them for their benefit and sometimes for ours.  But we will not tolerate terrorism against our soil or our citizens, either by the terrorists or by anyone supporting them in any way.  And the Bush Doctrine reserves to us the right of pre-emptive self-defense.  So, don't take it personally...just get the message!

GS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2003

Happy Columbus Day.  Persons of Italian-American heritage rightly take pride in this particular event yearly, notwithstanding the facts that Cristoforo Columbo, an Italian, was born in Genoa of Jewish parents and sailed under the Spanish flag as Cristobal Colon.
For those who believe that Americans make too much of this holiday, please refer to my offering elsewhere on this web site: The Involved Citizen, Miscellaneous Topics, "Christopher Columbus and the 'Indians': Facts and Deductions".

GS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2003

Sorry about the delay this week in posting these "responses". Technical difficulties, now resolved.
Often, there are articles which just should not be paraphrased, but which should be read in the original.  Three of these follow:

• The Double Benefit of Tax Cuts, by Becker, Lazear and Murphy (three economics professors, one a Nobel laureate in economics),  Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 7, 2003, Opinion, pA20.
• To Find The Center, Turn Right, by Daniel Henninger, WSJ, Friday, October 10, 2003, Opinion, pA14.
• The following Whine is best taken with a bit of Cheese: Local Educators Slam Federal Education Act, by Eileen McNamara, The Day, Friday, October 10, 2003, pA1.

GS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2003

Now, you didn't really think that I would have nothing to say until after the World Series, did you?  Only when the claque, from individual citizens to TV "anchor-persons" that call themselves "liberals" show signs of learning from history will I become speechless. Three devastating expose's have recently been published on the subject, thoroughly annotated to primary source material.  Two are by Ann Coulter: Treason and Slander (Crown Publishers, 2002, 2003).  The other is by Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson, USAF (Ret) and is entitled: Dereliction of Duty (Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington D.C., 2003).  As Ms. Coulter states in her Conclusion, after having documented the fact conclusively: "Liberals have been wrong about everything in the last half-century".   (Also see other offerings on this web site under: The Involved Citizen; The Clinton Presidency).  There is a saying in the world of common sense: "If when you are young you are not a liberal, you have no heart.  If when you are older you are not a conservative, you have no brains".

GS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2003

When joking with my more elderly patients... more elderly than I, of course...I give them this advice: "before you get out of bed in the morning, do a  'Review of Systems', just as your doctor does when completing a medical history.  'Do you have headache, dizziness, blurring of vision, spots before your eyes, bleeding from your nose, ringing noises in your ears, etc., etc., etc.  If you have fewer than ten of these, you can get up.  Otherwise, stay in bed for the day...and call your doctor".  Well, with the California Recall vote just ended and the Playoff - World Series season just beginning, we Americans need to keep somewhere in mind a national "review of systems".

• The burst Wall Street bubble, with massive money and job losses;
• That"great sucking sound" of jobs being lost permanently to the rest of the world as a result of GATT, NAFTA, WTO, and other threats to our national sovereignty;
• A loss of trust in that American engine of business: the stock market;
• A failed public education system;
• An inadequate health care system, where over 40 million Americans risk or end up entering bankruptcy largely because they have no health care coverage;
• A system of election financing that awards public office to the highest bidder;
• Afganistan, and our responsibilities there;
• Iraq, and our responsibilities there, and in the rest of the Mid-East;
• A Military Establishment that is in denial over the inadequacy of its current levels of manpower needs for the 21st century;
• A political "dialogue" that produces much more heat than light.

GS

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6 through 8, 2003

California Wins!  "In a democracy, the people always get what they deserve."  And in this democracy, a young and penniless foreigner can still come to America and  accomplish whatever he wants...with talent, self-confidence, and a massive amount of hard work.  Foreigners have always known this.  Young Americans, take note!

GS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2003

The Middle East, again.

Terrorists hit Israel, again, on the eve of Yom Kippur.  Does Israel have the right of pre-emptive self-defense, as we have asserted for America in the Bush Doctrine?  Of course; and that is precisely what Syria just experienced today.  Meanwhile, the current leadership of Israel continues to poison the waters in the entire Middle East by establishing further illegal and unwise settlements in areas which it knows are not and will not be its own.  "He who seeks equity most do equity".  And the U.S. must now "help" Israel to do the right thing.  Besides, our nation's prestige, future, resources and lives are being lost in part because of such actions.  What is this administration waiting for? Hopefully not for the strict Conservatives in this country to come around - they who are embracing Israel right or wrong, in an embrace that the Israelis may soon find too tight.

FRIDAY and SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3 and 4, 2003

California.  This is why, on the average, well over 50% of American voters fail to participate in the political processes of the greatest democracy in the world: 1) possibly the purest forms of public action, recall and referendum, are denounced by the "democrats" as forms of mob rule; and 2) character assassination is one of the "rules of the game".  Both of these tactics are being employed right now by Governor Gray Davis and his supporters in desperate attempts to save his failed administration.  Whatever the results in California (prediction: Davis out, Arnold in), we just plain citizens should work to guarantee the rights of recall and of referendum in every State of the Union - and then we should actively participate.  The "political class"in this country needs to be taught a lesson in basic civics, and soon.

GS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2003

"What's happening?  Is there a full moon?  Has Halloween come a month early this year? First the allegation (only that so far) that respected journalist Robert Novak participated in an illegal act by "outing a CIA agent", and for political purposes no less.  Then we learn that Rush Limbaugh has made yet another "outrageous statement" that is being called "racist"...followed by allegations that he has in the past heavily abused prescription drugs.  And Arnold certainly should have known better.  Whether these stories are distortions fed by political agendas, or whether they are true, the following is right on point.

GS

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 through OCTOBER 1, 2003

The news is heating up again.

• Three upsetting stories have come out in recent days, all having to do with hazing and other intentional harm inflicted by some students on other students.  Whether called "teasing" or "bullying" or "hazing", occurrences like the stories out of Long Island and Wilkes-Barre, Pa. boil down to only two things: criminal assault and battery, and civil rights violations.   Parents of the victims should be very aggressive in pursuing both criminal and civil actions against the attackers, their parents and - where appropriate - the school districts in which these actions occur.  There are a lot of Stupid People out there; they need to get a message that they can understand.
• As described in a recent book review, the "Faustian bargain" that the founding fathers of Israel made in order to produce a viable nation - deferral of a decision on whether Israel was going to be a democracy or a theocracy, reminds me of the similar bargain made by our Founding Fathers regarding slavery.  We know what this nation had to go through to resolve that issue 80 years later.  ("Black Hats and No Hats", about the book Real Jews, by Noal J. Efron; N.Y.Times Magazine section, Sunday, September 28, 2003, p20).  Perhaps the people of Israel, or at least their current leaders, at some level have decided that prolonged war with their Arab neighbors is better than facing internal turmoil.  Another bad choice.
• Lord, save our children from their public education "friends".  Despite the massive evidence that continues to pile up about poor methodology (most recently involving "homework", or what passes for it today) and poor outcomes, unrepentent liberals led by an increasingly incoherent Senator Edward Kennedy continue to fight all efforts to give parents the right of choice through the mechanism of "vouchers".  When does all this become criminal?  "Is anybody there?  Does anybody care?"