TUESDAY, August 31, 2004

Here are some more really big questions facing our national leaders.

• The over 40 million people in this country who are reportedly without health insurance.  Much too big a number.  But wait: an editorial in the WSJ on Friday, Aug. 27 provides relevant facts and insight into that problem (Opinion, pA12).  Once again, it is not a refractory problem...but recalcitrant problem solvers.  And for those individuals trapped in an undesireable job just in order to keep their health insurance, finally they can consider the excellent and portable HSA's...which had to overcome twenty years of obstruction from the insurance industry and their representatives to be allowed.
• The Poor in America, reportedly over 30 million below the poverty line (eg. earning less than $18,000. for a family of four.  A terrible statistic for the richest country in the world.  But wait: more facts in another editorial, same newspaper, same day.  As the saying goes: "figures lie, and liars figure".  And the most important point that this editorial makes relates to...
• The crisis in public education, exemplified by just one of many deplorable facts that can be marshalled on this subject: "...the disaster represented by 50% dropout rates in America's inner-city public high schools". (See also the Category under The Involved Citizen on this web site entitled "Public Education Politics").
• That great sucking sound...job loss in America.   Globalism is here to stay.  So where are the grand plans to re-train the many working people in America whose old jobs will never return, ans whose skills have become no longer needed?

GS

MONDAY, August 30, 2004

For a change, let's list some really big questions facing our national leaders, whoever they may be come January.  These have all been topics of lead articles of late:

• Is the use and abuse of the McCain-Feingold election reform Act a real threat to our right of Freedom of Speech? (George Will, Newsweek, August 16, 2004, p72).  I'm in favor of any method that reduces the currently great advantage of incumbents over challengers.
• The five-year drought in the West.  ("Why the West is Burning.  A five-year drought has parched soils, lowered reservoirs and weakened forests.  And if the past is any guide, the dry spell could go on for decades.", Time, August 16, 2004, p46).  Is anybody thinking of a massive Federal project to transfer excess water from the East and Mid-West to the West?
• "The End Of Cheap Oil", Nat'l Geographic, June 2004.  As noted earlier in this section, some experts predict that the world supply of oil will begin to decline - permanently - within two or three years.  What are we waiting for to make a real conversion to other energy sources?
• "Global Warming", Nat'l Geographic, September, 2004.  Must this country, still adolescent in its approach to problems, wait for a catastrophe before acting sensibly?

GS

SUNDAY, August 29, 2004

• "THERE'S A FUNGUS AMONG US!"   Please check the "Health Alerts" category on this web site for important information for home owners and home builders.  It's no joke.
• SAY IT ISN'T SO!  Most of us never did forgive Israel for the Pollard spy episode of the 1970's.  (We don't talk any longer about the American ship episode during the 1967 war).  Now comes another spying allegation, promptly denied by the Sharon government.  We know that it must be be very hard to live for decades in a war zone.  And Israel should know who her friends are - and treat them accordingly.
• It was encouraging to read about the new rules of engagement that our forces in Najef have been using: if any hostile fire comes from a building, the entire building is destroyed.   After the death of more than 900 soldiers in Iraq through often treacherous means...NO MORE MR. NICE GUY.
• Two articles in The Day yesterday discuss the gold medal achievement of Paul Hamm at the Olympics.  In any sport where subjective scoring is involved, an inevitable part of the outcome is the subjectivity - including human error (to say nothing of bias and corruption).  Everybody recognizes and lives with that.  Or almost everybody.  Chuck Potter...you're wrong (The Day, Region, Section B1).  International Gymnastics Federation...you're hypocrites (The Day, Sports pD5).  U.S. Olympic Committee...you've got it just right (ibid).
• IT'S BACK TO SCHOOL.  And yesterday we read in The Day that "NL students to be greeted with T-shirts, calendars, tokens, interviews" (Back To School, Section E1).  Good.  And how about A LITTLE HOMEWORK!

FRIDAY and SATURDAY, August 27 and 28, 2004

• Iraq.  President Bush's admission, during a NYTimes interview yesterday, that he had made a "miscalculation of what the conditions would be" in post-war Iraq, is obvious, short and sweet.  How many other politicians would have made such a statement so concisely?  The rest of the interview is also worth reading to put the matter in context.  Meanwhile, when are we going to get a similar statement from Donald Rumsfeld regarding his use of too few troops for the Iraq effort?  But if all we get is a prompt realignment of our troops world-wide - as recently promised - to enable adequate troop commitment to future hot spots, coupled by the explanation by Condolezza Rice that appears in today's The Day (Commentary, pA11), I'll be satisfied.  Meanwhile, the news from Iraq is good today.
• Venezuela.  What's going on there?  Two articles, on August 19 and 20,  in the WSJ raise serious questions regarding the legitimacy of the recent vote in that troubled country, notwithstanding the support given to it by Jimmy Carter's group and by our own State Department.  Is another Cuba being born, with us as mid-wives??
• Kerry, "Swift-Boat Veterans", McCain, Bush, "527's".  Anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about hasn't been paying attention.  The article by Cal Thomas in today's The Day (Commentary, pA11) is assigned homework.  A hint: "Democrats can't credibly complain of a bloody nose when they threw the first punch".
• The Republican National Convention is about to begin.  There will be no surprises in the substance of the Platform...nor should there be.  Equivocation and vacillation are left to the Democrats.  However, the tone will and should be moderate, if only to reflect the reality of politics in America today: the country is substantially divided, and compromise is the fact of life.  In such a circumstance - in America - there should be no place for anyone "hating" anybody.  And there should be no place for viciously denegrating elected leaders.  Those who do those things were well represented yesterday by the "protesters" who ran through the streets of New York City in the nude.  They thereby showed off that part of their anatomy that gives rise to two common descriptors for such people.  (The rest is up to your imagination).

THURSDAY , August 26, 2004

Did you hear the one about...

• Health Savings Accounts (HSA's), the best new health insurance product in many years, is still being resisted and undercut by the Insurance Industry and its minions in Washington.  The provision in many such plans that requires that all unused moneys be returned and lost at year's end needs to be repealed.  Call your Congressmen and Senators.
• Obesity.  No good news.  Besides promoting diabetes mellitis and hypertension, it is reported to pre-dispose to eight different types of cancer.  Stay tuned on this web site very soon for a new initiative on this subject: The Mediterranean Diet and Life-style.
• The Senator from France and Germany is criticizing President Bush's planned troop realignment.  Besides 150,000 troops in Afganistan and Iraq, we have 100,000 in Europe and 100,000 in Asia, all part of a years' long "forward defense-expeditionary force" military policy that we have established.  "Pre-emptive Self-Defense" has merely been the implementation of that policy after 9/11.  Where has the Senator been all this time?  What is planned is to make optimum use of those forces to support the underlying policy.
• World Oil Production may already have peaked - forever, according to experts like Kenneth DeFays and T. Boone Pickens.  Since 40% of the world's economy and 90% of its transportation industry depends directly on the supply of oil, the world had better start planning for a change in that foundation ASAP.  Could we possibly solve that problem and the global warming problem at the same time?
• Talk about ingrates.  The Iraq soccer team members are protesting President Bush's observation that there is a connection between their ability to compete in Athens without fear of repirsals...and the sacrifice of over 800 Americans and billions of dollars in their behalf.  Well, maybe the Iraqi people will earn their democracy - and maybe not.

TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY, August 24 and 25, 2004

The following requires no comment:

Did you see the Denzel Washington interview with Katie Couric on NBC last Friday morning (13 August 2004)?

 Not many people are talking about it. They are wishing it would go away and are trying to sweep it under the rug.

********************

Meryl Streep and Denzel were on the today show "live" with Katie Couric to talk about the movie "Manchurian Candidate."

At one point Katie asked Denzel, "have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11?" To which Denzel replied, "No, and I have no intentions on seeing it."  Katie and Meryl were "so noticeably" taken aback.  It was so cool!  Then, a discourse (or more preferably, a fight!) began between all three of them with Denzel being barraged with all kinds of anti-Bush, anti-republican comments, but "the man stood his ground" and soon enraged the women so much that they couldn't get a word in edgewise. Meryl Streep turned blood red and she sat with her legs crossed and her one leg shaking up and down, fuming!

Then Katie uttered the words that put the final nail in her coffin, she said to Denzel "you see, that's the problem I have with "you people."

She of course did not get to finish her sentence because Denzel pounced on her verbally by responding "YOU PEOPLE! YOU PEOPLE! Just what do you mean you people! Do you mean "You People" as in me as a Christian, or do you mean "You People" as in me as a REPUBLICAN?

She then tap danced her way through the next minute of the show.  But Denzel went out fighting and declaring that Fahrenheit 9/11 is nothing but propaganda and lies distorted to support a cynical democratic film director's views.

There's a celebrity that de serves to wear the uniform in movies and I don't mind at all.

Author Unknown

A recent interview on National Public Radio regarding the future of democracy in Iraq was refreshing...in that the person being interviewed actually knew what he was talking about.  Retired Colonel Patrick Lang is the former Chief of Middle East Intelligence for the Defense Intelligence Agency.  In contrast to so many members of the liberal media and also the public (the "Anybody but Bush" crowd) who wring their hands (and hope for the worst?) over the wreckage-strewn efforts toward that end, Col. Lang expressed the insight that everything is going according to standard Middle East practice.  That is, the many factions always present are talking, lying, maneuvering, fighting and dying to obtain their maximum piece of the power pie.  The role of the U.S. in such a contest is to gradually compress the field of battle so as to focus attention to the point where negotiation or death are the only options.  This is what is being done, actually and figuratively, in Iraq and in Afganistan.  It's not pretty; but it's the right game plan...and it is going according to plan for that strange part of the world.

GS

SUNDAY, August 22, 2004

A very busy news cycle...and not much of it good.

• More from "The Banana Republic of U.S.A."  Four years after the experience of the "hanging chads" and the myopic efforts of that famous Florida Judge who won it for "W", we have the prospect of more of the same, and computerized machines that can be hacked and that are without paper backup.  On top of that, today's New York Daily News reports that over 46,000 voters are registered in both N.Y.C. and in Florida, and that over 4,000 of them have already requested absentee ballots...to allow them to vote twice (p4).  What in the name of "democracy" is going on here?
• Meanwhile, Laura Bush is George W. Bush's secret weapon.
• What's this about Army M.D.'s in Iraq?  When I served in the Army Medical Corps in Germany,  I had to uphold medical ethics when faced personally with an inappropriate question from General Creighton Abrams regarding his tank commander and my patient.  But then, I actually took the Oath of Hippocrates.
• McCain-Feingold Law is a worthy but very imperfect effort to bring some sanity to political fund-raising.  In addition, beware dilution of the Right of Free Speech, the most important freedom we have as Americans.  That law needs to be re-visited, and soon.
• Yes, Ohio and many other areas in America have lost jobs - probably permanently - to globalization.  But the refrain here should be RETRAIN!  And the Federal Government should appriach that task just as FDR approached the Great Depression, with programs like the WPA and CCC.
• Talk about "refrain".  As discussed on a few occasions in this section, Microsoft and other software manufacturers should be sued under Class Action in Product Liability for a product which is "defective, unreasonably dangerous".  As reported recently by Walter S. Mossberg in the WSJ (Thursday, August 19, 2004, Marketplace, pB1): "Microsoft has paid so little attention to security over the years that consumers who use Windows have been forced to spend more and more of their time and money fending off viruses, hackers, spyware and spam".  And now we read that "Spammers, virus writers might be working in cahoots" (by David Sheets, in The Day today, Business, pF6).  Where are all the trial lawyers when we need them?  Or are they all doing the easy work, chasing ambulances?
• The Bush administration may be falling into the same trap, which it escaped early on, in Israel as the prior administration did regarding Taiwan: intentional ambiguity.  It was dangerous in the Taiwan issue, until replaced with clear messages to all concerned.  It is even more dangerous in Israel and the Middle East.  No way should we be condoning more Jewish settlements in either Gaza or on the West Bank - even if it is an election year.  President Bush, follow your gut here, not the emanations from your pollsters and from Foggy Bottom.

SATURDAY, August 21, 2004

• "Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on".  In the same article reporting this quote is the reminder that "in a campaign shadowed by the war on terrorism and in Iraq, Kerry's valorous combat experience is a cornerstone of his campaign."  (The Day, Friday, August 20, 2004, Nation, p A4).  I have stated my view, in an earlier offering in this section, about exercises in parsing Armed Forces duty like a sixth grade English sentence.   Those of us who served, whenever and wherever, answered the call and took our chances.  It is John Kerry who put his service so prominently into contention.  Now we are not looking for a "debate", but just for the facts.  Any problem with that, Senator?
• Lord, save us from the "Holy Men"!  Whether it is the Catholic clergy of recent notoriety or the more recently reported insistence on a wheat Holy Communion wafer for a child with Celiac Disease (this relating to the Great Healer); or the Muslim clerics of Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East - who place everything secondary to their quest for political power; or the rabbis of Israel who insist on crafting a Theocracy from the only true democracy in that part of the world..with designs on the Israel of the Bible, regardless of the legitimate claims of other peoples; we non-clergy types would do well to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's".
• Now some comments on issues of local (New London, Ct.) interest.  1) The coming referendum on the city's tax ordinance would not be necessary if the processes for reporting understandably the city's income and liabilities were more transparent...and if the City Council were more demanding of the City Manager - their employee - with regard to facts and explanations.  The current state of affairs, and the current lack of effective oversight by this City Council (as contrasted with the one of which I was a member, 1975-77) does raise serious questions regarding whether we should consider conversion to a strong mayoral form of government. We need more accountability.  2) The Day's editorial yesterday ("An Obligation To Speak Up", Opinion, pA8) has it right on all counts addressed.  However, according to dependable sources, two central issues were not highlighted pertaining to the pedestrian bridge under consideration.  The "right of authorship" is at work here, with the City Administration resistant to any changes in a plan in which they are personally heavily invested.   Furthermore, Amtrak invested over $1 Million in the current plans, mainly to insure that Amtrak passengers would benefit substantially from the construction.  Neither of these heavy hitters (the former just by being passive-aggressive) is going to go away; both will have to be soothed.  Who is taking the lead here?!

FRIDAY, August 20, 2004

There are two main themes underlying this Presidential election.  One comes from the "Anybody but Bush" crowd.  Folks, now do you really mean "anybody"?  The second pits those of us who stand for "America First"...to be distinguished from "Fortress America"...against the "internationalists", the "multilateralists", the "globalists" about whom I have commented recently in this section.  The projection of American strength and of single-minded purpose are producing results around the world:

• In North Korea, where a dangerous regime is now surrounded by like-minded opponents regarding their nuclear capabilities (China and Russia).  See the article by James Baker lll in the WSJ, August 16, pA12;
• In Afganistan, where free elections will soon be held...really;
• In Iraq, where free elections will soon be held...really;
• In Saudi Arabia, which is finally cooperating (see WSJ August 6, pA12);
• In Russia, whose critical role in world oil supplies is producing more responsible and responsive government, at least vis a vis America;
• In the "new" European Union, more democratic and capitalistic than the "old Europe of France and Germany (see WSJ August 16, pA12).

GS

MONDAY through THURSDAY, August 16 through 19, 2004

It is getting harder and harder to keep up with the nonsense, hypocracy and cynicism belching forth from John Kerry...but I'll keep trying.

• So the recent alarms and the change in terror alert were all "politically motivated".  Enter the recent arrests in England and related new intelligence discoveries.  Where do we go to read the apologies?
• Kerry won't put nuclear wastes in Yucca Mountain (WSJ August 3, pA11).  Then where will he put them...or will he keep them in our back yards - literally.
• Kerry wants to make sure that no one gets more out of Social Security than he or she contributed into the plan.  That would mean a reduction in SS payments of over 80% for retired persons who contributed all their lives.  Is that what you mean to do, Senator? (WSJ August 17, pA18).
• Kerry is against the recently announced troop re-allignments world-wide over the next few years.   That bumper sticker has it just right:

GS

SUNDAY, August 15, 2004

A lot of issues for today.  Some of these, as has been the case throughout this section, relate to local problems involving New London, CT, often as reported in The Day.

• In The Day today (section A4) we read that President Bush has decided to bring home over 70,000 American troops and 100,000 families and support personel from overseas, mostly from Europe.  At long last!
• New London county has become home to the most successful casinos in the world.  Now we have to figure out whether the Utopia proposal for the former Norwich Hospital grounds is a royal flush or a pair of twos.
• Why citizens get cynical about their government: a contractor running a one hundred million dollar construction project could only be fined a maximum of $14,000. after his negligence was found to have caused the collapse of a crane with loss of life.  There's a lot good with this country...and a lot that needs serious work.
• Another article about the "Skull and Bones Society" of Yale University, of which both President Bush and Senator Kerry are members.  Such organizations as this have elite members who reportedly aspire to - or who indeed - run the world.  Nothing wrong with that...as long that they do it through the democratic process.  Then there are those "multilateralists" who love extra-national organizations.They  wouldn't be caught dead on a ballot, but they want to establish a parallel world government - with them in charge; like Dr. No of "007" fame.  Watch out for them among the "elite".
• An article in The Day today (section C1) investigates "The Politics of Hatred" (by Gary Alan Fine, The Washington Post).  It is worth reading, especially by "Bush haters".  Get a grip, folks.  But in addition to the psychology of the phenomenon, there is the reality. If you tell a person a lie, you irritate him.  If you tell him the truth, you infuriate him.
• Governor Jim McGreevey is getting an awful lot of press in recent days.  But his self-inflicted problems have nothing to do with his declaration: "I am a gay American".  So? Now tell us why you really are resigning the governorship.  We'll find out soon enough.
• Various commentators, including the editors of The Day today, bemoan the selection of Porter Goss as the new Director of the CIA as being "partisan".  By most accounts, the man is highly qualified; and he is a reformer...just what the organization needs at this time.  Besides, show me - especially this year - a person who is "non-partisan" and I will show you a liar.
• Stem cell research: this year's code word for "abortion", the intentional taking of a human life.  Of course, the New York Times has weighed in on the predictable side of the debate (today, Editorials/letters, wk p10).  It's easy when you don't have a moral compass and ignore clear scientific fact for expediency.  As noted in yesterday's offering in this section, there is a viable compromise offered by this observer.  Does anyone want to solve the problem...or just keep it as another divisive issue this year?

MONDAY through SATURDAY, August 9 through 14, 2004

Too long an interval...but it was family time again.

• Some recent reflections on the Kerry campaign: 1) On Iraq, on questioning his views, he said "this is a goal, not a plan".   That puts him in the same category as the rest of us; 2) All of his plans in foreign affairs are founded on his complete reliance on the good will and cooperation of foreign countries.  Given the history of this country, both recent and remote, that is a foolish position; 3) As coined by the Bush camp, Senator Kerry continues to serve up "new nuances".  We're at war, Senator.  Where's the black and white? 4) This supposed Catholic who is supposedly "personally opposed to abortion"...but who nevertheless voted against the partial birth abortion ban, dismisses opposition to stem cell harvesting from living human embryos as "placing ideology over science".  How disingenuous is that!  There are thousands of people in this country waiting for organ transplants.  Perhaps we should pass a law mandating the donation of organs by randomly selected citizens to fill the need.  Or then again, we could be rational and helpful and allow the use of unused living products of infertility treatments forever doomed to a nitrogen bath.  That would be consistent with both morality and science, and would even be a "nuance".  Senator Kerry, I continue to be "underwhelmed".

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, August 7 and 8, 2004

Another busy news cycle.

• We read that home schooling, now acknowledged as very effective, continues to be blocked directly and indirectly by the Education Establishment.  Those are the people that have given us: "mainstreaming" of all students, regardless of ability...or disability; "value neutral" environment; emphasis on "self-image", even without its having been earned; freedom from, rather than of religion: prohibition of choice of schools for parents; inability and/or unwillingness to establish a disciplined environment in which to learn; etc, etc. And all the while they were doing raw experimentation on humans in the form of "new Math", "new" reading methods.... American can learn from our Latin American neighbors, some of whom have declared their education system to be "in crisis", at least one of which (the Dominican Republic) having entered into a cooperative relationship with  Catholic schools, which know how to teach and to get results.
• On the infrequent occasions when we hear or read of any good news coming from Iraq, you can hear and see the grimacing by the liberal reporters.  Now we start to read of "concerns" that the interim Prime Minister, Dr. Alawi, may be acting too autocratically, this in new nation in crisis.  Where do these idiots come from?
• Regarding the relationship between the United States and some other countries, we read in various articles "Why do they hate us"?  The short answer is "Who cares"?  The longer answer is not much more complicated, whether regarding "Old Europe" or the despotic Middle East regimes and their goons.  Ultimately, he who knows human nature can predict the future.
• Rights and Responsibilities.  Individual and Societal Needs.  Yet another focus for these questions, besides the issue of personal privacy vs. homeland security, appears in today's The Day (Perspective, pC3) entitled "Drunken Drivers: The New Witch Hunt?", by Radley Balko.  Alcohol is an addictive drug responsible for most of the over 50,000 automobile deaths yearly in this country.  It is also a poison for the brain, the heart and the liver.  People who want to kill themselves can do so in private.  But stay off the roads that my family and I travel...or go to jail for a long time.
• "Wha'd he say?!"  The more I hear the intonations of Senator Kerry on every subject, the more I think that I must have come down with a form of selective aphasia.  This politico's campaign fare is worse than Chinese food: it satisfies you for an instant - until you clear your plate.  What an art!

THURSDAY and FRIDAY, August 5 and 6, 2004

• About now, many Democrats must be starting to reconsider the folly of their mantra "Anybody But Bush".  Considering the choice they are stuck with, "anybody" was much too broad a category.  John Kerry's latest attack on the earliest response of President Bush to the news of the 9/11 attacks is "over the top" and reveals his lack of judgment.  Stay tuned.  More evidence is coming.
• When is a church, a synagogue, or a mosque desecrated by its own members? When it is converted into a fort or a hiding place for active combatants.  In recent days we have seen more evidence of that in Iraq and in Albany, N.Y.  In such cases, it becomes merely a legitimate target, at least for national Iraqi forces over there.
• Good news - bad news.  When national TV news shows have nothing else to report, ad nauseam, than murders and rapes, we know that there is either no bad news or rather good news coming out of Iraq.  Forget about hearing any good news from there being reported by the left-leaning media.  But fear not!  If it's facts you want, go no further than the daily Wall Street Journal.  Some recent examples: Want to know about Europe's vote for our President ("Europe's Choice") or the Democrats "Rush to Czardom" immediately following the 9/11 Commission's massive report, or another real danger - besides al Qaeda - to this country ("Hijacked by the 'Privocrats'"), or a forthcoming book by a psychologist and political scientist on the choice between Kerry and Bush ("Voter's Choice: Slow Down or Speed Up"), just read the Opinion sections of the WSJ on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  And so it is daily.  No reason to depend on 30 second sound bites or top-like spins or selective news reporting.  And no reason for ignorance.  Folks, our world is just a little too dangerous for ignorance.  Remember that on Election Day.

SUNDAY through WEDNESDAY, August 1 through 4, 2004

There is developing a note of hysteria, not to mention irresponsibility, in the messages John Kerry and his Democrats have been sending this week: the President, that liar who "mis-led us into war", is now allegedly playing crass politics with intelligence regarding another terrorist attack on our homeland.  We don't need "Code Orange"; but we do need to adopt immediately all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission...before most legislators including Senator Kerry have had a chance to read them in toto.   Such actions are not only divisive with regard to the conduct of this war; they are corrosive and subversive regarding the necessary level of trust citizens need to have in their leaders at such times of crisis.   These are voices of desperation.  Meanwhile, President Bush leads with a steady hand, supported by both diplomatic and military teams, as the news from both Afganistan and Iraq show more and more that the indiginous populations have gotten the idea: they must fight for their own freedom and democracy.  Senator Kerry, you are just not ready for prime time.

GS