Bob White's Ruminations

America's National Pastime

2012-02-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

In reading today's newspaper this morning and yeah only one day's worth, I gleaned these words. Now you have to guess what they are talking about.

The words were "outgunned," "axed," put in "boot hill," "destroys," "hammers," "rubs them out," "into Death Valley," "rips apart," "put the hurt on,"
"it's curtains," "all over," "fight to the end,", "whack," "eliminate," "crushed," "strangled," "deep sixed," "bombed," "scalped, " skinned."

If you guessed it was a bloody African tribal war between the Hutoos and the Tutus, you have guessed wrong. These words were used in the sports
section of the local daily newspaper describing football games. Yes, football. Do these dumb sports writers really think that people do these things to
other people in a football game? Maybe some do, but I"m smarter than that.

Just who are these sports writers writing for? I confess I do not know. I was a football fan when I was younger and played a lot of it. Somewhere along the
way I've seemed to have grown out of it.. Use of these silly metaphors by the writers indicates that growing out of it was the mature thing to do. I have an
idea of what level of IQ reads this monotonous sports tripe--somewhere between luke warm and a peculating level.

Mark Twain once wrote that you could get an idea of the intelligence of a populace by "the size of it's sports section in the local paper." I can't argue with that.
I'll one up him on that by saying--and the size of the big screen TV bought for the purpose of watching these lethargic and mind numbing sports of football or baseball.

You typically get about 4 seconds of action and then a minute of do nothing except them scratching their asses unless there is a commercial and then it is interminable
between these 4 seconds of action. Plus you have to listen the talking heads to give you a diatribe about what you just saw. Do these sports announcers really think
that everyone is so visually impaired or do they think people are so stupid they don't understand what they have just seen?

I think that sports announcers are smart and realize the sport is mind numbing boring and they have to create some excitement. Hence they have to use violent
metaphors. Otherwise the viewing public would be in a semi-comotose state sitting in their reclining chairs taking a snooze on a Sunday afternoon. I mean like
they don't do it during the game? Ha! Not even their exciting colorful language with death metaphors can keep a guy awake after cramming down all sorts of
munchies and two six packs of beer.

Then to my utter astonishment, I hear people say they can't wait to see the Super Bowl in order to see the new ads that Corporate America inflicts on them.
Yeah, ads that are designed to manipulate the dumbed down to buy crap they don't need with money they don't have. And they can't wait to see these ads???

To say that their lives are unexamined are boring is like saying fat meat is greasy.

I also have the notion that the biggest and most rabid fans never played football. These people are vicariously living in a subliminal way. ie They identify with the
players and fantasize that they are playing. Why not? We all know that in high school and college the players got the girls. They are wrong tho.'
The lineman didn't. I know because I was a lineman and never had any gals swarming over me or if they did I was too damn dumb to recognize it.

I did like college ball back in the fifties and sixties when a fan could relate to team that represented his geographical area. Most, if not all, of the players
were local boys. Not now. They're from all over the world. I just quit connecting to the teams due to lack of affinity with any of them.

For you football challenged people, I will explain why and how a team wins. At varying times during the game the announcers will tell you in these words.

The team with the most "drive," heart," "depth," "desire," "wants", "cares," "ball control," and "emotions will win. Or to put it like Coach Brown of Kansas put it
when he said, "We'll be going into it blind and it will boil down to whoever adapts the best to the weather and other team's game plan." How profound! That's
the epitome of the most pithiest statement without substantive content that I've ever read. I'm under whelmed with his knowledge of the game. But then again,
maybe he understands his audience.

Coaches and players always say, "We'll just take it one game at a time." Jumping Jesivious, is there any other mathematical way? I wish they would take twelve
games at a time and get this orgiastic ritual over so people could reclaim their Sunday afternoons and something exciting and productive such as hang gliding,
riding their motorcycle, climbing a mountain and even developing their brain by reading and writing.

Lastly, the most overused statement that every coach, announcer and players has used is this----"It's a mental game." Yeah right. If you believe they give an
IQ test to the players instead of testing them on the forty yard dash, I got a bridge to sell you and you will also probably believe that Romney and Gingrich don't lie.
But again, maybe those people who say such things understand the viewing public better than most.

My distant cousin played pro ball until he was in his late thirties and was MVP at tight end more times than I can remember told me, "But Bob, you
got to remember that it's just show business for the masses."

See you later sports fans.

Bob White Feb 5, 2012

PS 'Spect I'll get some nasty comments from people who don't recognize parody. Save your wrath response. The only response I would like to see
is that it's a decent piece of satirical writing.

Up to Date Diversions & Fears Inflicted On the Masses

2011-10-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

The latest up to date diversions and fears fostered upon the U.S. masses by the millionaire TV talking heads who shout up hate and fear and the more they do it, the more money they make and help themselves to ensure their position in the 24 hour cable TV news(propaganda) business. Oh yes, some right wingnut politicians both in and out of office are fanning the fear fantasys of the masses also.

Salmonella from eggs. Since most people don't eat them raw and cook them, no problem.
Just another hysteria that rears it's head like the various flus, lettuce, Dengue fever in Florida, etc. These media made hysterias come around just like regular return visits of hurricanes. Expect them.

Poor baseball player Roger Clemens. Imagine, congress is charging him with lying about steroid use. Gee, a bunch of truthful legislators are actually charging a baseball legend with lying. Imagine that!

Building a Muslim community center two blocks from the 9-11 site. Like who gives a shit. It neither causes me to lose money or make money, eat or not eat, have fun or not have fun. Religion is religion---the people infected by all religions are going to do what they want in their fervent zeal. Even the founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, said he could not fight against religious ignorance. Go back to the 1920s and see what an uproar was caused by putting up a Jewish Temple in certain neighborhoods. Or witness the outcry in the small southern Baptist towns when a Catholic church was being built in the twenties.Or more recently, A Catholic for President like Kennedy. Hell no. The M&M's , Mexican and Muslim are going to
be the object of hate and fear with that slice of the our citizenry who feel less than adequate. Last time I read our Constitution, the part about Religious freedom was not cut out.

For my part, I don't care for the dark forces of religious superstition and don't care for any religion. But, the Constitution allows anyone to build a structure to bay at the moon if they want to.

Illegal aliens and Arizona law and subsequent overturning of it in Fed. court. Why hell, those Spanish speaking Indo-Hispanics such as Juan the dishwasher are going to bankrupt this country and cause every English speaking person to be deaf , dumb and mute as they will not be able to understand what's going on. Every damn grape, cherry, tomato, orange picking one of them should be rounded up and sent where they came from. The same goes for every tile laying, brick laying, landscaping, framing and roofing brown skin SOB should be removed from our pure blood society.
Just because their work product help build America doesn't mean doodly squat. We need to change our Constitution and not allow their offspring born in the US, even those who serve in our military, to stay here.

Obama is a closet Muslim born in Kenya who wants to convert this country to Islam and while doing so wants to change our form of government into some socialistic, fascistic , Islamist, Nazism, communist form. He definitely is not a Christian like our citizens. It's a good cynical ploy to distract from the real issues. It's a sugarcoated high for millionaire talk show hosts who stroke their celebrity chins in puzzlement while promoting disingenuous diatribes about free speech and sacred free markets and the American Dream. The democrats are saying he needs to show more Christianity by seeing him prostate in prayer at a church and the republicans are saying he's a muslim. Not to all---Our Constitution specifically declares that there is no religious test or requirement to be President or hold public office.

This is: Saturday Night Battle of the Blowhards - the World Wrestling vs. Raw video game of American media culture. Nothing is more fun than a zealot, a microphone and two minutes of hate. The ratings jump and the pundit's paychecks zoom higher in direct proportion to the level of controversy.

Gay marriage in California court case. Hell, that's going to affect our blissful heterosexual marital conditions in this country notwithstanding that 50 of modern marriages end up in divorce and 40% of children born in the United States are bastards. Poor Sara Palin's bastard grandchild-- Deuteronomy 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD. Since gays do not produce bastards, it would see to be a good thing if they could marry and would encourage the morality of only having sex within marriage.

Returning the marginal Fed. Tax rate before Bush only for the couples making over $250,000--wow! going from 36% to 39.6%. Whoooo! A whopping 3.6% increase for those whose NET INCOME after deductions is over $250,000. ie the GROSS income would
generally have to be north of $350,000. We're paying the lowest marginal rates in my lifetime. U.S. Corporations pay the lowest effective tax rate anywhere. Because of the thousands of corporate deductions and use of offshore tax sheltering corporations. The right wing pundits would have you believe that our economy would get legs again if we lowered taxes and all would be hunky dory. You can't lower any lower than zero which most oil companies pay.

Mandatory health insurance unconstitutional. Forget auto insurance which is mandatory and Homeowners and Flood if you have a mortgage.So mandatory health insurance is unconstitutional , but auto, home and flood no. Go figure Senator blowhard.

Al Quai da is under ever rock and in every country and if we don't hunt them down and exterminate every single last one of them, they will descend on us like locusts and cut our heads off. They will come by land, air and sea. They will sneak across our porous borders. They will fly in courtesy of American Airlines. They will make balsa rafts and mount a beach landing. Be afraid. Beeee very afraid. Common sense
tells any rational person that for every one you kill, you create two or more. Why we can spend trillions killing them through this century. Well, we could if we don't go broke first.

Lindsey Lohans future after being incarcerated. This is important to know and talk about.

Is Bret Favre really going to return and play for the Vikings?

Is Tiger Woods finished?

There's new ones every week. It's hard to keep up with the newest methods to sedate and divert the American public from serious issues that can bring down our
Republic like lowered educational expectations, off shoring of jobs, bloated defense(offense) spending, rising health care costs, budget deficits, trade deficits, etc

Meanwhile, China and Russia and I suspect a lot of other countries are patiently doing their thing and watching the crumbling of the American Empire due
to the disfunctionality of it's evolved social structure and diversion from reality. They can readily see that our political system is total chaos and our people
are fearful and confused with a crashing economy. They know that the military/industrial complex has ballooned for the sake of profit and is adverse to
the American citizen's interests. Most of the major corporate sectors such as Big Pharma, Medical and Hospital Corporations, Oil Corporations, Media
Corporations, Banking and Financial Corporations are adverse to the common citizen's interest. It's all about profit and corporate responsibility to society be damned.

Our elected officials, aided and abetted by millions of corporate lobbyists have become corrupt petty thieves for their millions in corporate donations.
You Joe Blow and Mary Nobody don't stand a chance against this corporate bribery. You nobodies are also being media manipulated against your own interests.

After a couple of days of driving through back roads(not the interstates) and rural communities which we do every summer, I can positively tell you we have a lot of growth in two facets of American life. The growth of "Jesus" churches and the raw poverty of our people. If you sit in the comfort of your home watching TV, you might
not notice the "Jesusification" of America unless you listen to the many evangelical TV and radio stations. You definitely will not confront the raw face of utter poverty
that I have seen spread over the same back roads for 30 years. I now see every summer huge increases of rural poverty. Such increases have been phenomenal in the last 10 years. I couldn't have imagined it.

I'm not hopeful. American's anger and fear has been manipulated against their own best interests and they haven't caught on. Diverted and sedated from economic reality, there seems little hope. There's an old saying I learned as a young man from a farmer. "It's hard to have your head in fantasy land when you're walking in cow shit." Well, in today's climate, it doesn't seem to hard.

So be it after a few days of being on the road again and experiencing the real Americana and writing about it and pissing off a few who might read this.

Bob White

PS Oh yes, thank you George W. Bush for the invasions of Muslim countries and allowing hundreds of thousands of Somalian, Iraqui, Afghanistan refugees to repatriate to our country to
enjoy the freedom to practise Islam. Why over a 100,000 thousand of them were relocated to Florida alone. Kinda reminds one of the Vietnam refugee wave doesn't it.

Ten Things I Don't Understand About People

2011-10-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

1. People who don't like motorcycles-- I was attracted to them as a little kid. It's probably genetic.People have been riding horses for thousands of years. They have sat upon them the same way you sit on a motorcycle. After thousands of years , I'm sure there is a genetic component to have a mode of transportation between your legs. I use to love horses and rode extensively as a young man. The problem with horses is that you have to saddle and bridle them. When finished riding, you have to
remove the saddle and bridle and store them then you have to curry the horse down and feed it. It's a damn chore. With a motorcycle , I just park it and forget it. Also, if Carmen and I had to ride one horse to Alaska like we did my Harley, we would still be riding and probably would have gone through 3 or 4 horses. Believe me. There's nothing more fun than being on an open back road through mountains
on a motorcycle.

2. People who do not like to travel----To me the world has always been an oyster. It's like one giant candy store where you never run out of new types of candy to taste. Although I have a lot of formal education, the travels that I have done in my life and still do have educated me in a way that college could never do. We live on a little ball suspended in space. This little ball is so different depending upon the location. Different people, different languages, different food, different culture, different architecture and different histories. I guess some of us are born with a driving innate curiosity about this little globe and it's surface contents. I was fortunate to have been born with this drive and can say I'm a better person for it. It teaches one tolerance and understanding of your fellow globe occupant. Provincial, I'm not.

Mark Twain said it best when he wrote, "It liberates the dullard to travel--you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn,masterminded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born and thought God made the world and dyspepsia and bile for his especial comfort and satisfaction. Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad,wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

3. Religions-----I've never understood religious people. I have never been religious since a little boy and frankly, I've never believed in some invisible guy in the sky that could intervene in my life. I realize that the culture one is born in is the big determinant of how one thinks. But, I never understood how rational thinking people could not overcome these superstitions. I'm not just talking about Christianity, but all religions contemporary or in the past. We live in modern times where carbon dating is done and archeologists continue to make discoveries about our ancestors. Modern genetic studies reflects a continuous genetic map of how we crawled out of the African region. How can a rational person believe that some God blew into a piece of dirt and made man and then yanked a rib from him and made women. PS We still have the same number of ribs on either side. Have can you read the Bible and not understand that these were the writings of ancient Arab scribes who had no concept of modernity as we do? Can't people accept the fact that no one knows why or how life forms are on this planet without making up fantasy reasons?
It's not hard to say these few words of "I don't know." What is the need for having a make believe "Father?" We all had real fathers and that's enough.

4. Forgiveness---I've never understood people who don't forgive others for perceived slights. I've had close friends who have stabbed me in the back in business and otherwise. I've forgiven them. Many, I still maintain a friendship with. At least the ones still alive. At my age, many have passed on. I try not to
hold grudges as I'm more the victim than they are. I admit it is hard to forgive, but realized in later life that I was doing more damage to myself by holding onto those feelings. I learned to let 'em go.

5. People who get personal and mad when discussing a subject----This, I've never understood. I can sit and argue and discuss my position from daylight to dark and will never get personal with the one I'm in disagreement with. I don't dislike a person who doesn't agree with me on politics or any other subject. I dislike them when they get personal and mad. There are some people I have disagreed with strongly in my life yet we've remained friends. I treasure them. They will stick to the subject and we can but heads all night over drinks and neither of us will get mad. Those people are few and far between that can discuss on an academic level in a civil
manner. They don't say "aww shit. You don't know what you're talking about." They say this because they don't have the experience or intellectual level to give any other reply. I try to avoid them in my old age as much as possible, but since I'm a highly social person and go enjoy the social life in bistros, I have run into them occasionally. It also depends upon the level of education of the bar patrons. I almost never run across those types of people in Jinja where I go 2 or 3 times a week here in Albuquerque. I've enjoyed tremendous mind soaring conversations and have learned much. Also tremendous discussions where we disagree and don't get personal and are still friends. It's a rare bistro for sure.

6. People with a lack of curiosity about things-----To me everything is a subject of inquiry and observation. You may think I'm crazy when I've posted picture and video of the huge ant pile next to my Albuquerque place. These are very large black ants a half inch long that do not bite. I can observe them for an hour at a time. I learned that they will carry one who has died to the same burial location some 15 feet away.
I've watched them cooperate in the moving of a fairly large rock. I normally feed them once a day with some piece of fruit and watch them gratefully eat it. They crawl on my shoes and ankles and I gingerly pick them off. Believe me, they are intelligent. It's just we cannot communicate with them. I can stare at the hummingbird's behavior for hours at a time on my balcony. The different species have predictable diferent behaviour. I've driven people all over the Western states in my car showing them highlights of areas. I've noticed that many of the people don't hardly ever look out the window , but instead stare straight ahead as if fixated on the road. They don't observe anything and after the trip cannot describe what they have seen. One time I drove a very close friend of mine to Brownsville, Tx Louisiana and we were returning when I inadvertently went to the right on Hwy 77 where there is a Y intersection about 8 miles from downtown Corpus Christi, Tx. I had gone about four miles when I realized my mistake and said to my friend, what the hell, you've never seen Corpus and the ocean front let's just go and I'll show it to you. His reply---"Shit, you see one city, you've seen them all." I said OK and wheeled the car around. What can you say to uncurious people like him? He also is the
type that stares straight ahead. I'm still vitally interested in people. They , to me, are the most interesting life forms on earth. I try to read them quickly and am fairly good at it due to being a lifelong salesman. I don't get fooled very much unless the persona has a latent mental or emotional illness which cause them to change in a millisecond. Believe me, there are a lot of them out there who seem normal. I have visited all of the many Indian ruins here in New Mexico. Many are way out of the way. I revisit many also and just sit on one of their stone structures
and imagine what kind of life went on in these ancient pueblos. I have read extensively on the Anasazi Indians which is the generic term for all the ancient Indians that inhabited the area of New Mexico, Eastern Arizona and Southern Colorado. They are the ones that were not nomadic like the plains Indians and built many cities and cave dwelling. Some of their Pueblos had as many as 3,000 rooms and up to four stories in height. I'm curious about any and everthing.

7. People who do not read and learn thoughout life---This has always been a puzzle to me. I suppose it goes to what I've written above. Lack of curiosity of how man has arrived to the point of where he is today. I read voraciously out of a desire to learn about any and everything. No, I don't read fiction. I read to learn about medicine, physics, science, sociology, history, politics, traveling, finances, etc. I want to know about what smarter people than I know so I can be a little smarter. Education and learning is a lifelong process. It doesn't stop in high school or the university where you get a smattering of knowledge. No, it is a continual process until you die. Most people come to an abrupt halt in leaning after their formal education.

Let's say you have a degree in engineering or geology. Well, you might know about those subjects, yet have almost no knowledge outside your baliwick. This is the rule
rather than the exception. In order to fill in your knowledge, then you must read and read about other areas of knowledge to make yourself a whole being. Then, I've known people who graduated from college, but the college did not go through them. They just about forgot every thing they were supposed to have learned the day after
graduation. There are many of those walking about also. Then, I've known individuals who dropped out of high school,say in the 10 grade, who have self educated themselves with more reasoning powers and knowledge than some PHDs.I'm enthralled with these types of people. Yes, learning is a life long endeavor.

8. People who do not like to be out in nature--I can't figure this one out either. I love to be out in the deep woods, mountains and desert. I hike and mountain bike almost daily when I'm in Albuquerque. I seldom see people up on the trails overlooking the metro area of Albuquerque which is a million people. I see deer, elk, snakes, Bob White quail, coyotes and all sorts of other animals and birds up in these mountain trails. I sit and wonder as I look down upon the city and why aren't there more people up here enjoying the natural beauty. Beats the hell out of me.

9. People who do not like boating. ----I've always had some sort of boat from a young kid at 10yrs. old when I had a 14ft. Thompson wood boat and a 5hp Royal outboard. I've had all sorts of boats since then. I had a Rhodes 19 sailboatin New Orleans which I sailed on Lake Ponchartrain as a single man. I had a 17ft Starcraft with a 90hp Evinrude in New Orleans after I married. When I moved to Brownsville, Tx, I immediately bought a used 23ft open console powered by an inline 6 cyl.Volvo engine and outdrive. I would take this craft out as far as 50 miles into gulf by myself and troll. Later on, I sold it and bought a 35ft. Pearson sailboat and sailed it many years. In Florida, I've had many boats culminating with my 35 Chaparral. I've always loved to be out on the water. It's a great escape from the maddening crowd. I don't understand people who do not love the water and the ocean. I can sit on my dock and just stare at the water. I do this often just before sundown. Something in my genes I suppose.

10. People who do not dance or sing.----Thankfully I'm married to a lady who would rather dance than go out and buy a bunch of bric a brac crap and who doesn't care for malls. We love to dance and have done it all over the world and will continue to do it until we are physically unable if that ever occurrs. Dancing is therapy. It puts your brain into a zone where the constant chattering of one's mind completely stops. It has the added benefit of exercise. As to singing, I love it even though my singing voice has really deteriorated badly. I don't care. I do it for me as some sorta therapy which I don't understand. I know that most people are self concious about singing and dancing. I don't understand that though. Who cares how you sing or dance? You do if for yourself as a therapeutic stress reliever. It works for us.

"To write is to think, and to write well is to think well," David McCullough

Bob White

People Don't Like Facts

2011-10-02T14:42:00.000-07:00

Funny thing! I still believed in the naive presumption that people still could be swayed by facts.

That is until the last 10 years or so.

I remember when facts settled arguments, but that was before any discussion descended down to a shouting match and back before everything was so partisan, back before it was permissible to simply dismiss any facts that didn't bolster your view.

It use to be if we had an argument and either one of us produced authoritive facts, then either on of us could be persuaded to accept those facts. We might produce different facts in countering the other's facts, but we didn't just dismiss those facts out of hand and pretend these facts didn't exist.

I've had a couple of long time friends who broke friendship with me as they did not like to hear facts as it was irritating to them as these facts went against their world view of how they perceived the world. Facts had nothing to do with their view.

But, that's what has happened in America today. Whether it's the moon landing, death panels or whether Obama was born in Hawaii.

Facts don't mean diddly squat in modern America.

If you listen to talk radio or the motor mouths on the cable news networks or even read the letter to the editor section of your daily newspaper, you can hear and see the most outlandish un factual diatribes found anywhere in the world. Yeah, and they
do it with a straight face full well knowing that the typical American has completely lost the critical thinking skills to discern truth from fiction.

The myriad Internet emails that are received and passed along knocking a particular politician are designed by very smart people who have an agenda and they know that the typical person will pass these vicious attack emails without bothering
to check the facts. Yeah, we as a people are alienated from objective truth and divorced from logic. No one bothers to fact check these emails though Snopes.com, Truth or fiction.com or Urbanlegends.about.com.

We simply will not sift out facts that does not validate what we wish to believe or hear no voices that do not echo ourselves.

But, objective reality does not change because a person refuses to accept it. The fact that you refuse to believe there is tiger does not change the fact that there is a tiger and you shouldn't have to find out by being eaten.

Yep, we've come a long way from that old TV detective series in the fifties where Sgt. Friday would say "just the facts mam."

Bob

The Renaissance Man.

2011-10-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

How does a man become a Renaissance Man and what is a Renaissance Man?

The definition I like from the dictionary is a "Modern learner who is always attempting to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests."

Most men are well trained in their particular avocation. After all, this is how they earn the income to support themselves and their families. They
have little time to pursue other areas of knowledge. The interesting thing about educating yourself beyond the area of supporting yourself is that
the more educated you become about many different areas of knowledge, the more you want to learn. It's like good wine, you want more.

Once a man is relieved of the shoulder harness and walking the same daily path and pulling the same load, a man is free to get off that rutted trail
and explore other trails of knowledge. When we are young, we had the opportunity to do so and now that we're retired we have that opportunity.

For instance, when I was young I read incessantly about any and everything. My parents had bought a set of Compton encyclopedias from a door to
door salesman. In all fairness, the set is about half the number of books in a set today. I would read each book many times over from cover to cover.
I did this between 9 and 12 years old. By doing that, it gave me knowledge that there was a heluva lot more to learn than what they taught you in school.

Also, as a young kid, I learned I could change the points and condensor on my various motor bikes and later on, on my cars. I could change a flat tire on a car or motor bike.I learned to replace the shear pin on my outboard motor. I learned to adjust the solid valve push rods on my 6 cylinder volvo boat engine.

In high school, my spyder gear in the rear end went out due to my popping the clutch on my 51 Ford. I took it out and went to a junk yard and got another
one and spent nearly all day replacing it.

I had a 3 speed transmission on my Harley 45 cubic inch motorcycle. I changed the left foot operated clutch to a suicide clutch by cutting off the lower part and the spring that would hold the clutch engaged. So, in order to stop, I would press the clutch lever down and have to hold it down till I was ready to start moving. I could only stop with my right leg holding the bike up. Unfortunately, I trashed a lot of transmission as when I would shift with my left hand on the shift knob mounted on the left sided of my gas tank, the clutch lever would engage very abrubtly.
I paid for the first transmission rebuild and watched over the mechanics shoulder to show me how. I rebuilt it three times after that.

I have always changed the engine oil and filter on every car I owned until the quick oil change places came out. I got lazy then. But, I do change the oil on my two boat engines as well as the oil on the two outdrives.

The point I'm making is that I was not a trained professional mechanic, but I was willing to learn how to do some mechanical jobs as accomplishing then
was fun and rewarding and leaves you with a sense of accomplishment. I change all the water pump impellers on my boat. When I first did it, it was a knuckle
busting slow process. I've done it so many times now, it's a breeze. I replaced the carburator on the Kohler generator set on my boat after screwing up the old
carburator trying all sorts of things to get it started.

Yes, I will admit I've fixed things until I've broken them. But, I did put the effort in and won't make the same mistake twice.

I'm no electrician. But, I've changed light fixtures, put up many ceiling fans, changed light switches. Well, the electrical panel was dated in our Albuquerque
home and a leak in the garage roof had allowed water to enter the panel. It was badly rusted and the several of the breaker fuses were bad. I could find
no replacements for these fuses as no one made them anymore. I decided to replace the whole damn panel. I dove into it and managed to do it in one full
day last June. I always had it in the back of my head that If I ran into a problem I couldn't solve, I could stop and always call an electrician.

I'm no plumber, but I've replaced bath and kitchen water faucets. Really pretty simple these days with flexible screw on lines. I've replaced a dishwasher here
in my Albuquerque place as well as a garbage disposal. Pretty simple and straight forward. I've replaced many toilets in my various homes over the years.
The hot water heater went out in my Albuquerque home. I went down and picked on up from Lowes and brought it back and Carmen and I replaced it.The only hard part was the soldering which took me a while to get the hang of.

I'm not a tile professional, but I've set 4 inch by 4 inch tiles around every door, window and opening in my Florida home. It took me about a week. I got the
idea from a home I'd seen in California. I've laid saltillo tile and laid broken tiles in a home we had in Louisiana.

I'm not a bricklayer, but have done a lot of repair jobs over the years. The latest were the bricks had all come lose from two large planters by my dock.
It took me a few hours to replace the bad bricks and to straighten the walls etc. I built a brick barbecue pit in a Louisiana home and Carmen and I both
laid a brick patio in the back of the home and erected a 6ft. fence around it.

I'm no professional house painter, but Carmen and I have repainted the exterior of our Florida home twice. I use the roller and she uses the brush for the small
places. Carmen and I put up crown moulding in all our rooms in Florida last year.

The point is, I was never trained in any of these endeavors , but felt that if somebody else can do it, I'll give it a try even if I fail.

Retired as I am, there is no reason why I can't continue to learn about new things.

One damn thing I will never ever do again is fixing a flat. I worked in my uncle's service station one summer when I was 16. I learned to break the tire from
the wheel and repair it. That was hard and it was before the mechanical ones the shops have today. Getting the tire on and off the wheel was not a job
for sissies and especially so for a larger truck tire. I know my right arm doubled in size from swinging the large hammer hitting the crowbar like device.

I'm not a professional welder, but learned to use a gas welder using a wire hanger rod for the weld. I did brazing as a teen ager on a couple of my motor cycles.
we had an ornamental metal door consisting of artistic rods in our house in Texas. They were rusting and falling apart. I went out and bought an Oxi-Accetylene
welding set with the tank. I spent several afternoons replacing the rods and welding them into place. It was fun.

I'm not a professional fiberglass guy. Yet, I took out the fiberglassed wooden floor from my 23ft. console fishing boat in Texas. I cut and replaced all the flooring
on it and fiberglassed the top with 3 layers of fiberglass cloth. My Albuquerque upstairs balcony has a four foot wall around it with a 1 1/2 inch thick board by
12 inches wide that sit on top and runs 18 feet. The wood was become soft and rotted and there were places you could put knife into it and the rotten wood would
leave a hole. I thought about replacing that large board, but then I decided to fiberglass over it. I first slathered on fiberglass resin and let it sink into the rotten wood.I kept giving it a coat every hour until it was a smooth surface. I then put on two layers of fiberglass cloth and resin. It came out beautiful.

It's kinda fun learning new skills.

I decided to finish out my Junior and Senior university years by hopping in my 55 Ford and driving to Mexico City by myself and enrolling in Mexico City College.
I'm still in awe that my parents permitted this. I didn't speak a word of Spanish. Anyway, I graduated with a BA in Foreign trade and later got a Master's in Economic there.

Mexico City College was an affiliate of the Ivy League Brown University and many of my College mates were from dynastic and famous families from both the US and Mexico.
I had to learn to fit in really quick and lose my redneck yahoo persona. People like Phil Grace of the Grace Shipping lines, Bill Andrews whose father invented the process of imprinting on cans, George Sikorsky of the Helicopter company, Mike Bermudez whose dad was the head of the Organization of the American States(OAS) plus many more. The student body was so radically different than LSU and Northwestern State back in Louisiana, that I thought I had landed on an alien planet. Many of the students were from California and the North East. I had never been around people like that before.

Quite a few were younger CIA people who were sent there to give them an international perspective and to learn Spanish to later be placed somewhere in Latin America I stayed in a boarding house the first semester where there were two to a room and my roomate there was Thomas Tuling who was in the CIA and later became a pretty high figure in the agency and who later in my life proved to be a way for me to make some extra cash money which I won't go reveal.

Anyway, by going off to this college, I matured super fast and was introduced into another world and a way of being ,which I otherwise, would not have been if I would have finished my education in Louisiana. Learning Spanish fluently has added to the richness of my life in moving between the two cultures and enjoying the music, literature and the diversity of the Hispanic people consisting of 600 million people below our southern border.

It has been fun learning from traveling all over the world and meeting and conversing will all types of people. Actually walking over the islands in the S. Pacific where blood drained into the ocean from both the Japanese and Americans. One day I walked into the jungle in Saipan on a trail and set down on a fallen log. My imagination took off. I could smell the gun powder and blood and see bodies falling everywhere. I scuba dived in Truk and saw Japanese zeros resting on the bottom of the Truk lagoon with pilots still in their harness and flying gear. That was really spooky and still think about it often. I walked across the runway on Tinian Island where the Enola Gay took off with the atomic bomb. I've seen our landing craft rusting in 4 feet of water. I've seen the shells of our rusting tanks all over the S. Pacific islands. I climbed the mountains in Truk and saw Japanese gun emplacements. It looked like the Japs walked away from them the day before. I went on this odyssey in 1983 by myself for one month.

I've traveled to many places in the Orient. Drank a river in the Phillipines, Singapore and Hong Cong. Played blackjack in Macau, Monaco, France, Italy and England. Visited the New Territories in China.

I've been all over Europe visiting WW2 sites and Roman ruins. For me Spain is the most interesting due to the history of the Arabic interface with Europe where the
Muslims and Jews lived side by side in the most educated place in the world at that time. It was like Methodists and Presbyterians living side by side. Southern Spain had the highest standard of living in the world at that time until the Christian Crusaders under orders from Pope Urban came down and slaughtered them and started the Inquisition. The Arab mosques and Jewish temples are a sight to see in Spain. Magnificent architecture. There are a lot of Roman ruins in Spain also.

It has been fun learning to fly, riding a motorcycle all over the US, Canada and Alaska. I had three very close calls flying. I was flying around Lake Ponchartrain with Carmen in the right seat when she suddenly felt hot oil on her leg. Well an oil leak had occurred and I wheeled around and made it back to Lake front Airport in New Orleans before the engine siezed up.

Another time, a friend and I were flying his old C model Beechcraft back from Acapulco, we decided to land in Ciudad Victoria instead of Tampico to refill.
Ciudad Victoria is a little further. We had head winds and with the cheap Mexican fuel we flew on fumes with both guages reading empty for 10 minutes. We leaned the engines and slowly lost altitude. There was no way to set the plane down in these rugged mountains. We made it to the runway and as soon as we touched down the engines quit. We were shaking with fear for a half hour after that. What is strange is that not a single word was spoken between us for 15 minutes before we landed. We knew our situation and we thought we were going to die.

The 3rd time was we flew to Grande Isle from New Orleans to go scuba diving on the offshore rigs. We had four scuba tanks, weight belts, spear guns, etc in the back seat. It was an old under powered Cessna 170 A model tail dragger. After we dived we returned to the plane late afternoon. It was a dirt runway which was muddy and a short runway. There was a power line not to far from the end of the runway. It's was his plane and I was riding shotgun. I advised him to make a short field takeoff. ie give it 10 % flaps and power the engine up to redline while holding the brakes then letting it go. No he said, there's no need to. So off we went with no flaps. Well, the muddy runway has a lot of friction with the tires grooving in the mush. When we broke from the ground I readily calculated there was no way we were going to make it over that power line. I screamed at Jim and told him we can't make it. Well the dumb SOB said we could and kept going. At the last few seconds, I wasn't about to die with this guy who only had one eye and lacked depth perception. I yelled take your hands off your wheel and shoved my wheel in and nosed down and we went under the power line. I told him if I had not been a pilot you would have killed yourself and your passenger. Jim Arnsten was his name and he's passed on. He never had a pilot's license in his life as he couldn't pass a physical with just one eye. He flew for years in his old beat up plane. The moral to this story is never fly with an unlicensed one eyed pilot in an underpowered plane with a lot of weight in it and
taking off on a muddy dirt runway.

So I suppose I can be called a Renaissance man having done all kinds of repairs to broken things as well as making things better with my hands and reading and being curious about all things and having had the learning experiences of exploring this little globe with all it's differences. Plus exercising my rights and freedoms to run and get elected to public office when I disagreed with their politics. All citizens should have that experience in our democratic republic.

I continue to read and learn about any and all things as well as travel. I continue to be a bistro raconteur meeting and talking with people. It is amazing what you can
learn from people smarter than you in their field.

Just in the Jinja bar over the years, I've learned about laser weaponry, the development of drones for warfare which were developed here in Sandia Labs. I've learned about what goes into the building of a small jet plane called the Eclipse which is built in Albuqerque. I've learned about how Bill Gates was when the Physician owner of Microsoft here in Albuquerque hired him to be a salesman for Microsoft. (Contrary to belief, Bill Gates did not start Microsoft). I talked with one of Microsoft's first employees who wrote code with the Physician and Paul Allen.

I've learned a lot from physicians who frequent the Jinja bar. I've learned about the New Mexico geology from a couple of geologists who come in there. Just the other night I was talking with two high school head football coaches who told me that the damn players don't give a damn anymore about discipline and they talk back at you and being a high school coach is a thankless job and not as rewarding as it was just 20 years ago. In just 20 short years the youth culture has changed.

In Jinja, I have discussed Federal taxation with both a CPA and two IRS agents. I've always done my own taxes since I can remember. I have never ever paid for someone
to do my taxes as I know more about my tax status than any other person. I did my Schedule C business taxes the whole time I was in business and my personal taxes when I was an employee. There are certain things a third party tax prepayer might not be willing to do. I've always taken the very aggressive approach figuring I would just pay up if I was audited which I was only one time and had to come up with a few hundred dollars re writing off my automobile. They only got me for one year and I had done it for years and continued to do it after I was audited and never was audited again. ie write off 90% use of my car as a business deduction.

One of the best tax avoidence methods is to own a foreign business. I owned a small restaurant in San Jose, Costa Rica from 1987 to 1992. Naturally, it never made a profit. I wrote off all my airline tickets due to being there 10 days out of every month for five years. I wrote off my apartment rent there as well as other sundry items. I would do a separate Schedule C for the restaurant business and my insurance business and attach the two Schedule Cs to my 1040. The restaurant Schedule C always had a net loss and this would be deducted from my insurance business Schedule C. A heck of a good legal tax shelter. I was never audited by the IRS on this.

As for writing my thoughts down, I've probably improved over the years. Back in 1994, I came in second in the Texas Wide Writer's Contest under the category of Satire and Parody. I sent in two satires on the mythical Texas cowboy. I've written quite a few satires over the years , but never submitted any more to a writer's contest. I've written pages and pages of poetry, most of which I lost due to a computer hard drive crash some years ago. I now back up everything.

I've found that writing is a great mental exercise in that a person has to focus his thoughts and recollections in an organized manner. It requires a disciplined approach. My style of writing is straight forward without a lot of flowery excess words. I try to put myself in the reader's position when I write. I don't like to read anything with a lot of verbose unnecessary verbiage where the writer seems to want to make you read forever before they get to the point.

As to the point of what I've written above, it's about attempting to be a "Man for All Seasons." A renaissance man. A man who is well traveled, knows a lot about a lot, but not in great depth, but more than superficial and who has a lot of curiosity about all things under the sun and who has an insatiable desire to continue learning from books, internet, other people and travel.

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count - it's the life in your years.

I'm thankful that I have stuffed a lot of life's content into my years and will continue to do so.

Bob

Things I've Learned Going On Age 72

2011-10-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Some things I've learned going on age 72.

I've learned that if things are going bad, I don't need to go there with them.

I've learned that if you wait to my age to retire and enjoy the good life, you've waited too long.

I've learned that it's reasonable to enjoy your success, but not to be overly confident of it and that you cannot change
what things you might have wanted to change in your past, but you can leave them behind.

I've learned that yes, there are some people who were born to be intrinsically bad and are incorrigible.

I've learned that you cannot go on a trip without gaining at least ten pounds.

I've learned that aging is important.

I've learned that my lifelong love/hate of exercise has rewarded me richly in old age with strength, agility and stamina.

I've learned that some of the most articulate and smartest people I've ever met have been at a bar.

I've learned the best way to get to know a country and it's people is traveling on a Harley on the backroads for weeks at a time.

I've learned that if you feel lonely, it's because you built walls instead of bridges.

I've learned that I loved less than I should have.

I've learned to sing and dance as if nobody was listening or watching.

I've learned that "stay" is a beautiful word in the vocabulary of a friend.

I've learned that I don't now have the desire to hunt and kill animals or birds like I use to love to do.

I've learned that friends can turn on you for little reason and strangers can comfort you.

I've learned that I didn't know how to eat healthy until about 15 years ago.

I've learned that this planet is a pretty small place.

I've learned you get a different perspective of the U.S. when living in another country.

I've learned that as I became older, I became infinitely more tolerant of the differences in people and lifestyles than when I was a young southern yahoo.

I've learned though extensive world travel that people are pretty much the same all over regarding what they want out of life.

I've learned that jealously and envy are more common in people than I used to believe.

I've learned that few men in their forties are immune to falling in love with a younger women and wrecking their marriage.

I've learned re the above, that when the romance cools with the other, your wife is who you should really be with.

I've learned that I really did choose the right wife after all.

I've learned that it's not important to know how to achieve a goal first as long as you know how to arrive at a goal and reach it.

I've learned that when one's curiosity about all things dies down, it's like a candle burning out. So if you are lucky and born with this gift, keep the candle burning.

I've learned that enjoying the trip along the way is just as much fun as arriving at your destination.

I've learned that you can be self directed and not have to go with the herd or go with the flow.

I've leaned that the majority of people are born, live and die within fifty miles of their birthplace.

I've learned to take other people's slights without getting upset.

I've learned that in politics and religion, facts mean nothing and emotion means everything.

I've learned that memories and experiences are the wallet of an older guy and you needed to have filled this wallet to have a boundless spirit in old age.

I've learned not to worry about old age as it doesn't last very long.

I've learned that one's formal education is but about 25% of your education and education is a life long endeavor.

I've learned that I still have a lot more to learn and more important, still have the spirit to learn more.

I've learned that typing was the most useful course I took in high school.

I've learned that free style writing is one of the most creative things you can do to keep your mind sharp and focused.

Bob White
September 30, 2010

Pray In Private

2011-10-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have always been continually amazed at how supposedly people who call themselves Christians and pack churches screaming, dancing and shouting and praying
in front of each other when these actions are specifically condemned in the Bible. Do they read the Bible or if they do, do they just ignore this instruction. Humans are funny animals.

Those who want the state to engage in public worship or to have prayer in schools, are defying His injunction:

"When you pray, be not like the pretenders, who prefer to pray in the synagogues and in the public square in the sight of others. In truth I tell you, that is all the profit they will have. But you, when you pray, go into your inner chamber and, locking the door, pray in hiding to your Father who sees you in hiding and will reward you."--Matthew 6:5-6

The above admonition is a key to understanding the true nature of spirituality. Good works are best done in secret. Charity is humble. Faith is personal. A relationship with God is carried out in private, not public.

Just like you don't put a private telephone conversation with a loved one on Speakerphone for your acquaintances to hear, true prayer to your Father is
meant for an intimate moment alone.

When someone speaks to God in public, they are posturing for the public, currying favor with the listeners or readers rather than with God. God want to hear what is in your heart, not what you want others to hear. How many times have you spoken lies aloud into the telephone for the ears of other listeners? Don't do this to God.

Look around you, if you see false posturing and boasting about their relationship with God, you can be sure it is a lie. Love of God does not boast, or preen, or posture, or parade. Public piety is the mindless display of the peacock, or of the pea-brain, or of the pea-soul. it is gaudy feathers, strutting and unGodly squawking, only.

When someone is pushing you to believe as they do, generally it is not to believe as they want you to believe. Look for the money in it for them. Often they stand to make money out of you, but sometimes it is just the public admiration they live for, the prestige, the esteem or the vote.

Make you own peace with God as you know him. Public piety, like false patriotism is a refuge and a pulpit for scoundrels.

Burn into your mind Matthew 6:5-6

Bob White ____

Rememberances From My Youth

2011-10-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

My Moments of Remembrances From Age 6 to 14 during Springtime and Summer in South Louisiana

The smell of jasmine, orange blossoms, magnolias and honeysuckle. It was aroma therapy for sure.

Seeing the big breasted Robins return.

Going barefooted for 5 months causing the soles of your feet to harden and you could run barefoot over a gravel road.

Swimming in the crystal clear Bogue Chitto river naked with both whites and blacks.

Stealing flares from parked railroad cars. I was caught and brought before the Juvenile authorities who only warned me.

Always sleeping by an open window with the attic fan drawing in air.

Listening after school to Inner Sanctum, The Fat Man, Sky King.

Catching green back turtles and selling them to the Post cereal guy who came around every Friday.

Rising at dawn to go to the lake a block away and cast my arm off using a jitterbug lure and occasionally catching a bass.

Setting my 3 muskrat traps at the lake's edge and never catching one.

Getting a dollar every Saturday from my parents. Catching the bus downtown for 5 cents each way. Going to the movies for 15 cents.Eating a candy bar in the movies for 5 cents. Afterward, going to Sip and Nip cafe and having a hamburger and malted milk 40 cents.Afterward, going by the newsstand and buying a comic book for 10 cents. When I got home, I still had 25 cents left over.

Riding on my Doodlebug motor scooter and later my Servi-Cycle.

Big bream and Sac a Lait(crappie) would bed in the early spring and I would catch a mess with a cane pole using worms or crickets.

Running all over the lake with my 14 ft. Thompson boat and five hp Royal outboard.

Using my boat to go to the island in the lake and camping out.

Taking my 22 rifle on the crossbars of my bike and riding to the swamps below the lake spillway and shooting anything that moved.

When the lake rose from the rains, going to the spillway and catching large shad with my hands like a bear catches salmon.

Shooting gar fish from the bridge over the spillway with my 22 rifle. They would come up to roll.

Riding my bike for miles and miles exploring.

Riding my bike 10 miles down Perkins road to my black friend Nat's little wooden shack where his mother would feed us cheese and crackers.

Catching crawfish with a piece of bacon tied to a string. Boiling the crawfish right there in a soup can and eating them.

Riding my bike over every inch and cranny of the large LSU campus and especially loving the building that housed the fossil displays.

Selling soft drinks in the stands of LSU football games, basketball and Boxing. I made good money.

Killing more birds than I care to remember with my Red Rider BB gun.

Building tree houses. How I never fell is beyond me.

Washing glasses and opening oysters in my Dad's Silver Dollar Bar and Lounge.

Watching people lose their paychecks in the slot and pinball machines in my Dad's bar. Due to that, I never put a dime into a slot machine.

No TV and no air conditioning. We didn't sit for long and were always active outdoors.

Catching flying squirrels in a trap and domesticating them to be friendly pets.

Catching baby raccoons and doing the same. I had one I named Bill that followed me around.

Spending two weeks every summer at Camp Cherokee or Camp Windywood swimming, horseback riding and just having fun.

Oh yes, I got a 20 gauge single shot Harrington and Richardson shot gun for my 12th birthday. No animal or bird life was safe from me.

My parents pretty much left me to my own devices and I was really free to enjoy a Huckleberry Finn type of youth.

I wish more kids today could have enjoyed a childhood like mine. Not any more with Helicopter parents watching over them.It's hard to imagine parents letting their kids having this freedom much less letting them run around with a rifle or a shotgun.

Contrasting that with today and it was two different worlds completely.

Bob White

Sometimes I Wake Up Pissed and Angry

2011-10-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wake up scared and angry. I suppose many others do too.

Why am I angry when I first wake up. Well, I think of all the people
that have been crappy to me. There's a long list of names in my old age
going back to the first grade.

But, then I say to myself that's in the past and then generally get over
it.

But, then I am scared first thing in the morning.

The media is shouting: The world is over! The debt ceiling is going to
fall on us and shatter! The Europe contagion is going
to spread. Swine flu will turn into dog flu will turn to cat flu and
infect everyone. I'll get a mosquito bite and die. I'll go down
on my Harley and take Carmen with me. What if the stock market goes to
ZERO? What if something happens to my kids? Or, heaven forbid, to me! What if I die of a long, lingering painful disease when I’m older. What if I make a fool of myself…again. What if someone I want to like me, doesn't like me. What if I don't get
done anything I want to get done? What if I forget to answer the right
emails? What if traffic on my blog is down? What if I make lots of mistakes in a
row and go broke?

I've been embarrassed many times. Like at dinners where I said the wrong
thing and everyone ended up with the guests disliking me. Where I've
split the rear of my pants out in public. Or at parties where I maybe had
a bit too much to drink and spewed idiocy. Or I lent the wrong person
money.

Holy…I've made the wrong choices almost every single day of my life.
What the heck happened? Nada! Zip!

And yet here I am. At this moment I'm pretty happy. After I wake up and
discard the cloud of sleep I forget about all of that pain, fear, agony,
crying, desperation, futility,embarrassment, shame – here I am writing to you. It’s not like I'm a super success. A lot of people are more successful than I. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter that some don't like my scribbling. I do it for me and
that gives me some satisfaction crafting a few words together.

All of the above is just a concise snapshot of life as we humans
experience it. Just give me a glass of red wine in the evening and I'm
perfectly content with my situation in life sitting and socializing at night at the bar at Jinjas and verbal jabbing with my fellow Jinjaites regulars.

Life really is pretty simple as long as I think this way.

What the Arabs Contributed to Western Civilization

2011-10-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

Just for the hell of it, I thought I would jot down a concise and accurate overview of why we call the Arabian peninsula the "cradle of civilization."

When human kind made the leap from hunter and gatherers it began probably during the Sumerian era which goes back as far a 5,000BC. They had the first written language using the Cuneiform script in about 4,000BC. It was made up of pictographs inscribed on clay tablets. Note that humans inscribed on rocks, cave walls, wood, stone tablets and clay tablets before paper was invented. The first language that we know of is Sumerian and it sprang up in Iraq.

The cuneiform alphabet and Sumerian language was last used in about 50AD because it had been supplanted by Aramaic which gradually supplanted the cuneiform alphabet and Sumrian language. Aramaic began about 3.000BC with it's beginnings in what is now called Syria. It was the language of Jesus and of many of the Biblical scribes. It is the language of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the first religious books of the Hebrews and the Bible.

But, I digressed, paper was invented about 2,700BC from Papyrus reeds growing along rivers such as the Nile. It was perfected by the Chinese in 105AD.

Our modern alphabet is composed of the ancient Arabic symbols with an infusion later of Greek and Latin symbols.

The ancient Arabs invented the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Western world is Christian because the Roman Emperor Constantine declared that the Roman Empire would be Christian in his edict of Milan in 313AD. He did it because his two cousins were planning to overthrow him and he asked that the Arab Christian tribes in the middle east help him defend himself. They agreed to do it on the condition that he name Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire which was from Ireland down through Spain. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans were killed enforcing this edict. Constantine with the help of the Arab Christian tribes were successful in the battle against his two cousins and keeping him in office.

That is why the western world has it's predominate religion Christianity. If you're a Christian,you can thank Constantine or the Arab tribes. You decide.
Incidently, Constantine liked the Christian Arab tribes so much that he set up his headquarter of the Roman empire in Turkey and called it Constantinople.

So far we've seen that the Arabs gave us our alphabet and religion. Just to list a few, here are some contributions to civilization besides a written language
with an alphabet and our religions.

In food, they gave us oranges, lemons, sugar, peach, plums, olives, rice, ginger, cloves, melons, shallots, pepper, dates, figs, and coffee

In numbers and math they invented the concept of zero, algebra, trigonometry and established longitude and latitude measurements.They invented first adding machine called the Abacus and the compass. Their use of the arch and pillars influenced architecture in Europe.

For the ladies, they invented lipstick, eye shadow, perfume, nail polish, hair dyes and body lotions.

They invented the water wheel, cisterns, systems of irrigation and the water clock. They wrote about and studied and invented optical instruments paving the way for telescopes and microscopes, etc. They invented tiles and glazing.They perfected the art of making leather soft for clothing and using
dyes to change the color.

They developed the art of crucible steel forging. They hardened the steel and etched elaborate drawings on them. We've all heard of the Damascus sword.

In music they invented the harp, lyre, zither, drum, tambourine, flute, oboe, and all the reed instruments that are played today. They also invented the bagpipe which
was introduced into Europe by the early Crusaders. The earliest examples of a stringed necked instrument date back to Syria in about 3,000 BC. It was the forerunner of the modern guitar.

They gave the world the first codes of law. What law student hasn't heard of Hammurabi's Code. This code spelled out Tort law, family relations, etc

The first university in the world was founded in Damascus, Syria.

There are so many other contributions to civilization that are too numerous to list such as the common fork. They didn't eat with their hands as Europeans did.

But, personally, I believe the greatest contribution they gave the world was the phonetic alphabet which allows me to sit at this computer and put down my thoughts.

Now if you've read the above, the question just cries out what happened to them to make them the way they are today? I believe it's religious fervor that caused them
not to continue on with their great science and inventions and just become immersed in their supernatural religion. Religion has always been a hindrance to scientific progress and the present day Arabs are victims of it.

Islam incorporates the First Testament of the Bible, but Mohammed came along and added a new book to it just like Jesus added anew book to the Old Testament. Fundamentalism , whether Islam, Christianity or Judaism is antithetical to human knowledge and progress. I forget who was quoted as saying the science has done more for mankind in the last 100 years than religions have done for thousands of years.

I'm writing this brief overview of history just to inform those who care to be informed about the huge contribution that the Arabs have given to mankind. But, their
contribution of religion to us has been detrimental resulting in intolerance, perpetuation of ignorance, blood shed and strife.

I wrote a long paper on this subject about 15 years ago and I'm largely going on my memory of what I've written tonight.

I just think Americans should understand the historical underpinnings of our civilization and our religions.

I will later write on the Greek contribution to our civilization which cannot be overstated in the field of philosophy and democratic governance.

I've written this with the help of 3/4ths of a bottle of red wine which increases my IQ and memory recall at least 10% and perhaps more.

Bob

PS Last , but not least to beer lovers, you can give thanks to the Arabs for inventing beer from grain as far back as 3,000 BC in Iran and other parts
of Arabia.

New Fox Reality Show to Boost Nation's Confidence

2010-08-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

White News Letter
January 5, 2009
San Jose, Costa Rica

As Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bernanke announces the official
arrival of the depression, analysts are pinning their hopes on the latest
run of the mindless reality TV show to bolster confidence in the markets
and raise national morale.

Workers at the New York stock exchange cheered as the line-up for "I'm a
Celebrity...get me out of here" was released and shares surged by 10% in
the hours afterwards. Troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq laid down
their weapons and embraced their colleagues on hearing the news.

President Bush hailed the new series as the beginning of the recovery and
praised Fox TV for its selfless commitment to public service broadcasting
in these times of economic strife. President elect Obama weighed in
saying "It was the right thing to do at this time."

“The sight of Brittney Spears, Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton and a
succession of other pointless nobodies crawling through piles of insects
and drinking monkey urine can only be good for us as we face the most
serious challenges of our era,” Senator Harry Reid said yesterday.

“In the great depression of the thirties the American people had the
soaring oratory of Franklin Rooseveldt, strong communities and the can do
spirit to get them through. Now we will have Tom Cruise's wife in a
bikini climbing throuh a snake infested jungle in Costa Rica to unify the
nation. Together we can make the U.S. great again.”

Fox TV will air the program at prime time daily so as to get the largest
possible audience and impact on the psyche of the American people
in order to raise their spirits even though they don't have money to dine
out.

Bob

Distractions and Sedatives Induced to the American Masses

2010-08-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

The latest up to date diversions and fears fostered upon the U.S. masses by the millionaire TV talking heads who shout up hate and fear and the more they do it, the more money they make and help themselves to ensure their position in the 24 hour cable TV news(propaganda) business. Oh yes, some right wingnut politicians both in and out of office are fanning the fear fantasys of the masses also.

Salmonella from eggs. Since most people don't eat them raw and cook them, no problem.
Just another hysteria that rears it's head like the various flus, lettuce, Dengue fever in Florida, etc. These media made hysterias come around just like regular return visits of hurricanes. Expect them.

Poor baseball player Roger Clemens. Imagine, congress is charging him with lying about steroid use. Gee, a bunch of truthful legislators are actually charging a baseball legend with lying. Imagine that!

Building a Muslim community center two blocks from the 9-11 site. Like who gives a shit. It neither causes me to lose money or make money, eat or not eat, have fun or not have fun. Religion is religion---the people infected by all religions are going to do what they want in their fervent zeal. Even the founding Father Thomas Jefferson said he could not fight against religious ignorance. Go back to the 1920s and see what an uproar was caused by putting up a Jewish Temple in certain neighborhoods. Or witness the outcry in the small southern Baptist towns when a Catholic church was being built in the twenties. Or more recently, A Catholic for President like Kennedy. Hell no.

The M&M's , Mexican and Muslim are going to be the object of hate and fear with that slice of the our citizenry who feel less than adequate. Last time I read our Constitution, the part about Religious freedom was not cut out.

For my part, I don't care for the dark forces of religious superstition and don't care for any religion. But, the Constitution allows anyone to build a structure to bay at the moon if they want to.

Illegal aliens and Arizona law and subsequent overturning of it in Fed. court. Why hell, those Spanish speaking Indo-Hispanics such as Juan the dishwasher are going to bankrupt this country and cause every English speaking person to be deaf , dumb and mute as they will not be able to understand what's going on. Every damn grape, cherry,tomato, orange picking one of them should be rounded up and sent where they came from. The same goes for every tile laying, brick laying, landscaping, framing and roofing brown skin SOB should be removed from our pure blood society.
Just because their work product help build America doesn't mean doodly squat. We need to change our Constitution and not allow their offspring born in the US, even those who serve in our military, to stay here.

Obama is a closet Muslim born in Kenya who wants to convert this country to Islam and while doing so wants to change our form of government into some socialistic, fascistic , Islamist, Nazism, communist form. He definitely is not
a Christian like our citizens. It's a good cynical ploy to distract from the real issues.

It's a high octane high for millionaire TV talking heads who pat their celebrity heads while promoting disingenuous diatribes about free speech and sacred free markets and the American Dream. The democrats are saying he needs to show more Christianity by seeing him prostate in prayer at a church and the republicans are saying he's a muslim. Not to all---Our Constitution specifically declares that there is no religious test or requirement to be President or hold public office.

This is: Saturday Night Battle of the Blowhards - the vicious video game of American media culture. Nothing is more fun than a zealot, a microphone and two minutes of hate. The ratings jump and the pundit's paychecks zoom higher in direct proportion to the level of controversy.

Gay marriage in California court case. Hell, that's going to affect our blissful heterosexual marital conditions in this country notwithstanding that 50 of modern marriages end up in divorce and 40% of children born in the United States are bastards. Poor Sara Palin's bastard grandchild--Deuteronomy 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.Since gays do not produce bastards, it would see to be a good thing if they could marry and would encourage the morality of only having sex within marriage.

Returning the marginal Fed. Tax rate before Bush only for the couples making over $250,000--wow! going from 36% to 39.6%. Whoooo! A whopping 3.6% increase for those whose NET INCOME after deductions is over $250,000. ie the GROSS income would
generally have to be north of $350,000. We're paying the lowest marginal rates in my lifetime. U.S. Corporations pay the lowest effective tax rate anywhere. Because of the thousands of corporate deductions and use of offshore tax sheltering corporations. The right wing pundits would have you believe that our economy would get legs again if we lowered taxes and all would be hunky dory. You can't lower any lower than zero which
most oil companies pay.

Mandatory health insurance unconstitutional. Forget auto insurance which is mandatory and Homeowners and Flood if you have a mortgage. So mandatory health insurance is unconstitutional , but auto, home and flood no. Go figure Senator blowhard.

Al Quai da is under ever rock and in every country and if we don't hunt them down and exterminate every single last one of them, they will descend on us like locusts and cut our heads off. They will come by land, air and sea. They will sneak across our porous borders. They will fly in courtesy of American Airlines. They will make balsa rafts and mount a beach landing. Be afraid. Beeee very afraid. Common sense
tells any rational person that for every one you kill, you create two or more. Why we can spend trillions killing them through this century. Well, we could if we don't go broke first.

Lindsey Lohans future after being incarcerated. This is important to know and talk about.

Is Bret Favre really going to return and play for the Vikings?

Is Tiger Woods finished?

There's new ones every week. It's hard to keep up with the newest methods to sedate and divert the American public from serious issues that can bring down our
Republic like lowered educational expectations, off shoring of jobs, bloated defense(offense) spending, rising health care costs, budget deficits, trade deficits, etc

Meanwhile, China and Russia and I suspect a lot of other countries are patiently doing their thing and watching the crumbling of the American Empire due
to the disfunctionality of it's evolved social structure and diversion from reality. They can readily see that our political system is total chaos and our people
are fearful and confused with a crashing economy. They know that the military/industrial complex has ballooned for the sake of profit and is adverse to
the American citizen's interests. Most of the major corporate sectors such as Big Pharma, Medical and Hospital Corporations, Oil Corporations, Media
Corporations, Banking and Financial Corporations are adverse to the common citizen's interest. It's all about profit and corporate responsibility to society be damned.

Our elected officials, aided and abetted by millions of corporate lobbyists have become corrupt petty thieves for their millions in corporate donations.
You Joe Blow and Mary Nobody don't stand a chance against this corporate bribery. You nobodies are also being media manipulated against your own interests.

After a couple of days of driving through back roads(not the interstates) and rural communities which we do every summer, I can positively tell you we have a lot of growth in two
facets of American life. The growth of "Jesus" churches and the raw poverty of our people. If you sit in the comfort of your home watching TV, you might
not notice the "Jesusification" of America unless you listen to the many evangelical TV and radio stations. You definitely will not confront the raw face of utter poverty
that I have seen spread over the same back roads for 30 years. I now see every summer huge increases of rural poverty. Such increases have been
phenomenal in the last 10 years. I couldn't have imagined it.

I'm not hopeful. American's anger and fear has been manipulated against their own best interests and they haven't caught on. Diverted and sedated from
economic reality, there seems little hope. There's an old saying I learned as a young man from a farmer. "It's hard to have your head in fantasy land when
you're walking in cow shit." Well, in today's climate, it doesn't seem to hard.

So be it after a few days of being on the road again and experiencing the real Americana and writing about it and pissing off a few who might read this.

Bob White

PS Oh yes, thank you George W. Bush for the invasions of Muslim countries and allowing hundreds of thousands of Somalian, Iraqui, Afghanistan refugees to repatriate to our country to enjoy the freedom to practise Islam. Why over a 100,000 thousand of them were relocated to Florida alone. Does anyone think they are going to be converted to Christianity and not go on a Mosque building drive? Kinda reminds one of the Vietnam refugee wave doesn't it.

False Advertising at Opening of Florida Mall-Satire

2010-08-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

White News Letter
January 5, 2009
San Jose, Costa Rica

Shoppers at the giant new shopping mall in Fort Myers, Florida are protesting outside the mall, accusing the management of not delivering a clear improvement to their lives.

There was a blitz of pre-opening advertisement that claimed that shoppers would experience the ultimate thrill of shopping at the open air mall designed like a main street in Italy or Spain where unsold condos on the second floor remain unsold.

A large group of housewives, unemployed real estate agents and building contractors and teenagers are demanding a meeting with the mall's backer to explain why they still get home from shopping at the complex still feeling empty, bored and as though their life has no meaning.

Carmen White, one of the housewife protesters from Fort Myers, described her anger. "When this place opened, they promised us everything - happiness, joy, perceived wealth, and a brighter tomorrow. But every day when I get home from splurging on stuff and clothes, I'm still 66, married to a retired ever ready battery type of guy who constantly wants to be in some other place than where he is. I'm still living in a boring suburb with boring people and the money I spend is not doing what was advertised. Someone has to pay for this." Similar comments were typical from the protesting housewives.

They all felt they were skimmed by the ads suggesting that by buying things, life would be rosier.

Dwayne Collins, who is receiving unemployment benefits , told us how his days at the Coconut Point are generally aimless and unsatisfying. "The advertising promised that this place would be blinging, but I ain't got no money so I can't get no bling. They lied to us."

A request for a review by the U.S. Advertising Standards Agency is under consideration due to the alleged false claims made.

Bob White

We Had Real Freedom. Not The Illusion Of Freedom Today

2010-08-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

Freedom is just an illusion today.

When I was a young kid back in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the town was about 100,000 vrs the one million metro area today.

I lived one block from the large LSU lake and knew every single cove in it. The shoreline is long due to the many curves and you could be in some parts of the lake and not see other parts.

I had a Remington bolt action 22 rifle with a magazine that held about 18 bullets of short rifle shells or about 12 of long rifle shells. I normally used short rifle shells as they only cost 35 cents for a box of 50 and the long rifle shells were about 75 cents.Actually there were three 22 shells---shorts, longs and long rifles.

I would put the rifle crossways on my bicycle handlebars and pedal through the neighborhood until I reached the spillway of the lake which was about a mile and a half away. Going into the swamps below the spill way I would proceed to shoot anything that moved except human beings. Now mind you, I'm inside the city limits and not far from subdivisions.

Now imagine if you can, a 12 yr. going to the hardware store and trying to buy bullets. Imagine if you can a 12 yr. old casually pedaling his bike with a rifle on the crossbars going down through a city subdivision.

Today if this happened, there would be five police squad cars filled with militarized hostile cops and a SWAT team would descend with sirens screaming.
The owner of the hardware store where I bought the bullets would be arrested and tried for sale to a minor. My parents would be arrested and tried for
letting me do this and would in all likelihood end up incarcerated and I would be put in a foster home after undergoing psychiatric examination.

Times change.

I, and the rest of the kids, would always have our pocket knives on us. I wouldn't leave home without it. During recess at school, we would play mumbly peg. For those that don't know the game, it's where two people would stand facing each other about five feet apart. We would throw our knives down at our feet to stick in the ground to see who could get the closest to our feet. Each got five throws and the closest would win.

Today, if a kid brought a knife to school, the riot squad would be called out and the kid would be expelled from school and the consequence for his parents would be the same as the rifle incident.

I had a five horsepower Royal outboard motor by the time I was 12. Ran all over the lake with it completely unsupervised by parental restraint. Hell, the majority of the time they didn't even know where I was. Personal Flotation Devices???? Hell, we didn't even know what they were. We were our own PFDs. We could swim and we never took swimming lessons. We just learned on our own in the lake or the river. Today, the laws require a PFD on a kid under 18 and there has to be PFDs equal to the number of people on a boat and the Coast Guard is pushing to require them to be on all adults.

We would freely jump from the boat and swim and we did this even at night sometimes. Imagine that! We would go to the Amite river bridge and jump from it. It was a 50 foot fall into the water. We learned to point our feet and be absolutely vertical with arms tight to our sides at point of impact to lessen the hard entrance into the water. No one even thought about it. It was just kids naturally having fun. It's against the law now to
jump from a bridge.

We were in our glory being young and free and unfettered in our play.

We used a cane pole to catch catfish and bream. We didn't need any fishing license nor any parent to show us how. Parents were busy working and not worrying about and overseeing their little Johnnys like they do today. We were free.

I had a Doodlebug motor scooter in the 6th grade. It didn't have lights on it and the brakes were broken. I stopped by hitting the kill switch and dragging my feet on the road. Wore out a lot shoes doing this. I rode all over Baton Rouge in daylight and dark. There was no law requiring a license plate nor an operator's license nor lights. My parents didn't worry about it at all. People were different then.

Today, the kids are force fed Ritalin or Prozac to calm them down into being little zombies. Who wants to be around active kids right? You never heard about some kid taking a rifle to school and blowing away classmates back then. Back then , we supervised ourselves. We were good ol' southern boys that knew how to handle a gun responsibly and to hunt and fish without some adult hovering over us.

Schools did not have metal detectors or fences around them. There were no anger management classes. When a schoolmate was killed in an auto accident there were no group trauma therapy or counseling. That was just part of life and we accepted it and moved on without
mulling over it.

Responsibilities was not saddled on someone else. We matured faster.

We never heard of anorexia or bulimia. If you were skinny you were skinny and if you were chubby you were chubby and no one gave a damn about it. We had school fights. Yes, punches were thrown and wrestling was engaged in. No one would think of picking up
a tire iron, rock or knife or gun or kick you when you were down. We had ethics. We were responsible kids because we were free to develop that way.

My Dad gave me a chrome plated 32 caliber revolver with a holster when I was 14. I would strap it on when I went hunting with my shotgun for squirrels, rabbits and doves. Thought nothing of it. Anybody could carry a gun back then. Nobody gave it a second thought.

We were not strung out on crystal meth or pot. We didn't even know what that was. We would drink quart bottles of Busch Bavarian beer while driving our cars at age 14. We acquired driver's licenses at age 14 back then. If you could belly up to a bar, you could get a drink.

We were treated as adults at a early age and I suspect that is why we were so mature.

Our heads were screwed on correctly. We were allowed to develop naturally and we had freedom.

Now, I suppose this article will piss of a bunch of therapists, psychologists, school counselors, fruit juice drinkers and the parents
who wouldn't let their precious go out without being lathered with sun block. So be it.

Freedom is just an illusion today. We had real freedom back then.

Bob White
August 16, 2010

Bush and Cheney Were Good

2010-08-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Clinton and Gore were laughing matters. Bush and Cheney by contrast are not laughing matters. Why I like Bush and Cheney:

I hated that rising stock market under Clinton. I hated welfare reform. We should have never replaced it with workfare. Why force people to work? That's cruel and unjust and Clinton was cruel to do it. He even ran on that platform. Shame on him.

I hated that budget surplus under him too.

Now, I like Bush because he's using our military correctly by invading and occupying a couple of countries. When it comes to the military , we need to use it or lose it or the big military contractor corporations will have to downsize and that's bad for employment.

I also like Bush for increasing our national debt to astronomical proportions and getting read of the surplus that Clinton saddled us with. It's downright silly to hoard money notwithstanding all those naysayer economist who worry about our growing deficit supported by foreign countries. If they are dumb enough to buy our bonds we'll just sell 'em more and more of them. If they even hint that they won't buy or want to sell, we'll threaten 'em with nukes. They'll get in line.

Also, I like a stock market that waffles sideways and down. That way I don't have much capital gains to pay when I sell my stocks. You know, I just hate to pay taxes.

Also, just because gasoline didn't go up much during Clinton's term doesn't mean it should not have gone up under Bush who is an oilman. I don't see any conflict of interest. Oil companies are the backbone of this nation and all that talk of their billions of dollars in profit and 50 billion compensation packages to the CEO's is just plain jealousy. The American way is to make as much as the traffic will bear and since the oil companies know there will be no repurcussions from the Bush administration , they are free to make some real money for a change by gosh. I'm for this. I think we should invade Iran so the oil companies will have an excuse to raise the prices even more.

Gasoline has been way too cheap in the past. I have the $804 to spend in filling up my boat and if you don't that's your problem. Go out and make a lot of money instead of getting some stupid little manufacturing job if you even find one left in this country.

Also, I don't think companies like Haliburton and Bechtel along with their hundreds of subcontractors need to bid on contracts. It's a waste of time. What the heck if Cheney is tied to Haliburton. Cheney deserves his money after having worked in government jobs nearly all his life. He worked himself up to CEO of Haliburton the correct way---with his connections to the defense dept., he started at the top which is the modern American republican way.

But I really like Bush and his push for Christianity. I think we should be more like the muslim countries in this regard and make religion and god part of everyday government. I agree with Bush that intelligent design should be taught as an alternative to evolution. I ain't no descendent from a monkey. To hell with the queers and gay rights. To hell with abortion. To hell with stem cell research. Stem cell research would only benefit young people and we ain't young so why should we be for it? I think we need more poor minority children so we can produce more rap music and let the record companies make bigger profits. Also, the clothing stores can sell more gang attire--Abolish abortion and I like that because I really like rap music.

Yes, I'm for giving our tax money to churches or as Bush calls them "faith based groups." I never believed in that stupid part of our constitution about separation of church and state. Jefferson, Washinton, Adams, Madison and Franklin were a bunch of athiests.

Just because churches don't have to pay taxes doesn't mean they should not receive our tax money. After all, there is no such thing as too big of a church you know.

I believe that Bush is right in unconditional support for Israel with money and war material for the occupying of Palestinian land and the subjugation of it's people. The sooner the Jews return to Israel, then the sooner you and I will be raptured up. Just can't wait and Bush is speeding up the process. We certainly have him to thank for this trajectory even though we have to confront the hatred in the Arab world and creation of terrorism becasuse of this. But hell, what's the lives of a few thousand in a building in contrast to the rapture we good Christians will have.

But what I most like Bush about is the singular fact that he has never vetoed a single spending bill. That is a record no other President in history can claim. He's increased employment of government bureaucrats by 1/3 and that's good for the employment figures.

You're right Clinton and Gore were jokes and that's no joke.

God bless America!

Bob

They Are Scaring the Hell Out of Us

2010-08-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

It appears that there is a concerted effort by the media and politicians to
keep the public in a state of fear and panic about just about everything.

Fear all the diseases that are coming. ( you can probably think of about 6 in the last 2 years that the media scared the hell out of the people with. Everthing from Dengue fever to Bird Flu)
Fear all the muslims that are coming.
Fear of all the children that may be kidnapped.
Fear of global cooling
Fear of global warming
Fear of gangs
Fear of Mexicans
Fear of schoolbuses without seatbelts.
Fear of being overweight
Fear of smoking
Fear of cats in the homes transferring diseases
Fear of dogs in the home doing same.
Fear of UFO's
Fear of not being raptured up to Jesus and his papa soon.
Fear of radio magnetic waves in home
Fear of cell phones
Fear of a dirty bomb
Fear of Radon in homes

Fear-Fear-Fear that's the motto and the mantra--The bogeyman is coming. I think it's a communist plot to make Joe Sixpack and Mary Mallshopper so fearful they will turn into a gelatinous ooze and will be to scared to resist a resurgence of the followers of Stalin or Castro or the evil devil incarnate Hugo Chavez who will attack the US with machete bearing peons.

Or worse, those Arabs will get on their camels and barges and make a beach invasion on our soil.

No wonder our population have become a bunch of drug addicts from pill pushing doctors. They probably need these pills to cope in the day a sleep at night with Lunesta or Ambien or whatever other drug they drug you with to sleep. It's a bunch of uneeded shit that in the long run does detriment to the body.

Note in the interest of not wasting anyone's time too much, I severely limited the list of fears.

My only fear is fear of our own government let by well intentioned men who are misguided. All of the founders and great thinkers made it clear
that the biggest danger to our republic lies in the government which is a ferocious animal--much worse than a Tiger.

Bob

My Plan for Global Warming

2010-08-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ya know, I've been thinking about this whole global warming mess. When I starts to thinkin, I'sa get creative sorta.

All this talk with the newly minted jargon of "carbon foot print" and "carbon credits" makes a lotta sense right?

I think we need to get with the program. Everyone should send their gas eating carbon emitting vehicles to the junkyard.

Autos, truck, motorcycles, power boats, motor scooters, tractors(nothing wrong with mules) and airplanes. Hell we don't need 'em. Let's all acquire bicycles and horses.There is no reason we can't use them for most of our daily trips. Hell, we can walk to visit grandma even if she lives 100 miles away. Just allow more time for the round trip. It's actually healthier and we could put doctors out of business.

But, we can build rickshaws and hire Mexicans to pull us if you're that damn lazy. Incidentally, there is no reason why someone has not invented a sail to be mounted on a bicycle. I was gonna do it but it requires too much effort in this endeavor.

Just think of the new jobs this will create in construction of rickshaws, bicycles and building livery stables not to mention saddles and other things that go with a horse.

Not just those but, think if you want to travel to faraway places, you can go on a large sailboat. This would be a boon to the shipbuilding industry. We don't need a damn "Dreamliner" unveiled by Boeing yesterday. How in the hell is that gonna line my dreams? That's just BS marketing. If Boeing thinks they are going to "line" my dreams, they have to think of something else such as being 30 years younger and having a Lear jet with beautiful maidens helping me sip good red wine and giving me a decent massage. If Boeing can "line" your dreams with less, I feel for you.

Nobody needs these rapid transit devices. Let's slow down and smell the roses. Let's cool this frenetic pace that has wormed it's way into our culture. Just think, less stress and ergo, less heart attacks and strokes. It's a win win situation folks.

Let's build thousands of grids of electricity using windmills. The hell with the animal rights groups who say these blades kill and injure birds. With millions of these wind generators, we might just produce enough electricity to give us a couple hours of light in the day and coupled with solar power
we get to watch TV also if we don't have too many cloudy days.

I'm not sure we could run the air conditioner for too long though. But sweating is good for you and cleanses the body of the toxins produced by all that red meat you eat. My grandparents on my father's side lived to almost 90 years old eating red meat, lard and eggs everyday but, people don't live that long now eating this fare since they found out by eating like that they will not live that long. I call it the Law of Expectations of Longevity.

Yeah, we need to cut back on those emissions. I think we should nuke all of Latin America and Africa, China and the middle east plus India. Heck, this would probably cut the world's population by 70% or more. Just think in a few strokes we could reduce emissions by that much. Dead people don't emit anything.

Also, God's job of rapturing up the dead wouldn't be affected as most of those dead are not Christians so no loss there. We would end terrorism and illegal immigration as a by product. But remember, we would need a few illegals to pull the rickshaw. But on second thought, we have enough within our borders now to carry out this transportation plan of pulling a rickshaw.

Anyway, just some common sense planning and carrying out this plan that I have suggested might save our planet and consequently the ones of us that remain. You know how it is, if we don't think of ourselves, nobody else will.

I don't believe those Russian scientist who say it's not the normal tilting of the earth that has occurred thousands of times that's causing global warming.
What the hell do the Russkys know anyway. Just because they have a space station up there for many years that they allowed us to use doesn't mean they are technical savvy. They have been lucky that's all or bought it from aliens from another planet. Does anyone seriously think that a Russian who drinks a bottle of vodka daily could conceive of sending a satellite space station up? Get real folks.

I don't believe those photos I saw on TV recently that reflected that in 1932 there was the same or more of retreating ice on the polar caps. I think the photos were doctored to counter Al Gore.

Yeah, I think I have the idea of how to solve this problem. The big question is, will we Americans and Europeans carry it out?

Bob

PS They ain't gonna take my boat or my Harley except over my cold and dead body.

PPS Does anyone out there have a better plan than this one? If so, let it hang out.

Excuses for Bush and the Neocons to Attack

2010-08-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

I was just musing and after observing the swarm of hummingbirds fighting for a perch at the feeders on my balcony, I decided to put the musings in a written form.

Terror scenarios that Bush and neocons would love.

Well, they could ask for a group of Mexicans to fly over the superbowl and drop jalapeno peppers. The fans would eat the jalapenos and there would be a mass asshole burning. Then Bush would have an excuse to bomb Paraguay as they are suspected of importing jalapeno seeds and might plant them.

Another thing they could ask for is a few Colombians flying over Washington DC in a rented cargo 747 and dropping thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroine and pot. It would incapacitate our government people and Bush would then have an excuse to bomb France as the
small company that leased the jet could have been located there and besides Bush doesn't like French Fries or even Cajun food.

A law would finally be passed prohibiting the term "French Fries." The Republican congressman (I believe from S.Carolina) who filed that law back in
2002 would finally see it passed. We all remember those dirty cowardly bastard French and Germans who wouldn't go along with dropping phosphorus bombs on downtown Baghdad at night in a sneak attack killing, burning and maiming thousands of little children. Shame on them.

Or since Honduras produces a lot of palm oil which is known to drastically increase cholesterol, there is fear that it might export vast amounts of it and infiltrate the American food chain and cause a huge increase in heart attacks. Therefore Bush could sex up the case for bombing Costa Rica because they just might do this in the future as they also grow palm oil and could potentially do this to.

Another would be Cubans flying over various parts of America and dropping Salsa CD's which would convert the populace to have a dancing addiction and make them lose interest in work. Horror of horrors! Workers productivity gone down the drain. Then Bush would mount a campaign to bomb Puerto Rico as they produce a lot of Salsa music CDs and they might just do it in the future so it's better to kill them now and not to wait.

Here's a good one also. India is fabricating and exporting to us all those skin piercing metal adornments that our youth are using for lip, tongue, eyebrow and nose rings thus dumbing down and desecrating their bodies. It it felt that China will begin to do this so let's bomb China.

The very best scenario is that the English writer who wrote Harry Potter has done a direct attack on our religion. All the Christian evangelicals are screaming that this is the devils handiwork and is an athiestic attempt to secularize our young. Then we should attack New Zealand as the movie was filmed there and we would prevent any more movies being made there.

It is specifically noteworthy that we did not bomb Saudi Arabia where the attackers in 9-11 came from and Prince Bander was a visitor on Bush's ranch where he was seen holding hands with Bush and Bush greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.

Isn't it fun to play with scenarios?

Bob

The So Called Texas "Cowboy."--A Satire

2010-08-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had occasion to visit a rather large metroplex located
in Texas whose name I would not reveal under any circumstance even under
threat of a firing squad- Its initials are DFW.

Being bored after the conduction of a rather lengthy business session that dragged on for 30 minutes I returned to the hotel. Still bored at 9 pm, I decided to go check out the night life.

The cab driver dropped me off at this huge garish metal looking building
surrounded by four wheeled drive pic-um-up trucks parked upon what looked
like 5 acres of paved parking lot. I thought that I would at last get to
see the fabled cowpeople of legend. What an opportunity.

Upon entering this cavernous arena I was struck by the music.

I thought it would be hillbilly. I suppose if you listened real carefully
you could discern an occasional hillbilly lick. The music sounded like a
blend of modern rock and polka sung by a frenetic young man who was
gyrating all over the stage. Gyrations would be the last thing ol Ernest
Tubbs , George Jones or Merle Haggard would do.

I thought for sure that the people in that place would be country, what
with all them pick-um-up trucks parked outside and four wheel drive to
boot. I just knew they would have them for something like carrying
branding gear to some remote north forty instead of climbing up the 30
foot long, ten degree slope of their paved driveway in suburbia. (99% of
buyers of four wheel drives have about as much need for them as tropical
jungle dwellers have for a snowmobile) I suppose there is this
psychological need to keep up with the neighbors or maybe if the roads
are destroyed by nuclear bombs, one might get around a little better. In
any case, I was disappointed in not finding any genuine cowpeople and
I'll tell you why.

Yes, those patrons of the club appeared at first blush to be genuine but
upon close scrutiny I feel they were duping each other and the public at
large. Close scrutinizer that I am, I immediately noticed their boots.
Yes, this is a dead giveaway. Most of them were made of some exotic bird
skin with little dimples on them and were not the color of cowhide. They
were also clean and shiny-a dead giveaway.

I know wherewith I speak on this subject of boots, as I was driving one
night near Sonora, Texas listening to the only radio station that was
clear. You know the kind---local AM station whose signal fades 5 miles
from the transmitter. After the announcer declared "come one, come all.
It's half price night at the dairy queen tonight ", he then proceeded to
educate the listeners about cowboy boots. He sounded like a real cowboy.
He said in his thick Texas drawl that no real man would ever buy any
boots that were not made of genuine 100% cowhide and of two colors-black
or brown. Anything else was a genuine fake and only worn by effete
wannabes who know so little about cows and horses that they would get on
a horse backward and think that milk comes from a plant that manufactures
it.

Armed with this tidbit of wisdom, I knew in this big dancehall, there
were no cowboys. Furthermore, they all had big bellys attempting to cover
that obvious defect with large long sleeve garishly painted shirts.
Everyone knows that a real cowboy is lean due the obvious fact of working
cattle all day on a bowl of beans. These shirts were so garishly tacky
with colored patterns that they would motivate a mandrill to mate and
those guys wearing those shirts would not have been safe in mandrill
country. (Mandrills have vivid red behinds considered sexy to other
mandrills)

Another clue was the fact that everybody had their cowboy hats on too. A
real cowboy would have taken it off indoors. Hell, even I know that it
doesn't rain and the sun doesn't shine inside a Texas dancehall. I do,
however, think there is a reason why they wear them indoors-it makes the
shorties appear a little taller and covers the head of the baldies so
consequently wearing a cowboy hat indoors fills some innate need they
have arising out of some deep seated complex about height and hair.
Sigmund Freud, if alive, could better explain it.

Almost all had a little leather case affixed to their belts. It was worn
on the side. I suppose it was a Freudian substitute for a pistol holster.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I then thought that maybe these
little leather cases housed wire cutters. Everyone knows that cowboys are
always on the range mending fences. My curiosity got the best of me so I
asked the guy what he was carrying in his little case. I might have
known. It was fingernail clippers. Why sho nuff you all, a real Texas
cowboy would die of embarrassment by having dirty or long fingernails.
How positively naive could I be! They aren't cowboys from Wyoming
for sure.

The fun began with the music. Real cowpeople dance together.

These imposters were in military like formation six to eight deep and
wide looking like an overweight aerobic class. They were attempting to
dance in lock step but failing miserably. I discovered white people can't
dance. I knew they couldn't jump cause I saw the movie. I also knew they
couldn't play football or basketball as I watch TV. Now I'm sure they
can't dance after visiting that club.

Oh maybe a few have rhythm, but the vast majority move like mechanical robots
with zero relation to the usic. Their faces were wrinkled up from concentration and
focus but it as useless. The music would enter the ears and pass through the brain
but then would be short circuited and not be articulated with theirbodies. That's the
scientific reason alto' I don't want to get to technical for the readers.

I hung around this place an hour or so ,observing this 20th century
anomaly. I should have known that cowboys ride horses and not four
wheeled drives. I also should have known that 99% of Texas is posted and
you can't enter much land other than known streets and parking lot,
unlike those few western states of New Mexico, Arizona, Montana etc,
where you can get lost with your four wheeler.

I came away disillusioned. The music was rock. The boots were not
genuine cowhide and they were were too clean and not genuine.
They couldn't keep time with the music like a cowboy could at a square dance.
The garish shirts were made in Taiwan with mandrill mating colors.
Their little leather cases on the held fingernail clippers. They didn't remove their hats upon
entering. Real cowboys know that hats are only worn outside for
protection from the sun and rain.

I now know as an absolutely irrefutable fact that the closest anybody in
the DFW area has been to a cow is the milk stain on the upper lips you
seen seen in the milk advertisements. One possible explanation of this fake
cowboy ethos is most of them probably took the TV show Dallas to heart.
Hell J.R. Ewing doesn't even own or ride a horse. He owns and rides four
different Harley Davidson motorcycles. Don't they even read the
personality section of the Sunday supplement?

Bob White in "cowboy" country.

Growing UP Ain't What It Used To Be

2010-08-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

I remember when refrigerators didn't run on electricity......they ran on ice !

I don't know if I'm OLDER THAN DIRT.......but in the good ole days gettin dirty didn't mean shit to me ! ! !

'My son asked me one time, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained. ! 'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.' Eat up we were admonished as there are children in China starving. I could never figure out why I had to clean my plate due to this.

My parents never wore Levis , set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 40 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 13 and then mostly you saw just black and white snow or a test pattern. We had only one TV station in Louisiana at that time WDSU out of New Orleans. Since we lived in Baton Rouge we had trouble getting a clear picture.

I was 10 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' My parents took me to the only place selling pizza pie. It was called the Fleur de Lisle. When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

The first car we had was a black Model A Ford. It had a hand crank in the front. Daddy would always warn me about the kick back hand crank he had to use when the battery was dead which was often. The kick back could seriously hurt you.

The second car we owned was a 40 blue Chevy coupe and then in 1946 when the war ended Dad bought the first being produced, a 46 black Nash coupe which I learned to drive in by stealing it at night when I was 13. We all piled into it one summer and Dad drove us to Mexico City through the narrow mountainous Pan American Highway. What an adventure.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys like me who received 2 cents for each one. The customer paid 10 cents and I could keep 2 cents.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them

A happy day was when my parents bought me a pair of black hightop skate shoes. I hated the clip ons. I would wear out the City Park roller rink trying to imitate the best skater there who was named Termite Termini. Can you imagine naming your
son Termite. I'm sure he must have changed it later in life.

We spent a couple of Xmas times in Clinton, La.(Long Hot Summer was filmed there) at my grandparents White's home. They had no electricity. Santa brought me a Lionel electric train set. I took it out of the box and set it up on the floor and then realized I would have to wait until we returned to Baton Rouge where there was electricity.

I still love the smell of the kerosene lamps used at my grandparents and can still see her cooking breakfast on the wood stove using kindling wood. I was allowed to go gather the eggs in the back yard for breakfast.They were the best damn eggs I've ever eaten. Full rich dark orange yokes with firm whites. Today, they yolks are
pale yellow and the whites just fall apart. I think my grandmother must have made a pie every day of her life also.

My first encounter with bubble gum was on the grammar school bus. An older kid had a wad of Fleers Double Bubble in his mouth and stood up in front of the bus and we kids were absolutely awe struck seeing him blow bubbles. You couldn't hardly buy any as every place was sold out and we'd carefully put it back in the wrapper overnight.
After a few days, it became hard and you could not blow a bubble.

Momentous chronological points in my early life were getting a Red Ryder BB gun, a Remington bolt action 22, a 20 gauge single shot Harrington Richardson shotgun and later a 12 gauge Model 50 Winchester automatic. I must have killed a million snakes and turtles with the 22 rifle and thousands of squirrels, rabbits, possums and doves
with the shotguns. I also killed my share of songbirds with the BB gun. Kids didn't have any pity back then.

Endless summer days of swimming naked in the Bogue Chitto river with both white and black kids together.Catching crawfish with my black friend Nat and boiling them in a can by a little fire we lit and then going over to the little shotgun shack where he lived with his mother and then eating cheese and saltine crackers which his mother put out. I was about 10 yrs. old and hadn't caught the racist bug yet.

Endless summer days of catching turtles and fishing and running my 5hp Royal outboard on some wooden boat that I would steal if it was simply tied up around the lake. Many times people came to my home to tell my Dad to teach me not to take their boat. He simply told them to put a lock on it. I actually was doing this at 10 years old. Simply pulling on the starter cord of that motor for a 10 yr. old was tough.

Catching flying squirrels in our little wooden traps was a lot of fun. You had to handle them with a glove at first as they were vicious. We domesticated them this way. We would put them in a sock and swing the sock until they got dizzy and then we could handle them for a little while. After many times of doing this, they caved in and became tame. We would tie a string around their necks and keep them in our pockets ect.

I use to keep a pet flying squirrel in a drawer in my bedroom. He chewed his way out and would hide in the day and since they are nocturnal would only come out at night. He was free for a week in our home and I finally caught him when he flew from somewhere and landed on my chest while I was in bed one night.

I spent hours taming a young Raccoon which I named Bill. He was damn vicious in the beginning and I had to handle him with thick gloves. After a week or so, he became domesticated, but as he grew bigger, Dad wouldn't let me have him roaming around the house freely anymore as he was getting into everything. I even slept with him. Finally, Dad put him in a cage behind our home with his collar and leash on and poor Bill managed to get out of the cage which was high off the ground and we found him hanging one morning by his neck. I dug a grave and put up a small cross and cried like a baby.

I had caught several baby alligators and kept them in a large tub in my room. My grandparents came to spend the weekend with us and I recall my grandfather complaining to my Dad that he didn't get a wink of sleep all night due to the bellowing of the alligators. Dad made me remove the tub to the backyard.

I heard Sen. Biden relate how he was bullied by some kid and his Dad told him to go back and fight and said, "Champ, when you're down, get up and fight."

Well, something similar happened to me. Sonny Harris and Earl Frenzel who were a year older than me and lived down the street had bullied me and took my bicycle. I would have been about 10 yrs. old. I came crying home and my Dad read me the damn riot act. He scared the hell out of me that he was going to give me a whipping worse than those kids and if I did not go back out there and get my bicycle then don't bother to come home ever again.

He motivated me to the point that I ran with tears in my eyes down where they were and without saying anything charged them both with the ferocity of an adrenaline filled Lion. I beat the hell out of both of them and got my bike back. It was then that I had an epiphany. I realized that I was much stronger than most guys and had better reflexes and agility. I didn't much fear anybody the rest of my life.

That was one of the few lessons I learned from my Dad. He didn't give me many, I assure you. He owned Bob White's Silver Dollar Bar and Lounge which was a front for a gambling Den. He did make me open oysters on Saturdays for the customers and I believe I still have scars on my hand from doing this, but it was worth it to hear the country bands he hired to play on Saturday night.

The nearest side of heaven was drinking a Grapette on a hot summer day.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

Bob White

Florida Scuba Diver Hit by Lightening--It Happened To Me

2010-08-15T07:48:00.000-07:00

There but for luck would the same have happened to me. When I was 16, I
was scuba diving on Lake Bistineau in Louisiana in the channel of the
river that was damned to make the lake. My diving buddy was Joe Coffield who
was 10 yrs. older than I and no longer with us.

The old river channel in the lake was about 30 ft. deep and we
was looking for outboard motors that had fallen off boats and any and
other junk from the days of the civil war when boats plowed the once navigable
river back then.

While I was diving and down for about 30 minutes I surfaced to find
lightening and rain. As I swam back to the boat, Lightening either hit my
air tank or very near. I was paralyzed for about five seconds. It was one
of the most terrifying experiences I ever had. After I realized I wasn't
dead or hurt I finished swimming to the boat and got out of there scared
the whole time.

Upon reflection why I wasn't killed, I came to the belief that it was
because it was in the month of December and I was wearing a Bel Aqua Dry
rubber suit with long underware beneath. I had on rubber gloves that were
sealed off with rubber cords at the wrist. The rubber cords wrapped
around a plastic grooved bracelet fitted underneath the sleeve of the Dry
suit. I was completely dry and sealed off except for the area around my
mouth underneath my face mask. I believe I would have been long gone if I
would not have had that dry rubber suit on. I would have been gone if I
would have had a wetsuit on or if it was in the summer and no suit.

Bob White

Fla. diver dies after lightning hits air tank
By The Associated Press

DEERFIELD BEACH — A 36-year-old diver was killed after lightning struck
his air tank, authorities said.

Deerfield Beach resident Stephen Wilson was diving with three others off
a boat near Deerfield Beach on Sunday, when a severe thunderstorm warning
was in effect in the area.

When he surfaced, “lighting struck his tank,” said Deerfield Beach fire
Chief Gary Fernaays. “He was approximately 30 feet from the boat at the
time.”

The three other divers struggled to get Wilson back into the boat and
radioed for help. Wilson was then rushed to the beach where a rescue crew
was waiting. He was given CPR and taken to North Broward Medical Center
in Pompano Beach, where he was pronounced dead, Fernaays said.

An autopsy by the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office determined
Wilson died of electrocution.

My Bus Trips to See a Saturday Movie When I Was 12 yrs. Old

2010-08-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm 12 years old and it's Saturday morning.

I pick up the phone and call my two friends who happen to be brothers, David and Phil Vasser.

I say, I'm catching the next City bus and they answer that they will be waiting to catch it at their bus stop. They lived on Aberdeen St. and I lived on Hyacinth St. It was a quintessential neighborhood with tree lined streets and each home completely different than the other---No cookie cutter homes.

I'm but two houses down from the bus stop and they are about five blocks from me.

I see the bus coming. It's a red bus and it stops for me. I enter and deposit one shiny nickel into a contraption mounted to the right of the driver. It makes a whirring and clicking sound. If I would have put into it a dime, quarter or half dollar it would have whirred and clicked and given me the change back.
I don't mind confessing, I thought long and hard about how in the hell does it do that. To me it was magical.

With my nickle fare off I go and then five blocks down, David and Phil board.

We arrive to downtown and immediately go to one of the movie houses which I suppose we had agreed upon before. Generally it was a western where morality was taught to us. The good guys always came out on top.We generally had a chocolate candy bar of some kind while watching the movie.

After the movie, we would head to Sip and Nip Grille or Sitman's drugs. We would order a malted milk and a hamburger. Later we might stop by Dalton's Dept. store and stroll up to the shoe measuring device which is a large cabinet like structure where you stood up and pushed your feet into a slot and looked down and were able to see the bones in your feet and how they articulated with your shoes. Everything you viewed had an eerie green glow.

These were later outlawed. We probably received more Rems of radiation than the people around Chernobyl.We're still alive.

Houses were constantly being built in our area. We would climb up into the attic of a home that was 80% completed with the asbestos insulation blown into the attic. We would throw asbestos at each other. We're still alive. All pipes had asbestos wrapped around them. All ironing board covers were made with asbestos. Our parents lived.

All paint had lead in it. But, hell, we didn't eat it or chew on a window ledge. Who would do that? Well, I won't go there.

Mercury was a play thing. Kids would have it in school and we would shine dimes and nickles and dimes with it by rolling the coins in our hands with mercury. We're still alive. Today, if you break a thermometer in a school, they evacuate it and call
the EPA.

But, I digress. After we saw the movie, had the candy bar, ate our hamburger with a malted milk and bought our comic book and arrived home on the bus, we had twenty cents left over from a one dollar bill.

Bus--$10 round trip
Movie $.20
Hamburger $.25
Malted milk $.20
Comic book $.05

Till this day, I don't recall what I did with the $.20 I had left over.

All I know is that that one dollar bill had a some real purchasing power and value.

In most places today, you can't even buy a cup of coffee. You might as well use it for toilet paper.

Bob White

PS I really enjoyed my childhood even though my family relations were not exactly like Ozzie and Harriet.

How I Put Our Lives In Danger

2010-08-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at the computer thinking of how I put my life in danger as well as my wife's.

Four years ago we set off on the Harley to go to the Oregon coastal town of Newport. We love it there for the small town feeling of being on the edge of the mountains spilling in on the Pacific coast with it's thunderous waves that when they fall, actually shake the ground.

There is a particularly small motel that we love to stay out right on the beach where we throw open the sliding glass doors facing the ocean and enjoy the sound of the surf along with the cool temps during the summer. Also, it's within walking distance to some awesome pub where I actually met a graduate from the college I graduated from, Mexico City College. He was a successful and prosperous grower of Marijuana in the mountains of Oregon. We've gone to Newport about four times before and enjoy the heck out of it. I don't know why they don't change the name to Newpot. That's the biggest farming industry there.

Anyway, as we rolled through the western part of Utah on the bike, we have to cross the Cascade mountain range to head to the coast.

The way I go is through the roads least traveled and so they are two laned and not very straight. As we were crossing the Cascades on a twisty narrow two lane, a Corvette was tailgating me. The roads were wet due to the high altitude cloudy mist and it was about eleven in the morning.

The corvette was pushing me. I reacted in a stupid Neanderthal way by thinking to myself that this guy is not going to pass me. Mind you, Carmen was in the seat behind me as well as about 35 lbs of luggage on the rack above my rear compartment. On a motorcycle, this affects your handling and this is besides the stuff we had in the two metal saddlebags and rear compartment.

In thinking back, I get scared. Why did I do this. What is it about a man at my age then of 63 that would have the competitive urge to risk his wife's life as well as his own at this particular point in life. I don't have an answer. I suppose it's tucked away somewhere in each of our particular genes.

There were times in these wet curves that I thought there was no way I could make it without going down. I could out accelerate the corvette after the curves as I have the big bore kit and cam in the Harley. But , I would slow down more in the curves. Anyway, this went on for an hour or more till we reached the crest of the Cascades and then began descending. At this point, I let the corvette pass me and waved him goodbye and he acknowledged the wave with one of his own. All I know , is that I was not about to let the damn corvette pass me climbing up the Cascades. I was totally honed in and focused on that one small goal at that particular time.

I have no explanation for this except to say, that we are limbic driven creatures no matter our education or upbringing.or age. It's imprinted in us and to hell with reason and logical thinking. We're just flesh and blood as the saying goes.

I think of this all the time and I still get goose pimples. If we were to go down on the wet road , we could have fallen thousands of feet and if the driver of the corvette wouldn't have told anyone about it, we'd still be missing. I remember vividly, that so many times ,I just knew we were not going to make it without going over the side. If you've ever ridden a motorcycle , you can feel when you've gone beyond the limits in a curve at high speed. It's not a good feeling at all.

Would I do this again? Sitting her thinking rationally, hell no. But given the same situation, who knows?

Bob White

Calle Me Hard Heartied---Medicare and Scooters

2010-08-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

A CASUAL OBSERVATION AND COMMENT

Yesterday, I was in the grocery store and this big blob of a woman who must of weighed in at 250 lbs almost hit me with her electric scooter.

I casually observed her shopping for food items and followed her around for a while. There she goes buying two big bags of potato chips, a couple of lbs. of hamburger meat, a gallon of whole milk, half gallon of ice cream, four of those big plastic bottles of regular coke, Saltine crackers, two kinds of blocks of cheese, Oreos and assorted other snack food. She certainly passed on the vegetables and fruits.

The thought occurred to me that she received this scooter free as Medicare paid for it. Then I began thinking about all the people I see here in Florida on those scooters. They are everywhere. Every one I've observed has two legs and
arms, but they are all bloated and fat. Very seldom do I see where it's really needed.

Now I can imagine her daily scenario as well as other scooter people like her.

She will go home and sit on her big fat ass and stuff herself with fattening junk food and watch television.

I see these fat scooter people every time I leave the house and we have several in the neighborhood. They all look perfectly fine except they become big blobs of soft mushy fat.

What they should be doing is walking and eating better and they could throw away those damn scooters.

What's in their head?

Medicare is paying out millions of dollars for these scooters because the doctors give them a prescription for it without really counseling them to get out and walk and eat right.

The Scooter Man is bombarding our televisions with his ads saying "I guarantee Medicare will pay for your scooter or it's free."

Now don't get me wrong. If a person is lacking a leg or has a spinal injury, etc I don't begrudge them. But, I see them get off the scooter in the parking lot and power it up a ramp into their van or use that little attachment made for the rear of a car and then calmly walk to the driver's door and get in.

I think it's a waste of our medicare tax dollars to pay for their scooters that can cost up to $4,000.

I think their doctors should not prescribe them to these people and should tell them to walk more, eat right and loose weight.

Call me hard hearted if you want.

Bob White

Why the Cowboy?

2010-08-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

What is it in the American psyche causes us to have a enduring relationship with them?Upon analysis, they are but the initial phase in the processing of cow meat. That's right cow meat, not chicken meat, not sheep meat and not fish meat.Why isn't the chickenboy , sheepboy and fishermen given mythical proportions. Why does it have to be a boy? I know of deadly altercations caused by one calling another "boy". But when you add "cow" to "boy" then it is acceptable---real strange.

Why not cowmen or cowwomen? Except in the case of fishermen, all the rest are boys. Is it because fishing is the work of men and not boys? Maybe so. In deep see fishing , men are the only ones who can afford a 50 foot Hatteras.

In the processing of cow meat there are several phases including the caring and growing of cows, the slaughter of cows, the freezer plant middlemen and the retailer. All have a hand in presenting a nice plate of cow meat to Mr. and Mrs. Consumer.Why, of all these people involved with cow meat, does the initial phase of the process of putting cow meat on the plate receive special treatment by the public? What is so romantic about repairing fences, roping a cow, and branding it? What is so romantic about fleas and ticks? What is so romantic about living on a couple of plates of beans a day? What is so romantic about not seeing the other sex for months? They can't be that romantic as they haven't had enough practice. Besides they're just inexperienced boys. What makes an otherwise perfectly reasonable urban person attempt to mimic them? Too many movies watched?

Why don't we raise the status of the abattoir employee? For those that are vocabularianly challenged, that's a slaughter house. Why don't we mimic the dress of slaughterers by dressing in slaughter house clothes. You know, those white overalls covered in cow blood. Why not those big industrial square toed boots instead of those little pointy ones? The slaughterer is one step up in the cow meat process and with union wages makes more than the cowboy and definitely has a more romantic lifestyle, what with being in a local Pub or home at night with his paramour and not stuck off in some lonesome deserted area without a female in sight.

I know! I know! You're thinking of those big limpid pools of a cow's eyes when they give you that baleful look and make that cooing (Scuse me, "mooing" sound) But it's not the same--The eyes of the cow are bigger and rounder. Can't you see the look on your wife's face when you dress up in slaughterhouse overalls with those big square work shoes for a night on the town? Real trendy! But seriously, why not? It is the same as dressing up in the work clothes of a cowboy. One cares for the cows and the other kills the cows-both essential to chowing down on a good porterhouse steak.

What is a porterhouse steak anyway? Were the cows raised or killed at Porter's house? We have all seen menus featuring "porterhouse" steaks but can anyone but a benedictine monk tell you what significance that attaches to a piece of cow meat? Maybe the guy named Porter could ,but he probably took that little secret to his grave. Probably never even saw a live cow in his life either as he was just a smart marketeer. Kinda like on the menu they put in "roast beef au jus" or "potatoes al gratin". What the hell does that mean anyway? I suppose not knowing justifies a higher price and makes people think they are getting more for the money and not just roast beef or potatoes. How much are we being gouged for the "au jus" and "al gratin"?

I once asked a waiter to " eliminate" the "au jus" and "al gratin" and he said "yes sir, no problem". Five minutes later he returned to the table with a deeply apologetic tone informing me that he would have liked to eliminate these items but that the chef informed him that the "eliminator" was broken and had been sent to the repairman. Obviously an extremely dumb waiter and a brilliantly creative chef. I like to think that his answer was at least as good as my request.

Can't chickenboys and sheepboys be raised to leviathan mythology like cowboys? We all eat those little creatures that were tenderly nurtured and cared for by them too. Maybe they ought to make movies about them also. Of course those classical movie scenes of the cowboys going into Dry Gulch and getting drunk, getting a paid girly and then shooting up the town and each other and in that order would probably be not shot or cut if shot. However, I personally think that chickenboys and sheepboys can drink and shoot and get a girly with the best of em. I don't think one's occupation depends upon how well you can do these type of things.

My uncle Jack was a newspaper editor. He was the best I've ever seen at all three of these endeavors. A cowboy could not hold a candle to him and he had an aversion to cows. In fact of matter, he once told me he would have been a vegetarian except that he hated cows so much. You get it?

Speaking of drinking, did you ever see a cowboy do anything but belly up to the bar and quaff down a huge glass of straight liquor without so much as a grimace. They always tell the bartender to leave the bottle also. Didn't they know about cocktails or a good non-alcohol brew like O'douls? I recall as a child when I was watching a barroom cowboy scene when the " White Hat" guy walked up to the bar and ordered a sarsaparilla. The "Black hat" guy with the pointy nose and squinting eyes next to him said "only chicken livered yellow cowards order sarsaparilla". Yes, you bright people probably have already figured out the denouement to this scene. In any case this movie made such an indelible impression on me that throughout my life time I have never ordered a sarsaparilla in a bar.

That's as good as any reason to give to have a drink of the real thing. I realize that I have covered a lot of ground , But I would like someone somewhere to reflect on these many questions I have presented and come up with some solid answers to them----real deep well thought out philosophic answers. The last thing I need are shallow flippant type answers. After all, I'm highly educated, well trained with an innate ability to size up the problem and give cogent lucid answers. Unfortunately, I am unable to accomplish this in the context of the American cowboy's continuing larger than life legendary myth. I am now leaving to the local pub to have something other than a sarsaparilla and continue to reflect on the myth of the cowboy.

Bob White

A Tale of Sin and Redemption We've All Heard Many Times

2010-08-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody. My name is Doug Downs and I have a marvelous story to tell you of sin and redemption.

About 3 years ago I was cruising down a typical upper middle class suburb looking for something to steal.

It was about 9PM and I spotted this home with lights on. I parked my car and sneaked up to the windows and saw several people watching TV. I thought to myself, hell, I'm here and they won't put up a resistance when I come crashing in through the flimsy front door.

Well, I did it. I was confronted with a look of fear and surprise on the part of the husband, wife and 3 small children.

Well, look. I tried to be nice and quietly asked for their money and jewels. The husband took offence at this and was giving me a hard time and the wife and children were screaming their heads off. I told them to shut up as I was worried
the neighbors would hear. They wouldn't shut up and I lost it I guess.

I pulled my knife and stabbed the husband and wife and chased the kids upstairs where I killed them. Jeez! There was blood everywhere. I was literally covered in blood.

I saw where they had a half eaten pizza there in the den and since I was hungry I ate the most of it after getting a beer from the fridge. I confess, I've eaten pizza in nicer surroundings than a bunch of stabbed and dead bodies and blood everywhere , but you have to understand, I was hungry.

Shit, what did I know about DNA. It seems the cops extracted DNA from the beer bottle I had been drinking from and from a half piece slice of pizza that I had eaten from.

Since I have been incarcerated a couple of years ago for burglary, it seems they authorities took a routine sample of DNA from me when they asked me to put a cotton swab in my mouth. I sure as hell didn't understand the significance of that.

Anyway, the cops matched my DNA at the crime scene and in no time I was arrested.

I was convicted and sent up to prison for life. I've been in prison for 3 years now and the first was sheer hell and agony for me.

But now for the GOOD NEWS. I'm a happy and contented guy who wakes up every morning singing with joy in my heart for Jesus.

I've been reborn and have the grace of Jesus poured into my body. Jesus understood that I stabbed those people in a moment of panic because they wouldn't shut up. Jesus knows we are all just flesh and blood and make mistakes in this mortal life.

Yes, I woke up in the middle of the night and Jesus was talking to me. I begged his forgiveness and he told me , "My son, you have accepted and believe in me and therefore you shall have everlasting life and I forgive you." Gee, it was like a ton of guilt was removed from my shoulders.

I could get a good night's rest and wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night with visions of those bloody people preying on my brain.

The visions were erased and all my visions are of the sweet anointing love of our beloved Son of God who himself was murdered with permission from his Father. Jesus understood these things.

I can tell you that I'm not the same man I use to be as I'm filled to the core with love of Jesus.

Ain't Jesus great? Haleluya! Haleluya!

And prison did not have anything to do with his talk with Jesus. The mind is a funny thing.

Bob White
9:30PM
August 14, 2010
Albuquerque, N.M.

Israel vrs Palestinians---Brothers Fighting

2010-08-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

The muslims lived side by side with the jew for a thousand years. They were the same people and treated each other like methodists and presbyterians do today.

There is nothing incorporated in Islam about Israel surviving or not surviving.

Look at Spain where they lived side by side for 500 years when southern Spain was the most prosperous and up scale country in the world until Pope Urban in Rome called on the illiterate Christian Visigoth tribes to go down there on a crusade to kill both jew and muslim and rid the continent of those infidels. Well that's what happened. The christians burned the books in the universities of Toledo and Salamanca which were the best in Europe. It is said that there there were only 60 books in europe at the time and these were in Rome.

The works in Spain included all the writings of the Greeks.. Half were burned. Many books were saved by four Irish monks who hid them from the christian rabble who over ran Spain. There is a great book called "Who saved Civilization" which explains how lucky we were that these four monks saved some works from Greece or we would not know about concepts of democracy, etc.

90 % of the worlds jews were in Spain at that time living side by side with muslims. After the christians took it over there were only three alternatives for the jews and mulims. The had to "convert" to christianity and were called "conversos." Secondly they could pretend to convert but practice their religion in secret in their homes and these were called "occultos." The pretend to convert were also called "marranos" which are pigs in English. Or thirdly, they could flee back south into Morocco and on into what is called Arabia. The inqisition was an attempt to determine if an alleged conversion was true or not. The christians used the star chamber and torture to accomplish this.

Jews and mulims were living side by side without a problem in all Arab countries up even until today with no problem. What happened is that the first zionists started coming into the Palestinian lands in the first part of the last century and there was no problem. Then after WWII many Akanazi jews started coming in from Europe and treated both the muslims and sephardic jews as low class. Anyway as Akanazi jews swelled the population, they formed the state of Israel and they wanted more land and started taking it from the palestinians forcefully. And that's when the shit hit the fan.

You have to know the difference between Askanazi jews and Sephardic jews. Sephardic jews were those that had spread up to europe hundreds of years before and had mixed with the europeans over hundreds of years and were generally lighter in color ala Kirk Douglas whose parents were Polish jews. Sephardic were darker ala actor Victor Mature who starred in the film Samson and Delila who was a classical Sephardic looking Arabic jew. Incidently, he fit the role of Sampson perfectly as he was a Sephardic Arab jew and they wrote the bible and the tale of Sampson within it.

Some scholars question how the Askanazi came about with some saying they originally came from regular europeans who resided in the Caucasus mountains and were converted by some sephardics gypsys who wondered into their area.

In any case, the Muslims generally were much more peaceful than the more warlike Christians who undertook four crusades down to the holy lands in an attempt to claim the birthplace of Christ for the Christians and in doing so destroyed universities and cultural centers of Arabs all over the territory. The oldest university was founded in Damascus, Syria. They invented the alphabet,writing and the western religions.

Christians have been invading and killing Semitic people be they jewish or muslim for centuries up to the present Bush in Iraq and Hitler with the Jews.

It's a crazy world brought about by religious extremism that knows no bounds . "Onward Christian soldiers marching on to war" the song goes.

Type in "sephardic" in google and it will open your eyes.

I don't blame people for thinking that God's promise to the muslims that Israel will not survive is incorporated into their religion. First of all Israel did not even exist until recently. The Koran makes no reference to this "incorporation." Most Americans know little or nothing re history of the middle east and religious history.

Both jews and muslims use the phrase "anti Semitic" you know. They are brothers against our European descendants who have invaded their lands for centuries but now the brothers are fighting between themselves over land that is being taken from the palestinians.

bob White

PS Later on when Martin Luther and John Calvin branched off from Roman Catholicism which comprised the only christians in Europe, not counting the Greek Orthodox catholic church, Luther and Calvin preached hatred agains the evil , dirty, vile infested jew and muslim residents in Europe and most of the muslims left but some jew remained in their ghettos through out Europe and eventually many became wealthy and financiers as both the muslim and christian religious didn't allow the charging of interest which biblical injunction now is ignored.

Ileagle This and Illegal That

2010-08-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing that Illegals immigrants are law breakers and what part of illegal don't you understand? Why didn't they term the Italian illegals as such. No, they called them WOPS short for "Without Papers."

Lawlessness has been rewarded down through history in America.

It could be said it began with the American revolution when this
lawless bunch of English settlers broke the laws of England and rebelled
against England. We wouldn't have an independent nation unless we has a
lawless group of people.

We wouldn't have had a Kennedy as president in all likelihood if it were
not for the fact that his daddy was a first class lawbreaker by
rumrunning. They would have been just poor Boston Irish trash without the money his
father made in breaking the law. There's a reward in there.

We wouldn't have acquired so much land if we had not broken the treaties
with the Indians whenever we wanted more land for settlement.

We would not have Texas unless by supporting the surrogate Texans and
breaking our treaty with Mexico.

We would have never had unions in this country to protect workers in the
first part of the last century. Workers illegal riots, illegal street
manifestations and strikes produced child labor laws, 40 hour workweek
etc.

We would have never had equal rights for blacks in this country until
they took to the streets in illegal marches and manifestations.

We wouldn't have equal rights for woman unless there was a lawbreaker
like Susan B. Anthony who was arrested many times for illegal street
speaking and causing rebellions.

It's entirely possible that if the South did not illegally break away
from the union and a civil war followed, then we night night be a nation
so united today.

We might have lost a few more thousand soldiers in the Vietnam war if it
weren't for the war protesters who were arrested for illegal sit ins and
demonstrations.

During prohibition, lawlessness was rewarded to the speakeasy owners and
the the people who liked to have a drink.

That's why I never make absolute statement about anything. Nothing is
absolute. Concepts, words, content , space, form and matter are not absolute.

I'm gonna eat some of them thar illegal Mexican picked cherries the wife bought
yesterday and my daughter is supposed to sell one of them thar illegal Mexican built
houses today to an illegal Mexican. I'm gonna put a coat of sealer on those pavers
that the Brazilian illegals put down and Joe Sixpack and Mary Mallshopper
are going to watch TV in their home that the illegals just re-roofed.

I ain't gonna worry about it anymore as I damn sure won't be around too
much longer. My children are well prepared. They both speak fluent Spanish.

You'll have a nice and contempletive day ya hear.

Bob

To Be a Contemporary Republican, You Have to Believe These Things

2010-08-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

To be a current Republican as opposed to the classical old time ones you need to believe:

1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.

2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's Daddy made war on him , a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a 'we can't find Bin Laden' diversion.

3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Viet Nam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iran.

5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational drug corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex and just say no really works.

8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism except for Medicare. HMO's and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which tens of thousands die is solid defense policy.

12. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet .

13. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host like Rush Limbaugh. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

14. Under Bush's Faith Based Initiative, giving our tax money to churches is the best way to fight poverty.

15. In order to get God back in schools, the separation of church and state constitutional clause should be abolished.

16. Deficit spending is OK and there is no need to balance the budget.

17. 54% of our our annual Federal tax dollar receipts going to the military industrial complex is not enough. They need more.

18. Bush's increase in size of Federal bureacracy by a third was not enough.

19. We didn't need that antiquated law of Habeas Corpus anyway.

20. Spying on our citizens is perfectly OK and torture of prisoners is clearly moral.

21. The removal of home lending regulations in the last 6 years by the FSLIC and the FDIC as related to documentation, credit worthiness and downpayment requirements was a good thing for making home ownership universal.

The Basis of Morality--A Historical Perspective

2010-08-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

Full-Name: Bob White
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 01:35:20 PSTInteresting to note, that Verne merely pulling a quote from Ayn Rand, about morality being a set of "values to guide man's choices and action" can precipitate Longshot's foray into religion and history.

Actually, there was more barbarity and immorality committed in the singular events of the Christian religious crusade or the Christian inquisition than in the last 100 years. Feudalism, servitude and slavery have decreased. Man is progressing. One gets a sense of it by reading history and recognizing how awfully bloody and cruel it used to be. Man's inhumanity to man has been less with the passage of time. Progress is not in a straight line, it has setbacks and looks more like a stock market chart. But by any definition, the process of socialization has improved.

More important Longshot gives his biblical version HOW "morality " developed and he said it was because "Adam and Eve disobeyed God" and constraining my imagination, we are consequently punished for the so called sins of our ancestors. The sin being eating an apple. So eating the apple against God's will caused all succeeding generations to be punished. Interesting concept. I would hate to know what would have happened if Eve would have really done something more sinister. Aren't you glad that your offspring are not punished by some of your indiscretions?

The Arabs that wrote the Book of Abraham (l'st Testament) had a definite sense of vengeful wrath about their god. Their god definitely believed in visiting the sins of the fathers onto the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and never stopping. This concept of heirs inheriting wrath still exist in the mind set of the Semitic people in the middle east. A common obscene curse in Arabic is not only directed at you but your children also. It's funny but in our culture we usually refer to the individual's parentage. We insult back in time and they in the future and forever--"a pox on your house" is one of the Arabic curses. The religious books of the bible and Koran contain hundreds of them.

The Arab people of the middle east who bequeathed to us our 3 great religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam(All springing from the same root) also gave us algebra, astronomy, our alphabet, concept of Zero, the fork, Arabic numerals and an Abacus to play with the numerals. They did and still use a lot of "A" in their writings.While the tribes in Europe were running around in a pathetically primitive way without a written language those Arabs figured out how to write down a language on paper which they figured out how to make from papyrus reeds growing along the edge of the Nile. Man, did those scribes start to write their" father to son" legends down on a portable medium instead of a non portable slab of rock or clay tablets.Naturally when you go portable you can bring the data to the people instead of bringing the people to the data.

A good analogy is the invention and use of our laptop computers today. They wrote and they wrote.ie Bible, Dead sea scrolls etc. That's why we know something of their historical events in going back 2500 BC. We know almost zip about any historical event as late as 750AD as set down by Europeans. Almost zip I say because there are cave paintings throughout Europe. Now without pursuing mythology further, I will offer the reality version of how "morality" developed.

When homoerectus begin to evolve into homo sapiens a million or so years ago there was a pressing need to band together for safety and furtherance of genome survivability. Just as you can see lions banding together in a pride acting out their "code of conduct" for perpetuation of the species. They band together to run down gazelle and defend against other prides etc. There has to be rules in a band or otherwise anarchy would prevail. In homo sapiens we call this banding together for the common good "the social contract."

Since the survival instinct is the basic drive of all biological life, then man grouping together could enhance his survival in numerous ways.ie. It was far safer to be a member of a tribe in numbers as there is strength and It was very difficult for one or two to kill a mastodon for meat. Within each tribal group, a set of rules, ritual and mores, etc were developed over hundreds of thousands of years.

Some obvious examples of these rules are "treat others as you would want to be treated." This rule within the social compact has been expressed in every religion known to man and has been traced back about 3500 years in written form to the Greeks altho it has existed in unwritten codes of behavior for tens of thousands of years before. It is a fairly obvious outcome of banding together. I don't like to be hit therefore I will not hit you.etc. I won't steal your woman, don't steal mine. I won't steal your club, don't steal mine. ect.

Current Western "morality" is no more or less than the workable contemporary mores that have been distilled from a few million years of homosapien's experiences on how best to survive and perpetuate the species to the same degree as a pride of lions or a pack of wolves have developed their code of conduct. Morality has been always been a relative concept depending upon the epoch you talk about. ie. at one time human sacrifices were the order of the day to satisfy a God or Gods in order to grow a bountiful harvest. Not so today.

It was perfectly alright to kill hundreds of thousands of people in the Christian religious crusades in the name of a God. Not so today except in real fundamentalist religious zealots. Holy wars were quite the order of the day in our past history.Thousands of poor women during the middle age were executed in Europe and in the US in places like Salem, Mass. Their crime was being suspected of being witches. They were burned at the stake under the Biblical injunctive authority of "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live."

I kind of think we are over the hump with that sort of malarkey until I look at the TV station Trinity Broadcast Network and see that guy Benny Hein(Spelling?) waving his hand and all the people falling down in front of him while he cures them immediately of cancer, heart problems etc. He has one upped Oral Roberts on this. All the while Jan and Paul are softly smiling in the back ground counting their money.You will never see those charlatans regrow a limb lost in fighting a war. You can just never underestimate the IQ of a certain segment of society.

Longshot mentions that "the Bible is the origination of British Common Law. I beg to differ. The British common law takes its name from the "commoners". Basically it was the customs of the common people as handed down and not codified. The Magna Carta codified parts of the customs. But even then the customs or as we call it "common law" had as its greatest influence Roman codified law after the Roman conquest of the British Isles. Roman Law, in turn was distilled from the Greek codified law long before the Arabic people wrote the Book of Abraham which is in most parts the bible's old testament which is essentially the same as the Koran used by the Moslem faith today.

In the Koran, Jesus is relegated to that of a prophet and not the son of God as Mohammed in his "revelations" came to the belief that no man shall claim to be the son of God.The reason that common law was not codified was that the tribes in northern Europe did not have a written language and the law was largely applied by being handed down word of mouth and the Judge using "stare decisis" pronouncing in effect that the matter in question has been previously decided.

In effect the common law became an amalgam of "handed down oral mores" with a healthy dose of Roman law hence the many Latin phrases found in the common law.

I've tried to be brief and simple in an otherwise difficult overview of a few million years of developing homo sapiens. But it has to be understood that the very core of our behavior or that of any behavior of life forms has at its primal drive the perpetuation of the species-The "social compact" and resultant body of social rules be it called "morality", "civilized" or "code of behavior" is but one manifestation of this phenomenon.

All behavior patterns of life forms are survival driven. Even a cancer cell or Aids virus is survivor driven and changes and adapts to the need to survive. That is why the damn things are so hard to stop. This survival at all costs behavior is embedded in all of biological life's creatures. The tree will bend to the sun and the human will use his more advanced brain to come up with ways to survive and endure with the limbic primal drive of gene contribution.

I have the notion that this old world will continue to rock on at an ever increasing pace of acceleration with us or without us. We collectively, as the highest evolved species, have the power to make it better or destroy our species as well as other species in the process of acting out the survival instinct.

As to the fundamental question of why all this activity has taken place or is taking place, I haven't a clue. As Hal the computer says"insufficient data". At this stage of the game I don't have a clue. But I can console myself with the thought that no body else has one either as stated many time by no less than Einstein. Where did I come from? Why am I hear? Where am I going? In answering these questions, some don't think about it and accept the mythology handed down by their tribe, some think about it slightly and waffle and some deeply think about it and concluded what Hal concluded-insufficient data at this point in time, on our little ball which is one of trillions of little balls floating out there.

I believe the following quotes are revealing:

It's not what we don't know that hurts, it's what we know that ain't so---Will Rogers

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is almost nothing about which one can be certain--Somerset Maugham

Most of our future lies ahead-Denny Crum, Basketball coach

The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization---Sigmund Freud

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice---Will Durant

Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers--Socrates 441 BC

The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped---Arthur Schopenhauer

Idealism is what precedes experience: cynicism is what follows--David Wolf

What is it, is man one of God's blunders or is God one of mans--Friedrich Nietzsche

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon---Susan Ertz

A pious man is one who would be an athiest if the king were---Jean de La Bruyere.

Bob White in Brownsville, Tx.

Republicans Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

2010-08-12T13:29:00.001-07:00

The stock market went up from 3300 to 11500 under President Clinton and Democratic Admin.

After almost 8 yrs. under the President Bush and Republican operatives, the market closed out at 10917 today.

Right on Republicans, thanks, but no thanks for deregulating the financial markets and not enforcing the few regulations that remained such as oversight on home lending.

We went from a treasury surplus to a deficit that will prove to be insurmountable and hurt us even more.

History reflects, that with rare exceptions, the stock market went up under Democrats and either went down or went up a little under Republican administrations.

Shades of President Hoover Republican Administration, we're going back to Hooverville.

But, I will admit the Bush Administration did a damn good job at raising gas prices, foreclosures, food prices foreign and internal debt, unemployment and fear level. They also did a good job in causing the deaths of many of our people in that futile needless invasion and occupation in Iraq.

In that, they did a bang up job---no question about it.

Yep, let's reward the Republicans with another turn at the tiller. Oh yeah! Let's not let the facts confuse us.

Bob

Oh I forgot. The Republicans are up for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They have managed to turn the once almighty dollar into fecal matter. No small accomplishment.

When Are You Going To Prevent Them From Beating You

2010-08-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

I watched the Palin "interview" tonight. It's amazing how much better she did when she was given the softball questions from Hannity before so her handlers could brief her on the right answers. She didn't miss a beat unlike her interview with Gibson where she was totally lost.

Why, she sounded like more of a Democratic populist than Obama. The old trick of co-opting your opponents message seems to be working. Why she said they were going to even out regulate Obama. Yeah, you can imagine McCain the 'ol deregulator morphing into a super regulator. He won't appear now to answer questions from the news people. If he did, they should ask him if he was happy that he supported his compadre Sen. Phil Graham's bill deregulating the many laws put in by the Roosevelt Admin. to prevent exactly what has happened recently.

Yes, Indeed. Old P.T. Barnum knew a circus and all about how to run one."There's a sucker born every minute," he said, giving historical inspiration to today's GOP. Unfortunately, most of the suckers vote. . . and too many of them are concerned with the fortunes of a couple of NASCAR drivers than with the mismanagement of their representatives in government.

Bamboozled by the superficiality of television, they confuse what passes as the daily "news" with soap operas, "reality" shows and old John Wayne movies. Even with true reality biting them in the ass, they are titillated by the superficial glitz and outright lies of the likes of John McCain, Karl Rove, George Bush and Sarah Palin--and their attention span has long since dissipated by the time anyone presents the actual truth as rebuttal.

Reagan was a bit mixed up in his thinking, but his remarks always resonated well. "The problem is not government," he also said; "government is the problem." Sorry, Ron. The problem is those who vote in a government, endure its incompetence and corruption and learn nothing in the process. As the philosopher Pogo, long a student of human nature, once observed, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

As Harry Truman said in reference to the middle class, "They are beating you in the head. When are you going to vote to stop the beatings."

Bob

The Dumbing Down of the U.S.

2010-08-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Since I served six years on the Board of Trustees of a small college in Brownsville, Tx. of which two years were in the capacity of Chairman of the Board, I had some knowledge of educational issues. This was from 1979 through 1985.

I've been thinking why we have an educational crisis in this country. I occasional muse about these problems.

I have to go back to 1962 when the incoming college freshman reached the zenith on scores on the Princeton college entrance exams. These were the highest scores every made by incoming college freshman.

By 1995 the scores had fallen by a full 40%. This was extremely embarrassing so the Princeton group dumbed down the tests in 1995 because under the previous test criteria, the colleges would be constrained to permit many students from enrolling.

The Scholastic Entrance Exam (SAT) was based on criteria set in 1941. A far cry from the test today.

Suddenly, state universities supported by taxes were having to offer remedial courses in basic math, reading, English, spelling, history, etc ie how to write a simple sentence with correct spelling. If a student lacked basic writing and reading skills, then you had to throw out the concept of their being able to write a theme or take test. Unless you are an advanced mathematician, people think in words.

Remedial education is simply a program to teach the incoming college freshman what their high schools neglected to teach them.

As the test scores were dumbed down, professors had to teach at the common denominator. I've had many late night conversations with them when I served on the Board. They simply could not fail the majority of the class and were forced to grade on the curve.

Hence, universities were graduating majors in Education totally "uneducated" in the broad knowledge accumulated by mankind over thousands of years.One doesn't need to be an expert in all the disciplines , but surely one has to have a passing knowledge that it exists. Unfortunately the teaching of education majors began to concentrate on the "method" of teaching with little emphasis on the "substance" of what they taught. So, while you may have been trained in teaching skills you were not trained to teach a substantive knowledge of the subject.

So what resulted, dumber teachers each year teaching students that were becoming increasingly dumber for lack of inculcating knowledge into them. It is what I call a synergistic effect that feeds upon itself. The dumber student goes to college and graduates as a dumber teacher and this process replicates itself.

I see no remedy. It is to be noted that there will always be a small segment of students who , by their own hook, will manage to absorb knowledge like a sponge. These are the types that will continue to learn throughout their life.

What doesn't bode well, are the number of citizens that lack knowledge of history, math, basic science, biology, reading, etc and not having the critical thinking skills that a modern Republic like ours needs in order to survive.

Worldwide test comparisons of students reflect that we're way down and getting worse against other countries.

All thoughtful people in our country are extremely concerned about the dumbing down of America. All sorts of proposals have been formulated. I don't see any that will get us out of this educational deficit morass.

If you reverted back to the 1941 test criteria that was used in 1962, then only about 5% of freshman applicants to a university would be accepted. We all realize that would be politically unacceptable.

Alas, it's a lost cause in my humble opinion. Wish I could say otherwise

Bob

We've Screwed Relations With Latin America

2010-08-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

As some of you might surmise, I have always maintained a keen interest in Latin American affairs.

I read many Latin American newspapers on the internet and so far this year have spent a month in Buenos Aires, Argentina and just returned from Costa Rica last week and Carmen and I will be leaving again for Costa Rica in 10 days to spend Xmas and New Years there and will be gone for almost a month. We have spent some time in Mexico this summer also.

Having said that, I would like to comment on our country's almost total neglect of Latin America for the last 8 years.Folks, there are over 600 million people south of us which is double our population. It has some of the most beautiful cities in the world and is loaded with natural resources. It has a fast growing educated professional middle class.

While I was in Costa Rica last week, I happened to be there when the Chinese President Hu made a visit there in San Jose and they blocked off part of downtown when he toured the gold museum and National Opera House.

Here is a Chinese guy in our backyard. He announced the building of two hospitals that will be a gift to Costa Rica and was there to dedicate the "Confucius Center", which is a huge complex where the Costa Rican people can learn about the Chinese culture and language.

I was reading the San Jose newspaper La Nacion and was somewhat surprised that these "Confucius Centers" were being built in all the capitals of the Latin American countries. Also China was building many hospitals throughout Latin America and has executed many bilateral trade agreements with each country.

In reading the newspaper, I see where Russia was pumping money into some of the large infrastructure projects all over Latin America. I read where Russia was holding joint military and naval operations with Venezuela with a large flotilla of Russian navy ships there in Venezuela.

What has the US been doing the last 8 years. Nada, nothing in the way of help or public relations. We have completely ignored Latin America for the most part with the resultant fact that many of the leaders of those countries are now Anti-American government(not anti-American people). Our diplomats have been kicked out of
Peru and anti-American leaders have been elected all over south America.

We made Chavez a national hero when our CIA with the help of the oligarchy tried to engineer a coupe de tat in 2002 after he was Democratically elected. Is it any wonder he became so Anti-American?

We have lost much of our influence and good will down south and I wonder if it can be regained. China and Russia obviously have a plan to replace the U.S. as the big influence down south in our backyard while we have been sticking our finger up you know where.

Building a fence on the southern border certainly didn't help as there have been only two other fences built between political boundaries in my life time. The Berlin wall and Israel's fence dividing up Palestinian territory. We have completely bungled relations with Cuba because it's Socialist yet we deal with China and
Vietnam which are Socialist. This is the epitome of cognitive dissonance. We could have opened up and influenced Cuba long ago by allowing the free flow of goods and people between us.

We have mucked up our foreign relations so bad in the last 8 years that I'm not sure they can easily be repaired no matter who is President.

I was a student in Mexico city when JFK made a visit and hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to see him pass in an open convertible sitting on the back waving and smiling. You would have thought it was the second coming of Christ.

We've come a long way from that for sure.

Funny things happens to people who travel outside the US--they get a different perspective.

Bob

The Business of Life

2010-08-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

As I approach six score and ten, I often stumble upon some words that give me pause to reflect and do a little introspection.

I was particularly struck by this sentence by the columnist Roger Cohen--"In middle age the business of life is less about doing things for the first than for the last time."

In mulling this thought over, I thought how true. I've done so many things the first time and many of the things I do now will be for the last time. Getting on in age brings the harsh reality of a terminable state of being.

The question is how is one going to spend the few remaining years of one's life? Are there sights, scenes, views, noises, smells and feelings that one needs to be done for the first time or revisited? Is is time that one takes inventory of their experiences and makes a decision that they have had enough or that they need more?

Each person is different and while some might like to quietly exit the world sitting closed up in a hermetically sealed house with the TV for stimulation, others would want to acquire more stimulating experiences or revisiting their prior experiences.

I'm pretty much in the latter persuasion. I still want to eke out more stimulating experiences. Can't help it. Just born that way. I simply feel that a person should live life commensurate with what his or her money allows them to do and to
accumulate as many of life's experiences as they can. The fact of the matter is, you have but one opportunity to live.

However, I can sit contentedly in a park bench or outdoor cafe in a Latin American capital city where time does not always demand to be put to use. People watching is a nonproductive calling and I'm damn good at that. I have never tired of
watching faces, bodies and gaits of people especially ladies. I can think of no better way of passing the afternoon without a serious thought in my head and just watching the world go by. It's mesmerizing.

It's difficult to do in the US unless you live in a few big cities. I cannot do this here in Fort Myers, but would have to travel to South Beach in Miami which we do from time to time. But, I especially like it in Latin America because of the ease
of socializing with strangers.

Anyway, just some thoughts that were caused by that sentence. Yes, at this stage of the game the "business of life is less about doing things for the first time than for the last time."

Bob

We Are a Socialist Nation

2010-08-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

You must be aware that even before the present admin. was elected and even before Obama was born, the Federal gov't. has been regulating business under what they called the commerce clause of the 10th amendment which amendment simply
defines the roles of the power of fed. and state governments.

Are these Fed laws controlling "all aspects of business?" Pretty much so. We've embraced Socialism long before Obama except we don't use that term. But if it walks,acts and quacks like a duck, it's still a duck.

Minimum wage laws which include minimum wage plus time and a half for overtime, etc
Occupational and Safety laws(Osha) Included myriad laws from safety on the factory
floor or store to airline, trucking , shipping, automobile laws relating to safety and fitness.

Myriad laws relating to interstate commerce.

Look at the agencies set up before Obama.

FCC, FAA, DOT, ICC, Sherman Anti-Trust Laws, Clayton Act, FDA, Federal Power Commission,Various Food Safety Acts, Federal Trade Commission, SEC, FDIC, FSLIC, AEC, CAB, Weights and Measures Act, TVA, FTC, National Fisheries Act, FEA, Consumer Credit laws, Consumer Product Laws.

Please understand this country as we and as far back our great grand parents knew it has never been a pure nation of unfettered capitalism. This is the great mass delusion that the majority of Americans have. The facts speak otherwise. We
are actually and have been for many years Socialistic. Not Communism, but highly Socialistic. It's just we don't use that word.Hell, medicare and medicaid are 100% socialistic as well public housing, foodstamps, Aid to Dependent Children etc as well as the thousands of laws both Federal and State that regulate business, safety and commerce.

If you are a fair person. You can't blame Obama for the mess we're in due to failure to regulate wall street and the lending institutions before he got in office and inherited this damn mess. I have been in the banking and S & L business and can
testify first hand the heavy hand of regulation including documentation and ability to pay back a loan. We were audited quarterly. All that went out the window starting about 2001.

Now, you will notice I have not even mentioned the heavy hand of State regulation of commerce which can be even more onerous. Why should a person need a state license to cut hair?

Also, most people on the radical right side don't really think about the constitution and especially the part of the General Welfare clauses.

The word "welfare" appears twice in the Constitution. Once in the preamble and again in Article 1, Section 8, as the introduction and purpose of the enumerated powers..

The preamble to the Constitution states:

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Article 1, Section 8 states:

"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States."

See below the Fed. laws on regulation that exist long before Obama. The next time someone says that we are a Capitalistic country, you
might correct them and say that we're a mixed system with more tilt to Socialism and have been this for a hundred years.

Bob

TITLE 15—COMMERCE AND TRADE FEDERAL REGULATION

CHAPTER 1—MONOPOLIES AND COMBINATIONS IN RESTRAINT OF TRADE
CHAPTER 2—FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION; PROMOTION OF EXPORT TRADE AND PREVENTION OF UNFAIR METHODS OF COMPETITION
CHAPTER 2A—SECURITIES AND TRUST INDENTURES
CHAPTER 2B—SECURITIES EXCHANGES
CHAPTER 2B-1—SECURITIES INVESTOR PROTECTION
CHAPTER 2C—PUBLIC UTILITY HOLDING COMPANIES
CHAPTER 2D—INVESTMENT COMPANIES AND ADVISERS
CHAPTER 2E—OMNIBUS SMALL BUSINESS CAPITAL FORMATION
CHAPTER 3—TRADE-MARKS
CHAPTER 4—CHINA TRADE
CHAPTER 5—STATISTICAL AND COMMERCIAL INFORMATION
CHAPTER 6—WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND STANDARD TIME
CHAPTER 7—NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY
CHAPTER 7A—STANDARD REFERENCE DATA PROGRAM
CHAPTER 8—FALSELY STAMPED GOLD OR SILVER OR GOODS MANUFACTURED THEREFROM
CHAPTER 9—NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
CHAPTER 9A—WEATHER MODIFICATION ACTIVITIES OR ATTEMPTS; REPORTING REQUIREMENT
CHAPTER 10—WAR FINANCE CORPORATION
CHAPTER 10A—COLLECTION OF STATE CIGARETTE TAXES
CHAPTER 10B—STATE TAXATION OF INCOME FROM INTERSTATE COMMERCE
CHAPTER 11—CAUSTIC POISONS
CHAPTER 12—DISCRIMINATION AGAINST FARMERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS BY BOARDS OF TRADE
CHAPTER 13—TEXTILE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 13A—FISHING INDUSTRY
CHAPTER 14—RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION
CHAPTER 14A—AID TO SMALL BUSINESS
CHAPTER 14B—SMALL BUSINESS INVESTMENT PROGRAM
CHAPTER 15—ECONOMIC RECOVERY
CHAPTER 15A—INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
CHAPTER 15B—NATURAL GAS
CHAPTER 15C—ALASKA NATURAL GAS TRANSPORTATION
CHAPTER 15D—ALASKA NATURAL GAS PIPELINE
CHAPTER 16—EMERGENCY RELIEF
CHAPTER 16A—EMERGENCY PETROLEUM ALLOCATION
CHAPTER 16B—FEDERAL ENERGY ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER 16C—ENERGY SUPPLY AND ENVIRONMENTAL COORDINATION
CHAPTER 17—PRODUCTION, MARKETING, AND USE OF BITUMINOUS COAL
CHAPTER 18—TRANSPORTATION OF FIREARMS
CHAPTER 19—MISCELLANEOUS
CHAPTER 20—REGULATION OF INSURANCE
CHAPTER 21—NATIONAL POLICY ON EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
CHAPTER 22—TRADEMARKS
CHAPTER 23—DISSEMINATION OF TECHNICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING INFORMATION
CHAPTER 24—TRANSPORTATION OF GAMBLING DEVICES
CHAPTER 25—FLAMMABLE FABRICS
CHAPTER 26—HOUSEHOLD REFRIGERATORS
CHAPTER 27—AUTOMOBILE DEALER SUITS AGAINST MANUFACTURERS
CHAPTER 28—DISCLOSURE OF AUTOMOBILE INFORMATION
CHAPTER 29—MANUFACTURE, TRANSPORTATION, OR DISTRIBUTION OF SWITCHBLADE KNIVES
CHAPTER 30—HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
CHAPTER 31—DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY MOVING IN COMMERCE
CHAPTER 32—TELECASTING OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS CONTESTS
CHAPTER 33—BRAKE FLUID REGULATION
CHAPTER 34—ANTITRUST CIVIL PROCESS
CHAPTER 35—SEAT BELT REGULATION
CHAPTER 36—CIGARETTE LABELING AND ADVERTISING
CHAPTER 37—STATE TECHNICAL SERVICES
CHAPTER 38—TRAFFIC AND MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY
CHAPTER 39—FAIR PACKAGING AND LABELING PROGRAM
CHAPTER 39A—SPECIAL PACKAGING OF HOUSEHOLD SUBSTANCES FOR PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
CHAPTER 40—DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
CHAPTER 41—CONSUMER CREDIT PROTECTION
CHAPTER 42—INTERSTATE LAND SALES
CHAPTER 43—NEWSPAPER PRESERVATION
CHAPTER 44—PROTECTION OF HORSES
CHAPTER 45—EMERGENCY LOAN GUARANTEES TO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES
CHAPTER 45A—CHRYSLER CORPORATION LOAN GUARANTEE
CHAPTER 46—MOTOR VEHICLE INFORMATION AND COST SAVINGS
CHAPTER 46A—AUTOMOBILE TITLE FRAUD
CHAPTER 47—CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY
CHAPTER 48—HOBBY PROTECTION
CHAPTER 49—FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL
CHAPTER 50—CONSUMER PRODUCT WARRANTIES
CHAPTER 51—NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY OF WORKING LIFE
CHAPTER 52—ELECTRIC AND HYBRID VEHICLE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMONSTRATION
CHAPTER 53—TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL
CHAPTER 54—AUTOMOTIVE PROPULSION RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 55—PETROLEUM MARKETING PRACTICES
CHAPTER 56—NATIONAL CLIMATE PROGRAM
CHAPTER 56A—GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH
CHAPTER 57—INTERSTATE HORSERACING
CHAPTER 58—FULL EMPLOYMENT AND BALANCED GROWTH
CHAPTER 59—RETAIL POLICIES FOR NATURAL GAS UTILITIES
CHAPTER 60—NATURAL GAS POLICY
CHAPTER 61—SOFT DRINK INTERBRAND COMPETITION
CHAPTER 62—CONDOMINIUM AND COOPERATIVE CONVERSION PROTECTION AND ABUSE RELIEF
CHAPTER 63—TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
CHAPTER 64—METHANE TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMONSTRATION
CHAPTER 65—LIABILITY RISK RETENTION
CHAPTER 66—PROMOTION OF EXPORT TRADE
CHAPTER 67—ARCTIC RESEARCH AND POLICY
CHAPTER 68—LAND REMOTE-SENSING COMMERCIALIZATION
CHAPTER 69—COOPERATIVE RESEARCH
CHAPTER 70—COMPREHENSIVE SMOKELESS TOBACCO HEALTH EDUCATION
CHAPTER 71—PETROLEUM OVERCHARGE DISTRIBUTION AND RESTITUTION
CHAPTER 72—SEMICONDUCTOR RESEARCH
CHAPTER 73—EXPORT ENHANCEMENT
CHAPTER 74—COMPETITIVENESS POLICY COUNCIL
CHAPTER 75—NATIONAL TRADE DATA BANK
CHAPTER 76—IMITATION FIREARMS
CHAPTER 77—STEEL AND ALUMINUM ENERGY CONSERVATION AND TECHNOLOGY COMPETITIVENESS
CHAPTER 78—SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS
CHAPTER 79—METAL CASTING COMPETITIVENESS RESEARCH PROGRAM
CHAPTER 80—FASTENERS
CHAPTER 81—HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING
CHAPTER 82—LAND REMOTE SENSING POLICY
CHAPTER 83—TELEPHONE DISCLOSURE AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
CHAPTER 84—COMMERCIAL SPACE COMPETITIVENESS
CHAPTER 85—ARMORED CAR INDUSTRY RECIPROCITY
CHAPTER 86—CHILDRENS BICYCLE HELMET SAFETY
CHAPTER 87—TELEMARKETING AND CONSUMER FRAUD AND ABUSE PREVENTION
CHAPTER 88—INTERNATIONAL ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE
CHAPTER 89—PROFESSIONAL BOXING SAFETY
CHAPTER 90—PROPANE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
CHAPTER 91—CHILDRENS ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION
CHAPTER 92—YEAR 2000 COMPUTER DATE CHANGE
CHAPTER 93—INSURANCE
CHAPTER 94—PRIVACY
CHAPTER 95—MICROENTERPRISE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAM
CHAPTER 96—ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES IN GLOBAL AND NATIONAL COMMERCE
CHAPTER 97—WOMENS BUSINESS ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 98—PUBLIC COMPANY ACCOUNTING REFORM AND CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
CHAPTER 99—NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION SAFETY TEAM
CHAPTER 100—CYBER SECURITY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 101—NANOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 102—FAIRNESS TO CONTACT LENS CONSUMERS
CHAPTER 103—CONTROLLING THE ASSAULT OF NON-SOLICITED PORNOGRAPHY AND MARKETING
CHAPTER 104—SPORTS AGENT RESPONSIBILITY AND TRUST
CHAPTER 105—PROTECTION OF LAWFUL COMMERCE IN ARMS
CHAPTER 106—POOL AND SPA SAFETY

China In Our Backyard While The US Has It's Head In The Sand

2010-08-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I wrote about having coffee at an outdoor cafe with
a Russian guy who graduated from the University of Moscow with a graduate
electrical engineering degree and who was married to a very wealthy
Chinese lady , but now is divorced.

The guy is about 50 yrs. old and was driving a new Mercedes Benz of the 500 class.

Anyway, he was involved with the Russian project that uses satellites to discern
surface anomalies from a passing underwater submarine. He states that a submarine
can only hide un the polar ice caps or be perfectly still underwater in the open ocean because the minute it moves, it creates compression waves that are reflected on the surface and can be easily tracked by satellite.

Anyway, we discussed politics and what Russia and China's intentions were. He
stated that Russia and China were biding their time for our empire to collapse from
within due to maintaining of over 700 military bases in foreign countries and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that the US spends more than half of it's money
on the Defense Dept. and most of this is borrowed.

Anyway, I ran into the same guy again the other day and we began to pick up where
we left off two years ago. He said "See what I told you. It's happening now as America is suffering from financial problems."

I replied that if we go down, China will also as we are their largest purchasers of their goods. He said, that won't happen as China is in the process of diversifying their market which they feel they have relied on the US to long. He said Russia has no problem with their vast oil wealth.

Well, when he said this, I quickly began to put two and two together after my recent two stays in Costa Rica and reading the news in a Latin paper.

I was in San Jose when the Chinese president made a visit among his many visits to the capitals of Latin America. I was in the hotel with Chinese engineers who are building the 60 million dollar sports arena. I read where the Chinese had donated 200fully outfitted police cars to Costa Rica. I read where the Chinese are building two large hospitals as a gift to the Costa Ricans. I read where they have just completed a "Confucius" center where Costa Ricans can go and learn Chinese and read about their culture.

Now, to make a long story short, China is doing this all over Latin America which has a population of 600 million plus with a burgeoning middle class consumer. I was totally blown away by the huge middle class in Costa Rica which is now similar to the US. I've known Costa Rica for more than 35 years and even had a restaurant there from 87 to 92 , but haven't been back for 15 years, I could not believe all the new cars jamming the roads and the upscale suburbs and condos. It seemed like this happened over night. I saw more fancy Land Cruisers and high end automobiles than I see in the US.

Anyway, this jives with what the Russian guy said about China's moves to diversify their market and become less independent on the US purchaser.

China had previously ignored the Latin American market, but certainly is not and they
are making a concerted effort to sell their goods there apparently to be not so dependent upon our consumers.

Again, what all this portends for us, I do not know. But, I don't feel good about it.

Bob

Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann

2010-08-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Bachmann is noted for her outrageous and outlandish statements that even embarrass her fellow Republicans.She makes Sara Palin look like a genius. She is a graduate of Oral Robert's university and that helps explain some of her ignorance.

Below are some of her recent looney statements:

"I oppose the stimulus plan because we're running out of rich people in this country."

"ACORN is under Federal Indictment, but the stimulus bill gives ACORN five billion dollars." Untrue on both counts.

"Many member of Congress have a real aversion to capitalism."

"The stimulus bill includes a measure to create a "rationing board" for health care, and after the bill becomes law, your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions with you."

"The recovery package is part of a Democratic conspiracy to direct funding away from Republican districts, so Democratic districts can suck up all federal funds."

Saying that Obama is drawing up an "anti-constitutional plan orchestrating a conspiracy involving the Census Bureau, which the president will use to redraw congressional lines to keep Democrats in power for up to "40 years." She was unaware that redistricting is done by state legislatures.

In a speech before Congress she said that FDR passed the "Hoot-Hawley" act which caused the depression. She not only got the act's name wrong saying "Hoot" instead of "Smoot", she blamed FDR instead of the Republican President Herbert
Hoover who signed it and moreover both Smoot and Hawley were Republicans. To see her speech in congress covering this abysmal ignorance go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23itODyctH4

In her campaign, she said she would have congress "investigated for anti-American bias." Presumably her definition of "anti-American bias is anyone who doesn't agree with her.

When she served on the board of directors of a private school, she wanted creationism taught and something she called the "Twelve Christian Principles." When they would not do it, she resigned.

In her decision run for election to congress in 2006, she announced she and her husband fasted for 3 days until they got the go ahead from God. She won and I suppose it was God's work.

Her outlandish statements caused the Republican National Committee to pull funding for her 2008 campaign.

Bachmann stated on conservative media outlet Pajamas TV that the last swine flu outbreak in the U.S. occurred under "another Democrat President", Jimmy Carter, and that she was not blaming President Obama for the outbreak but that she found it to be an "interesting coincidence" since Obama was elected. Contrary to her statement, the previous swine flu outbreak occurred while Republican President Gerald Ford was in office.

She strongly favors privatization of social security.

On a radio program where she advocates against any kind of unions between gays whether civil or marriage, she said " "God calls us to fall on our faces and our knees and cry out to Him and confess our sins. And I would just ask your listeners to do that now. Cry out to a Holy God." Remember she is an Oral Roberts Univ. grad.

Bachmann said that " the gay community was specifically targeting children and that our children...are the prize for this community."

She has stated on numerous forums that "evolution has never been proven."

Bachmann is a member of a church that is part of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, whose doctrine teaches that the Roman Catholic papacy is the Anti-Christ identified in Scripture.

Saying she will not fill out the Federal Census form because the government used this data to round up the Japanese American citizens in WWII and put them in internment camps. I guess she is afraid that a democratic President might use the census to round up Republicans and intern them.

She said “The amount of money that’s been committed by this Democrat government already, the amount of money that they have committed, your tax money to spend, would equal, and I’m not making this up, a check in the amount of $1,430 written
to every man, woman, child in the world.” Basic math: dividing the $789 billion recovery package by the estimated world population
of 6.7 billion only equals $116.

“I took a pledge in my own district. I have not taken earmarks in the last three years I’ve been in Congress because the system is so corrupt.”
According to the Washington watchdog group Legistorm, in 2008, Bachmann requested seven earmarks totaling $3,767,600.

I love to watch her ineptness and ignorance on TV. It's as good as a comedy program.

Bob

Top Ten Quotes From The Last Decade

2010-08-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

My top ten quotations from the last decade..

10. "They frankly own the place." - Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) in 2009 admitting banks' influence in Congress.

9. "Haven't we already given money to rich people.... Shouldn't we be giving money to the middle?" - President George W. Bush in November 2002, acknowledging to advisers that he knew his tax cuts were giveaways to the super-wealthy.

8. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." - Anti-health care protester at an August 2009 congressional town hall meeting in South Carolina - the single most succinct sign that many in our country have become just plain idiots.

7. "We did this for the show." - Falcon Heene on Oct. 15, 2009, telling CNN that the Balloon Boy chase was a hoax. The declaration demonstrated that the media's 24-7 knee-jerk sensationalism is irresponsible and proved that America's culture of celebrity aspiration is completely out of control with everyone wanting his 15 minutes of fame.

6. "As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know they're some things we do not know. But there're also unknown unknowns; the ones we don't know we don't know." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Feb. 12, 2002 If you can understand ooga ooga language then you know he is effectively telling us that the government had no idea what it was doing by invading Iraq

5. "Bring 'em on." - President George Bush on July 2, 2003, daring al-Qaeda to attack US troops - yet more proof that the elite testostorone driven political chicken hawks define "toughness" as politicians flippantly sacrificing young American lives because they can command an army. They should have engaged in more barfights during their lives to have gotten this out of their system. Yeah , bring 'em on while they sit behind their desks. Real tough guys. But lest I forget, Bush was a cheerleader in college.

4. "The investment community feels very put-upon. They feel there is no reason why they shouldn't earn $1 million to $200 million a year, and they don't want to be held responsible for the global financial meltdown." - Daniel Fass, chairman of Obama's financial-industry fundraising party on Oct. 19, 2009, insisting that despite wrecking the economy and then being handed trillions of bailout dollars, Wall Street is a victim.

3. "$500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus." - Wall Street compensation consultant James Reda on Feb. 3, 2009, giving the New York Times a good example of just how totally out of touch the super-rich really are.

2. "I didn't campaign on the public option." - President Obama on Dec. 22, 2009, expecting the public to forget that his presidential campaign platform explicitly promised to pass health care legislation giving all Americans "the opportunity to enroll in (a) new public plan." Flip flop sleazy Lieberman campaigned on the same promise until his palms were greased.

1. "It doesn't matter." - Vice President Dick Cheney on Nov. 5, 2006, referring to polls repeatedly showing the majority of Americans oppose the Iraq War - a sign the ruling class truly does not care about the demands of the public.

These quotes suggest a nation that has accepted the forces of avarice, corruption, dishonesty, incompetence and insensitivity. Some of them are darkly funny, some of them are gut-wrenchingly sad - but all of them are warnings. Whether we listen to them or not will be the difference between repeating the last decade's folly or learning from it.

Here's to resolutions for the new decade that finally choose the latter. But, I'm not overly optimistic.

Bob

Eight of Ten of the Happiest Countries in the world are in Latin America

2010-08-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

The website below lists the happiest countries in the world.

http://www.happyplanetindex.org/list.htm

8 out of the top 10 are from Latin America. the US is right at the bottom.

I've pondered over many years why I felt happier when I'm in Latin America. It didn't make sense to me when I was younger, but now that I'm older and have thought about it more deeply, I believe I now understand.

Americans inherited a Calvinistic religious streak where the value was work and not happiness. ie "Work and you're reward will be in heaven." While this ethos has helped propel our nation to the highest economic goals and the number one world
power it has done so without regard to the general contentment and sense of well being of the people.

In Latin America, the reverse is true. Work is a means of being happy, but not an end all in and of itself. Play is a much higher goal than being rich

This enthusiasm for life infects vitiators to Latin America who have spent any extended amount of time there. One feels the energy and joy from the general populace in the streets and seeing happy faces with big smiles affect a person. It is amazing how contagious his is.

Also, Latinos are not stay at home shut ins living a cocoon like existence watching mind numbing television. They lead highly social lives ith friends and neighbors. There is always a get together with food and drinks while engaging in loud conversations with each other with their et togethers spiced by jokes. They are the best joke tellers in the world with many of their jokes being self depreciating.

Over the years, I've attended many partys at people's homes. The Americans will generally be stiff and engage in conversation while milling around standing up for a couple of hours and then go home by 10PM or earlier. In Latin America, they sit and talk and then aftera few drinks will play music and everyone starts singing and dancing till the wee hours. Totally different concept.

Where could Carmen and I go not knowing anyone and be invited as old friends to a New Year's party at a Costa Rican home? We felt as if we knew them all our lives. I simply asked some people if they knew a good place for Carmen and I to go to a New Year's party and they responded , yes , at our home. Perfect strangers did this. We had a wonderful New Year dancing and singing.

In San Jose, Costa Rica last December, Carmen and I were sitting at a outdoor cafe watching the annual horse parade downtown. I just mentioned to the lady owner of the cafe that I would love to ride in the parade not knowing she had several horses in the parade.She stopped one of her daughters who was riding and said you can mount and ride and I did. What kind of people are these that have hospitality in their bones? It never ceases to amaze me at how different Latinos are than Americans. The contrast is mind boggling.

You don't have to worry about some people in bistros taking offense at your political views. If they disagree with your views, you can have a great
discussion with them without anger. Here is America, you have to be careful about expressing your political views as they take offence quickly and
are reluctant or incapable of an academic discussion without getting personal. This is especially so if you use multi syllable words. Poor you if you
mentioned in a southern bar that you did not like Bush. Don't you dare provoke them to think about their preconceived ideas that are not open
to discussion.

In Argentina, we were invited to several homes for parties. In Ecuador, we were invited to eat and go to the bar anytime we wanted at their official Navy Yacht club where we met many officials. A physician and his wife were seated next to us in a restaurant in Guayaquil,Ecuador and they invited us to spend the afternoon driving us around in their car showing the sights.

In San Jose, Costa Rica when I brought a recently divorced Florida neighbor of mine to Costa Rica, the second night I started talking to a guy at my favorite bistro and he said, I'm a lawyer and have nothing to do the next few days. I'll be happy to drive you guys around and show you Costa Rica.

In Ensenada, Mexico, we met another physician and his wife and they invited us to their home for a party.

All these invites occurred in the last two years. I could name you hundreds of invites over the last forty years.

That's Latin America! Happy, hospitable and open people.

Also, older people are still respected and their advice sought out by younger people in Latin America. Sometimes it seems as if a person is simply irrelevant to the younger people once he retires in the US.

There is much more freedom in Latin America than in the US. By this I mean freedom from being arrested or harassed by the authorities. You will not be arrested for drinking a beer in your car or the cops will not descend on you and arrest you for drinking a beer in the street.People are much more tolerant of eccentric behavior down south. I've seen drunks at a bar or restaurant who could barely stand up
and were mumbling to themselves and people just ignore them. Here the owner of the place would call the police to have him removed.

In Latin America, you can argue and plead your case strongly over a traffic stop. Here in the US, you do this and you're likely to get tasered and
cuffed.

Errors of the flesh are understood and tolerated. Here in the religious Victorian Calvinistic ethos of the people, a politician is vilified for having an
extra marital affair such as Clinton, Spitzer, Vitter, Sanford, Gingrich and Ensign. Clinton and Spitzer are the two democrats and still are hated while the rest are republicans who apologized and said their God had forgiven them and they are now OK and still hold office.That speaks volumes about our citizens. When they say their God forgives them, then people will accept it. Clinton and Spitzer never uttered
these magic words.

To my knowledge, my home state of Louisiana is the only state that continually elected Governor Edwin Edwards to office even though he was a serial womanizer and was open about it. When Barbara Walters asked him on 60 minutes about his womanizing, he answered with a smile, "Well Barbara, I ain't no queer." There was nothing hypocritical about him at all. What you saw is what your got. He is
a product of the French, Italian and Spanish left over culture in South Louisiana that is more tolerant like Latin America.

In Latin America , people understand that all humans have carnal desires and this is quite natural and they would think nothing about it.

When I had my little tax right off restaurant in Costa Rica, I would be there for 10 days out of every month for years. My feelings of happiness would go up when I arrived and when I returned , I would feel lonely as if disconnected to humanity notwithstanding I had a business that dealt with a great many people. I think it was because everyone went by car and no one walked. People go home and enclose themselves from the rest of the world. Their cocoon. Now I understand those feelings , but it was vague back then.

Anyway, I now understand the vague feeling I've experienced upon returning to the US. I'm thankful to the US for having been born here and having enjoyed material success, but also having the Latin American experiences that made me happy and more tolerant.

It's the best of both worlds.

Bob

The Arabs who invented Christianity, Judaism and Islam

2010-08-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

Arabs mean those people living in Arabia. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all spring from the same Bible written by Arabs.

The Jews at that time were pure Arabic people. Arabs are also know as Semites. Even Jews use the term anti-semitic when they say a person doesn't like them.

Jesus spoke Aramaic of which there were different dialects of it at Jesus's time. Judaism is not a race, but was a religion of a group of Arabs whose scribes penned the first testament.

Now as to why many Jews don't look Arabic and some do, let's take the example of Kirk Douglas and Victor Mature. Both are Jews. Kirk looks like a German
and Victor looks like a typical Arab. Jews describe themselves as either Askanazi or Sephardic although neither is 100% pure. Kirk is Askanazi and Victor is
Sephardic.

Sephardic are the original Arabic Jews which in Jesus's time were the only Jews. The Askanazi developed when the Arabic Jews started leaving Arabia
and traveling north such as the Diaspora. As they settled in various parts they mixed with the people of Europe and many became lighter in their features over hundreds
of generations. There is some degree of discrimination in Israel many sephardics claim. Most of the leaders of Israel are Askanazi as the immigration to
Israel came mostly from Europe after WWII.

Incidentally, the sephardic jews and the muslims lived side by side in Spain for over 500 years in total peace. About the same as Baptist living side by side with
Methodists. Then Pope Urban ordered the Christian crusade to drive the infidels out of Europe and sent every Christian young man down to drive them out.
The Jews and Muslims of Spain had an advanced civilization with universities, etc where as Europe did not and the people were illiterate except for the Catholic
priests.

But that's beside the point I wanted to make.

Now as to the inventions of the Semitic Arabs, go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventions_in_medieval_Islam

There are thousands of their inventions and too many to list, but the this web site will give you an idea.

We owe them for our present civilization. That's why the Arabic world is called the cradle of civilization.

Incidentally, do you ever wonder why you have an Arabic religion? Most people never question why they are Christian and just accept it de facto cause that's culture they were born into.

You are Christian because of the Roman emperor Constitinus(Constitine) was having his Ceasarship threatened by two cousins.His army was outnumbered so he beseeched the Christian tribes in the Arabia to come and fight for him with the promise he would require the citizens of the Roman Empire to be Christian which before had been killed and tortured. The Romans did not like the Christians for sure.

The Roman empire stretched from Ireland down to Spain and to the Arabic countries. Most of the people of Europe did not even have a written language and what Religions they practiced ranged from worshiping the wind, sun, earth or some images, etc

Anyway, Constitine , with the help of the Arab Christian tribes prevailed over his cousins and as a result he issued the Edict of Milan in 313AD which
ordered every one in the Roman Empire to adopt Christianity with headquarters in Rome.(The Vatican) Thus , because of this, you are Christian.

Later on Christians began to divide up with protest against the Vatican.(hence the name Protestants from protest)

Martin Luther, a Catholic priest in Germany was the first to start the protestant movement when he disagreed with Rome on certain doctrinal matters.

John Calvin comes along and disagrees with Rome about Faith plus good works, etc

Then Henry the 8th wanted to marry Anne Bolene and the Pope would not give him permission so he kicked the Catholic hierarchy out of England and thus was born the Anglican religion.

After that, they have continued to divide into hundreds of subgroups of protestants.

There you have it and by knowing this, you know more than 99% of the American people.

Bob

Republican Hypocracy

2010-08-12T12:33:00.001-07:00

It is really interesting that when the hypocritical Republicans get caught with their pants down, they invoke God. Examples--Newt Gingrich who said
"God has forgiven me." Senator David Vitter who said he would get right with God and both God and his wife have forgiven me. Sen. John Ensign
who was an active member of the "Promise Keepers" and invokes God for forgiveness, Ga. Cong. Bob Barr
South Carolina Gov. Sanford has been spouting God almost daily after the outing of his tango with Maria from Argentina.
Ex Congressman Joe Scarborough and TV mouth, who was engaging in an extramarital affair while castigating Clinton at same time.

It is not just heterosexual Senators, but also gay Republican senators who are hypocritical always spouting so called "family values" and God.

Some of these closet gay guys are Congressman David Dreier, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Virginia Congressman Ed Schrock, Ex NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey,
Ex Fla Congressman Mark Foley, Ex NY mayor Ed Koch, Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ed Mehlman, Ex La. congressman Jim McCrery, S. Carolina
Sen. Lindsey Graham, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig and Ex Gov. Rudy Giuliani who lived with two gays in between his many
marriages and who is known to cross dress.

A new documentary film called "Outrage" just finished should be in a movie house near you soon or on PBS. It documents the closet gay Republican politicians above
plus many others,

Personally, I don't care whether they have extramarital affairs or whether they are gay or not. What bothers the hell out of me is the hypocrisy and the
use of God when they are caught. The use of God is a clear attempt to rally their right wing Christian base and seek forgiveness in order to be re-elected
or stay in office. Generally this works for them as their constituency is easily manipulated.

At least ex NY Gov. Elliot Spitzer and Clinton didn't invoke God. Spitzer resigned and Clinton was almost impeached. Presidental candidate John Edwards
was shamed into political oblivion. None of them invoked God unlike the sinful Republicans who arise like Phoenix from the ashes.

What is amazing and shocking is the amount of Republican pedophiles. For a list of these God fearing pedophiles go to
the website http://www.armchairsubversive.org/

Them's me thoughts this beautiful Sunday morning prompted by reading a story about Sanford. It's obvious I personally think that hypocrites are
the lowest and slimiest forms of life.

Bob

You've Come A Long Way Babe

2010-08-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah, you've come a long way babe!

Since, August 26th is fast approaching, I thought it would be entirely right to write an article on Women and their struggle for equal rights.
Their struggle has been extremely hard and long going back for thousands of years. I'm pushing 72 years old and have a daughter and
would like her to have every benefit and right that I enjoyed in my lifetime.

It has been only 90 years since the 19th Amendment was passed on August 16, 1920. Neither of my grandmothers could vote until then.
It's amazing when you realize how recent it has been since women obtained this simple right to vote in the U.S.

Some of you younger women do not know the fight that women have waged over the years for women's rights. You are the beneficiary of their
hard won gains against men who they had to fight and claw every inch of the way.

Women's deference to man has been imbedded in religion and culture for thousands of years and is still embedded in this day and age as
witness the latest Papal encyclical equating condemning pedofilia with condemning ordination of women priests in the same papal pronouncement thus
putting them on the same sin level. The Pope has received a lot of blow back from this by women's rights groups and rightly so.

Even today Mormons practise polygamy in many towns out west even though the church condemned it in order to become a state. The US government
would not annex Utah until the church renounced this practise. If you go to towns such as Logan, Utah where I've been, you'll discover that
most of the local political leaders such as mayor and sheriff openly practise polygamy. This is true all in small towns all over Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.

Polygamy was justified by Mormon's founder Joseph Smith on authority from the Bible, namely the old Testament where many of the ancient figures
in it had multiple wives. This is the same as many modern Muslims being in accordance with the Koran in having multiple wives.

Basically, religion treated women as property.

The three monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism which arose from the same Book of Abraham(The First Testament) have
enshrined in them women's deference to man. Since our citizens are primarily Christians, I'll confine my words to them. We know how fundamental Muslims
treat their women. They are about 500 years behind us such as in our time in Europe's middle ages where superstition, ignorance and terror were the norm.

We're all familiar with Witches of Salem occurring in the US in the late 1600's. Religious extremest men would deem women whom they deemed to
practice witchcraft. So if a women suffered from dementia, epilepsy etc, they would be accused of being infected by the devil and would be burned
at the stake. Yes, it happened on US soil. However, this was a carryover from the European middle ages where burning witches at the stake
was common in all European countries for 300 years and thousands of innocent women suffered this fate.

When I was a kid and would go spend the summer with my grandparents in the small town of Franklinton, Louisiana I witnessed how the fundamental
Christians treated their women. The women would have their hair in a bun, no make up , head covered with long dresses. These were Pentecostals or
as my grandpa would call them "Bible Thumpers." The women would always walk behind the men. My grandfather was sheriff and on Saturday on
the courthouse lawn, he would listen people who had gripes or needed his help. As a 12 year old I noticed the man would talk and the women would
stand back. When my grandfather would ask the wife for more explanation that her husband had told my grandfather, the women would look at
her husband in askance and he would nod yes or no for permission to speak. This was not unique to Louisiana. It was common in the rural south.

Why were women treated this way. Simple, they were religious Christians who followed the Bible.

The First Testament is clear on the subject:

Wives must submit to their husbands "in every thing" as though they were Christ. "For the husband is the head of the wife." Persians:22-

"Men are superior to women since Adam was made before, and sinned after, Eve. But even though women are inferior to men, they shouldn't be discouraged because they shall "be saved in childbearing." Timothy2:14-15

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."Timothy 2:11-12

Women are to dress modestly, "with shamefacedness" -- "not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array." Timothy 2:9

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.Corinthians 11:3

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. Corinthians 11:5

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.Corinthians 11:6

In the last days, "silly women" who are "ever learning" will be "led away with divers lusts." 3:6-7 Timothy

Only 144,000 celibate men will be saved. (Those who were not "defiled with women.") 14:1-4 Revelations

Throughout all parts of the Bible, you can find passages replete with treating women badly due to them being essentially evil, causing men to become lustful,
tempting them, being untrustworthy and conniving(ie Samson and Delilah. The Bible treats them as baby makers.

This ethos has not left modern culture entirely. It is hidden to some degree except for the last month's decree of the Catholic Church re ordination of
women priests and the Mormon Polygamy situation.

But, it is part of our culture which has been influenced by religion and has been very difficult to overcome.

Smart and agressive women have been fighting to overcome this for many years culminating with Susan B. Anthony and her friends getting the 19th amendment
passed.

Well, that was a start. Then modern feminist like Betty Friedan pushed for being treated more equally with her book "The Feminist Mystique."
People like Gloria Steinem who pushed extremely hard for equal rights at every opportunity which earned her the name of a "FemNazi" by Rush Limbaugh.
There are to many smart and aggressive women to mention who in the last century have brought about a sea change in women's rights and every single
one of you females owes them a great debt.

Conservative men and a few conservative women have fought equal rights. But the fight has not been successful because as America has morphed into
modernity, culture changes. As the Muslim countries march into modernity, they will change also. There are Arab Muslim feminist talking out as we speak.

In conclusion, I decided to pen this writing due to the fact that the notion hit me that this month of August celebrates two happenings re women's rights.
A women named Kagan has been appointed to the Supreme Court and will become the third woman on the court and it was 90 years ago that
women acquired the right to vote. You have to thank President Reagan for the first women named and President Obama who named two within
a year.

Just think Sandra Day O'Connor was the first female appointed and this was in 1981. So your numbers have risen to three in just 29 years.

Yeah, you've come a long way babe and don't forget to give thanks to the feminist (some men also) who worked over the years for gender equality.

Below is a timeline I researched this Saturday afternoon reflecting the various laws enacted in acquiring gender equity.

I hope everyone enjoys this article and has learned a little about the situation.

Bob White
August 7, 2010

19th Amendment passed in August 26, 1920 "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

1937 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Washington state’s minimum wage laws for women.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 required equal wages for men and women doing equal work

In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 82-352 (78 Stat. 241). The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing

1971 Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation, 400 U.S. 542 (1971): The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws the practice of private employers refusing to hire women with pre-school children.

Supreme Court gave women power over their own bodies with Roe vrs. Wade decision in 1973.

1974 Housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress

1975 Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522 (1975), denies states the right to exclude women from juries.

1978 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women.

1981 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that excluding women from the draft is constitutional.

Kirchberg v. Feenstra, 450 U.S. 455, 459-60 (1981), overturns state laws designating a husband “head and master” with unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife.

1984 In Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609 (1984), sex discrimination in membership policies of organizations, such as the Jaycees, is forbidden by the Supreme Court, opening many previously all-male organizations (Jaycees, Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions) to women.

Hishon v. King and Spaulding, 467 U.S. 69 (1984): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that law firms may not discriminate on the basis of sex in promoting lawyers to partnership positions.

1994--The Violence Against Women Act funds services for victims of rape and domestic violence, allows women to seek civil rights remedies for gender-related crimes, provides training to increase police and court officials’ sensitivity and a national 24-hour hotline for battered women.

1996 United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), affirms that the male-only admissions policy of the state-supported Virginia Military Institute violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

1997 Elaborating on Title IX, the Supreme Court rules that college athletics programs must actively involve roughly equal numbers of men and women to qualify for federal support.

2010-07-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, I was just rolling some thoughts around in my mind ala George Carlin.

I was recalling that the deceased Right Rev. Jerry Falwell had attributed the 9-11 attacks on America due to God being displeased with the morality of America including those hot button issues of gay rights, abortion, etc.

I was also recalling that the Right Rev. John Hagee attributed Hurricane Katrina to God being displeased with the city of New Orleans for being a hotbed of immorality. Hagee never explained why God decided to do Hurricane Damage to the Mississippi and Alabama gulf coast. I suppose this was just God's collateral damage.

Now I'm wondering what Hagee would say were God's intentions when he,she or it, (I'm not sure about the gender of God or if it has a gender in the first place) decided to do damage to those good hardworking eople in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Is Hagee going to pronounce the intentions of God in flooding heir land and punishing them.

Why these are hardworking, God Fearing midwesterners, unlike those morally challenged people in Louisiana,who elected an immoral hypocritical US senator named David Vitter who frequents prostitutes but who announced publicly that he had a hotline direct to God and God told him he forgave him. It certainly makes me feel good hat God forgave him otherwise Vitter might have been struck down like Tim Russert who Hagee would say ffended God by being a devout Catholic. Hagee preaches against Catholics and calls them evil.

Naturally, it's not evil for Hagee to preach that we need to nuke Iran and destroy every single man, woman and hild. They are all infidels you know.

Surely Hagee could discern God's intentions about this flood since he seems so damn cocksure about Louisiana.

Well, I have a few suggestions as to what God's intentions might have been. Maybe he didn't like all that corn eing made into ethanol to power automobiles instead of being used as food. Maybe he didn't like Iowa voters oing for Obamarama and Illinois and Missouri were just collateral damage. Your guess is as good as mine as he punished bedrock christian prostestants. Guess I should call and ask that moon faced five by fve piece of of blubber otherwise known as John Hagee why.

Now as to all the other zillion catastrophes like earthquakes, fires, volcanos, tornados, etc that occur world wide on a regular basis, I would love for Hagee to give us the intentions of God for each one.

Isn't it ironical that I was in the insurance business for 35 years engaging in that fine art of protecting people gainst those dastardly "Acts of God" listed in the insurance contract. I warned people that we would never now when God would strike next or how he would strike or for what reason he would strike. Forewarned is
forearmed I would say and sign below and give me your check. This piece of glibness worked like a charm.

I think George Carlin would have liked what I wrote above, but would have made it a lot funnier and would have sed his little list of words you can never say and would have referenced the fact that he often stated that he majority of people are just plain stupid and especially the ones who buy into the Hagee, Swaggert and
Ron Parsley crap.

Bob

PS The next time I see in the media where ilk such as Sen. Vitter, Newt Gingrich, Rev. Jimmy Swaggert, Rev. Ted Swaggert and many othres say that God forgave them for their pecadillos, I'm going to puke. It appears there will be a lot of puking going on unfortunately. I wouldn't puke if they weren't such hypocritcal jerks who manipulate a certain segment of society that is rationally challenged.

A Tale of Turtles and Stocks

2010-07-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

As a child growing up in a solidly middle class neighborhood of Baton Rouge, La. that was sheltered by trees that were and still are, so majestically tall, I lived the idyllic life.

Part of my idyllic life was the large lake only one block from my home where I was fortunate enough to always have some kind of small wooden boat with a small outboard motor with the latest I had there being a five horsepower Royal outboard. I knew every inch and cranny of that lake where I also learned to swim, fish and catch turtles.

When the weather hit 75 degrees in the spring, then off would come my shoes and would not be put on again until the Fall when weather hit below 75. Even went to school barefooted. By the time Fall rolled around my soles were like hard leather and I could run on a gravel road. Re-adjusting to shoes was awful.

Springtime was when the baby turtles were hatched and proliferated. That's when I went into action catching five basic types of turtles. They were:

Greenback---about the size of a half dollar with a solid green back and red ears.
Chinese---about the same size but had a variegated yellow and green color.
Brownback--same size but had a light brown back with a sharply raised serrated black ridge running the length of his shell.
Japanese---smaller than the above about the size of a quarter. It had nearly a black shell with an orange reddish streak running down the length of it's shell.
Softshell---sandy colored and bigger and wider and did have a soft pliable shell.

There were several kids in the neighborhood that caught them and all of us kept them in large metal tubs with sand and water. There was plenty of active trading going on. Naturally, the rarer the turtle the more value it had.

Greenbacks were the most plentiful.
Chinese less and a Chinese could be traded for as much as five Greenbacks.
Brownbacks could be traded for as much as five to ten Chinese
and Japanese were the summa bonum.

The most rare and you practically had to acquire one by giving away all of your collection of a hundred or more to get one. I've probably never caught more than about five in all those years. When you had one, you didn't leave it outside in your tub. Likewise with the Brownbacks. You kept it inside your home for fear there would be late night raids on your turtle tubs. There were plenty and I raided a few myself. It was a dog eat dogsituation in the Turtle world.

Post Cereal began putting a coupon on their cereal boxes that stated cut out the coupon and send it inalong with twenty five cents and they would send you a turtle.

The guy working for Post Cereal would come by every Friday and I would sell him only Greenbacks for a nickel each. Pretty good money for a 11 year old. Post must have had many guys scouring all over Louisiana for those Greenbacks. I believe they had that ad program only a short time as they could not get enough turtles.

I kinda made up for this financial loss by selling turtles at schools to Sissies whose mommy's would not dare let their little Johnnys get near the lake. I would come to school with ten or more turtles stuffed in my pants pockets and would have them sold before class started or at least by first recess.

That's where I began to learn about the stockmarket due to the analogy between trading for stocks or turtles.

Money chasing a certain stock drives it up in value and Greenbacks chasing Japanese drove them up in value. Altho' it not exactly analogous due to the scarcity factor in trading turtles, they are similar situations.

The softshell was really not worth much unless it was at least 12 inches across, then I would sell it for a quarteror so to local black people who consider it a favorite delicacy.

On nostalgic moments such as when I'm writing this, I can still conjure up the fecund smell of that lake as if I were a little kid again. The water was a dirty unclear brown. It was loaded with E-Coli bacteria as sewage ran right into it. I swam all over that lake and never got sick. Imagine that happening to some kid today. I recall that there were only a couple of us that swam in it.

I've read about people catching Salmonella from turtles. I must have put hundreds of Greenbacks in my closed mouth and then opening my mouth to shock the girls at school. I never got Salmonella.

There was an island in the lake about fifty years wide. I would take my boat out there at ten years old and pitch a tent and spend the night. My parents were lenient to say the least. From the time that I remembered, I came and went wheneverI wanted to and don't really recall them putting any limitations on me. I suppose they were to involved in their maritalbattle to worry about me.

I've stopped by in the old neighborhood many times over the years and was tempted to go buy a dipnet and catch some turtles. I've asked people in the neighborhood whether or not kids do that anymore and they don't. I feel sorry for them.