picture !

No particular reason why this picture is here. Kathy has just helped me to put pictures on the blog. It seems very complicated.
This is from Hawaii over a year ago. The geeky kids also showed my how to unload pictures from my camera. I didn't know how and still don't. There were 180 pictures accumulated and are now on my Picasa file.

Irritating things

I wonder what could have possesed the secretary of defense or army chief of staff some years ago to decide that the neat caps worn by US troops for many years needed to be changed. The neat caps were outlawed and the current berets were put in their place. The original order, 5,000,000 berets were put out for bids and China won. They cost $5.00 each. Now the heroic American troopers look like the French army.I find it embarrassing.

One might wonder why fortunes are made by skillful people for hitting a ball with a club and putting it in a little hole. Golf is fun, even for lousy players.
But really large fortunes are made by profesional golfers for playing a game which they would play for nothing anyway. I don't think they are contributing much to society. Same goes for baseball players (One semi-literate player just signed a contract for $200,000,000 {two hundred million}). Ridiculous! Steroid stuffed morons
also make big bucks for football and basketball.

Not only am I irritated, I am also jealous.

Old blogs need to be looked at

We mentioned our blog address on the DXCM this year and hope that some of our numerous family, friends and other admirers will access the messages and respond.
It is interesting to point out that there are many older blogs of sterking quality which I wish everyone would read. In particular I like the three part CIVICS 101 which can be found by going back to August the 14th and 15th. On the left hand side are dates to look up the older blogs.
I am also proud of the ECONOMICS 101 three part series posted after the Civic
series.
Don't be shy. All comments are welcome. This is a wonderful way to keep in touch.

No more MR. Nice Guy

Everyone knows what kind of a person I am: Friendly, affable, helpful,
understanding, reasonable , etc.etc. So why did I get into an unfortunate
confrontation with a Kroger checker? Well, it turns out she was rude and unhelpful.
She was also ugly and stupid. Instead of punching her out I left in a huff
but very angry.Now I can't stop being mad and I think I should take it out on
someone. Aha! I think I have it.

I am a bit less than pleased with Islam. I never thought it was a good thing.
I am the only living person that thinks the Crusades were great. We should do it again. Now that the Moslem countries seem to have all our money they are beginning to act up in ways that seem completely illogical. Outside of oil, they have produced nothing in about 600 years. The population is unusually ignorant, having been raised by the unfortunately illiterate women. The poor Moslem women. No education, peculiar
clothing, denied in some places any rights whatsoever. What schools they have seem to concentrate on the Koran above all else. And they are restricted mostly to the males.

There, now I am over my anger at the poor clerk and feeling much calmer. I do plan on punishing Kroger for the next few weeks by withholding my trade.

BUSH

Poor Presidant Bush. He has made many mistakes and omissions as even I agree.
But I see some of the good things he has acomplished also. There have even been a few great moments.
Something here for you Bush haters to think about. Did you see the great peace conference started today at Anapolis? This is a Bush initiative with 40+ nation involved. His opening speach was awe inspiring. Eloquent, powerful.In short, wonderful.One of his finest moments. Something might come of this. Can you haters give him any credit for this great initiative ?

Why did I post Why?

I don't know why my computer posted why. That was to be the title of the blog but I pushed enter thinking it would go down to the next line and instead the stupid machine posted it. At the time, I thought I had something to say but whatever it was has slippwd my mind.Now I don't seem to know how to get to the next line so you can forget paragraphs. I am going to try to skip to the next line now. If it posts, that will be it. Here goes
OK, now it worked the way I wanted it to. We had an excellent turkey meal with a huge turkey and not enough eaters.We got Amy, Sonya and Margie (and dogs). Julia, Bob and Adam will be in today some time and are leaving tonorrow.
Margies dogs, two tiny Yokies are very energetic, cute, affectionate, energetic, non shedding (very important feature), and eat very little. We think they may be housebroken but they pee and defecate in such tiny amounts that they maybe have left little mementos hidden about. We will find such things next Easter when we are hunting eggs.
Enough blogging. Now I must concentrate on the yearly DXCM. I am desperately seeking inspiration. Nothing funny or edifying is popping into my mind. I welcome suggestions.

Why?

Irritating things

As I grow older, I find things that should be ignored getting under my skin.
Why do supposedly educated people feel it necessary to interject " if you will" or
"if I may" throughout their comments? It's driving me nuts.
Why is it necessary to play the national anthem before every athletic event?
It seems like a waste of time, and besides, it is really an ugly piece of music.
Why is it suddenly OK to talk about personal bodily functions and parts on TV
that we would hesitate to mention anywhere in public ? I find it disgusting.
More about TV : Drug ads keep telling us to ask out doctor if things are what we need Then they list the possible side effects which are generally terrible. I can't imagine bothering my very nice GP with this sort of stuff.
More about TV: I like to watch TV quite a bit. The advertisers are making it forever less enjoyable by piling on the ads. TIVO
has been such a godsend. I can record the programs and then fast forward the adds. A 1 hour program, with the adds eliminated runs less than 40 minutes.
This is just a very short list. You would be amazed to know how crotchety I have become lately. I could write a book about this subject but will spare my readers
from terminal boredom.

ARE YOU A RACIST /

I have always enjoyed controversy so what could be more controversial than racism. This is a term hurled about as the ultimate insult. Who really is a racist ?
Here is a little quiz I have devised
. Bear in mind that this quiz only applies to the white race.

1) Do you socialize with minorities on a regular basis ?
2) Are any of your good friends minorities ?
3) Have you ever dated a minority person ?
4) Have you ever used racial slurs ?
5) Would you object to your son or daughter marrying a minority person ?
6) Do you find racist jokes amusing ?
7) Do you secretly or overtly suspect that minorities are not as smart as whites?

The non racist will have answered the first four items with a yes and the last three with a no. A correct score of five would almost certainly make you a non racist.

BOOKS

I am a book lover. My favorite types are short ones with enormous print size.
This has something to do with my deteriorating eyesight and slow acting brain. About one book per month is all I can manage. This and the daily newspaper ( The lousy Houston Chronicle ) and a few reactionary conservative periodicals is about all I can handle.
Lest I offend my liberal friends, family and other admirers, I will not mention the book that I am working on now. Next on the list is THE REASON WHY.I had read this wonderful history long ago and found our old copy hidden away. I opened it ant it promptly fell apart. Bless Barnes and Noble. They ordered a new one for me and it has just arrived. That one is next on my list.
A package arrived just a few minutes ago. A book from Granddaughter Frances.
It is an historical novel about the same Crimean war called FOLLOW MW TO GLORY.
I am thrilled. My reading needs for the rest of the year are taken care of.

Economics 101 ( Conclusion )

There seems to be a pausity of interest in my thoughts on economics but I bravely soldier on.

As previously mentioned, the world is awash in our ever shrinking currency.
It does not behoove the holders of dollars to allow the dollar to continue to go down in value. These creditors are therefor buying US bonds in huge amounts.This in turn allows our profligate government to continue piling deficit upon deficit without actualy going bankrupt or rendering the dollar almost worthless.

So now the good news---Everyone, even our enemies,has a vested interest in keeping our currency sound.

Why should we care ? Let our children and grandchildren worry about a bankrupt social security system, or medicare and medicade, or other unfunded liabilities.

ECONOMICS 101 ( CONT.)
Thanks to our terrible international balance of trade, the world is awash in dollars, trillions of dollars in the hands of individuals, banks, companies and governments. With the precipitous decline in the value of the once almighty dollar, many holders would like nothing better than to get rid of them. They would prefer pounds, euros, and other currencies. Some of their holdings are still used in international trade. Some is spent in purchases of US real estate, corporations and even in US infrastructure. Billions are parked in US government securities. Oil producing countries don’t want the dollars very badly so they sell reluctantly and demand ever more dollars
per barrel of crude.
Too many dollars are chasing too few places to put them. Economics 101 tells us that this is the classic formula for inflation. This situation is now out of the hands of the US government. The debasement of our hard earned dollars and our accumulated nest eggs are in the hands of foreigners, some of which are not our friends.
One doesn’t like to think of where this might end. Perhaps, when the wages of our workers sink to the equivalent of the Chinese worker’s our balance of trade might turn around. Then this country might not seem like the promised land anymore.
That is pretty pessimistic. We are still a great and powerful nation.
Let us hope there is some better future for us.

ECONOMICS 101

The dollar has been shrinking for over a centuray. This causes the cost of goods and services to rise. We call this inflation or, as I prefer, a debasement of our currency. Since this has been going on for quite a long time, it is fair to assume that it is government policy. Why, you might ask, would the govenment do such a thing ?

1) This seems to help reduce the national debt. It is fairly obvious that it is easier to pay off debts with cheap dollars than it would be to pay with high priced dollars.

2) As the dollar sinks, apparent incomes rise and our graduated income tax system makes more people pay more and higher taxes, thus increasing government revenue.

3) Our negative foreign balance of payments is enormouse. Cheaper dollars make our products cheaper to buy and foreign products more expensive. Ergo, we should export more and import less and improving the negative balance.

Does this sound like a win-win situation ? There are downsides to this and we will examine them shortly.

( To be continued )

The Burlap Barrel ( Cont)

We are saddened to report that our Monday night trivia game
has been discontinued. Business is down about 50% and there is some
danger that the bar may close down. Last night was the last game and
there were very few participants. Not a cigarett in sight.
Thanks alot, officious bureaucrats. What will you think of next ?

THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT

Jan came home from Walmart a few days ago with a new pair of scissors. Why she did this I cannot imagine since we have lots of them already, those excellent ones with the orange handles that most everyone has. Why should I worry?

This pair was entirely of black plastic with thin strips of sharpened steel attached to the cutting edge. It cuts more easily than the orange type and seems superior to them in every way.

Why worry ? It was made in China and cost $1.00 ( one dollar !). Goodbye US scissor industry. It goes the way of electronics, hardware, toys, medical supplies, fish, etc. etc.

The good news: We still make the best hamburgers.

The Burlap Barrel ( Cont)

Once agian we were at the Burlap Barrel last Monday. We breathed the wonderful smoke free air but ------
The smokers stayed away in droves. I misspoke when I suggested the business was not affected. From the partial evedence at hand, I think my favorite bar may be ruined. Thanks alot, busybody bureaucrats.

BOOKS

Jan's book club keeps me supplied with more reading matter than I can handle.

The Bookies ( That's the overly cute name they call the club) meet once a month and vote on new books to buy and then they somehow get to read them in some predetermined order.

This was how I got to read THE ROAD a few weeks ago. It came with Jan's highest recommendation. I recommend that you read it if you want to be totally depressed and don't mind endless repetition.



Jan also reads the NYTs weekly book review and I think that is where she ran across

a 1989 book called THE POWER OF ONE by Bryce Courteney which she found to be still in print. It is quite a long book with tightly printed pages but I consumed it in just a few days.

It takes place in South Africa so the history involved is hardly up to date. Apartheid is in full swing but the seeds of it's demise are clearly evident. The last 38 pages seem to me to be

unnecessary They added nothing to the riveting 474 preceding pages. If one can stand a sneery anti Christianity running throughout the book it is a wonderful story of something that might really have happened.

TRIVIA

As you can easily see, I am not adept at the use of the computer. What I want to write about is the weekly trivia game which we play at the Burlap Barrel. 4 or more teams of 4 or fess compete for free drinks. We enjoy it for the reasonably priced drinks and the not too bad meal which is free of charge. The participants volunteer to call 2o questions . I volunteered yesterday and here is a small sample of the trivia that I presented:
When smoked, what fish becomes lox?
Name the 7th US president? ( Hint, a famous general)
What is the last name of the Beverly Hillbillies?
What is the last name of the late Anna Nichol Smith's daughter ?
Freud divided self into ego, super ego and what?
Now I have a small confession to make. As of September 1st, new local laws do not permit smoking in all sorts of places ( Like bars) . The first Monday we all smoked, as usual and the second hand smoke was overpowering.
Yesterday the bar owner was present. A nice little area outside with tables and chairs was made available. We were told that if caught the bar would be subject to terrible penalties. Everyone conformed with the new law. Presto ! the air inside was pure . We got home feeling better and certainly smelling better. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves even with the smoking restriction. Business did not seem to have been affected.
I still hate the nanny state. Business rights and individual rights are being trampled on. My confession, I kinda liked the pure air .

Learning something new

Experiment
Once again I am trying to cut and paste something from word
to blog. This makes me very nervous, sweating profusely and
actually trembling like a dried up leaf, about to fall to the inevitable
garbage bag on the way to the local land fill.

Eureka!
It actually worked.
Now that I have done this, I discover that there is a spell check
on the blog page so maybe I didn't have to go through this at all.

Jan and I are off to San Antonio to celebrate the GRITO with our
old Mexican friends this weekend. It looks like it will be a big
pachanga .

ATTENTION COIN COLLECTORS

I was thrilled to get my $25 roll of Jefferson dollars the other day. When I pointed out to the clerk who sold them to , that there was a limited issuance and they would never again be issued, he purchased a roll for himself and several other bank emplyees also were inspire to buy some.

I picture, many years down the road, when I or my hiers have the complete collection, selling the whole thing for some prodigious sum. They will aalways be legal tender so one can not
ever really lose on the investment.

The Madison dollar will be out early December.

Correction to previous blog

Karina: 113 billion spent on NO reconstruction and other aid.

THINGS I DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT ANYMORE

1) The Holocaust : This was a terrible thing and we hope never will happen again. Everyone is well aware that it did occur and no one is likely to forget it. The constant reminders are absolutely unnecessary.

2) JFK : This handsome, eloquent president was loved throughout the world. However, his short stint , tragically cut short, was a terrible failure. His personal life was inexcusable. His posturing as an intellectual is suspect. He had a best seller book, written by someone else. And yet, year after year we commemorate his death, orchestrated by his family, some members of which are
not the best of role models. Tiresome.

3) Diana : What's with all the adulation for this woman. We keep being forced to hear of commemorative celebrations of her life. She was a self confessed adulteress who got away with it. Yes, she was involved in charity work , very commendable but by no means unique. One of her kids may not be of royal blood. How fortunate for him.

4) Karina : A terrible hurricane that created havoc in New Orleans and the gulf coast, happened a few years ago. Many thousands were driven out, settling largely in Houston where they largely remain to this day. The US government continues to support many of these unfortunate people, paying rent and food for them. That was years ago. How long does it take one to get back on ones feet? The reconstruction has cost something like 13 billion bucks to date. When will it end?

5)9-11 : We need never forget this terrible disaster. The victims are treated as heroes ( The firemen were heroic indeed ) and the families have reaped enormous monetary rewards.
It is a good idea to continue to remember who caused this but who needs a constant reminder.
None of us is likely to forget.

HORROR STORY

I freely confess that to me there seems nothing in this world more beatiful than the human female. I love every thing about them from the tip of the toenail to the split ends of their lovely tresses.
I also freely confess that I am addicted to television. When there is nothing in particular that I wish to see, I click endlessly through the channels in the hope that something of interestr will pop up.
I gave the remote a moments rest when I came across a program called ( I think ) The Girls Next Door. Five or six esthetically pleasing young lovlies, lightly clad, were cavorting about in a most amusing way. My type of program ( or so I thought ). Suddenly on the screen appeared
a smirking, leering gargoyl, his repulsive visage contorted in his version of a smile. Hugh
Hefner ! The girls flocked to him. Three of them were his concubines. This disgusting, viagra ridden satyr apparently is able to buy the affection of all the females he wants. It speaks poorly of some women who seem willing to do anything for luxury and money. I wonder what the parents of these girls think.

Trip to Portland

I feel sure that my numerous family, friends, and other admirers have missed me the last week or so. Jan and I went to Oregon to visit her family and Anne (Deceased brother Dean's widow ) . We had a fine time seeing mostly relatives but here the problem begins.
Anne, my sister in law has 12 children, most of them married and producing
children of their own in great numbers. Now these children are mostly middle aged, married, and all producing more children. Some of these kids are also married and seem tp be producing a 4th generation. These are alot of people and my memory is getting a bit fuzzy. To further complicate matters, Anne comes from a family of 9 children who are producing children who are producing children.
Jan comes from a family of 9 who have produced children who have produced
children ,etc, etc.
There are lots of people invilved here. Deceased brother Toti (Teo as his now Argentine family called him) also had five kids and they are also prolific as are their children, etc, etc.
How sad it is that we are on the verge of losing track of these relatives. Many of them don't even know that Jan and I exist, any more than we know them. My kids probably have 50+ first cousins and they only know a few of them.
I have tried to partially correct this situation by creating a family tree on the computer. It goes back , as far as I am able to ascertain, five generations and then it gets too fuzzy. Now it is fuzzy two and three generations forward. For simplicity's sake I have chopped off whole branches of periferal family members who seem too remote. I also have some written family histories of long dead people. Pretty fascinating reading in some cases.
Maybe one of my kids will like to get my stuff some day when the unthinkable
happens to me. Its all here at that time for whoever volunteers to carry on.

CIVICS 101 (conclusion )

You may think you are voting for president when you pull that lever. As many of you know, you are really voting for your state electors.
The Electoral College is a hybrid sort , combining 2 votes per state plus the number of representatives that state has.
For example : Wyoming casts 3 electoral votes ( 2 senators + 1 representative ). A population of about 170,000 elects one elector.
California casts 55 electoral votes ( 2 senators + 53 representatives ), about 650,000 population per elector.
As you can easily see, a Wyoming vote is worth about 4 California votes.
Just to muddy up the waters, in each state it is winner take all. For example, in California which we expect to go Democratic, all 55 electoral votes will go to the Democrats, even though the Republicans may have garnered 48% of the vote.
This peculiar system will likely be with us forever. The smaller states control the Senate and are not likely to permit a change.
Here is the strangest part. If you are a Republican in a predominently Democratic state,
it really doesn't matter whether you vote Republican for president or withhold your vote or even vote Democtatic ! The winner take all system has disenfranchised the minority party.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION. Go Figure ! ( End of Civics 101 )

CIVICS 101 (continued)

The Senate, as you know, is composed of two senators from each state. This enhances the power of the smaller states to influence legislation and protect their rights.
For example, Wyoming, the smallest in population, sends its two senators each needing
254,000 population per senator. In California, a population of 18,000,000 per senator is required.
Ergo- The Wyoming voter has a voting power about 70 times that of a Californian for the Senate.

Hurrah ! Score one for states rights

US DEMOCRACY Civics 101

With apologies to my learned readers, allow me to present some facts and statisitics of which you may not be aware.
There are three basis votes which we can cast for offices in the Federal Govt.
1) House of representatives .(435 members, a fixed number which may never be altered)
2)Senate ( 100 members, 2 per state )
3)Presidant ( Not as many suppose a direct vote but a vote to select electors)

1) The House is about as close as we can get to a democratic selection. About 600,000 per population per representative. There are 8 smaller states which ekect only one representative and 5 states which select only 2 reps. California elects 53 reps. The top 10 states elect as many
as the smaller 40.
It gets stranger.
To be continued

Not much to say

I just wrote a long blog and pushed a button and it disappeared forever.
It's a good thing. Never has a blog been more devoid of interest. It was about a trivia game which Jan and I go to on MOnday night. It takes place in a tough sort of bar called THE BURLAP BARREL filled with hard drinking , hard smoking people
(red necks). But I am not going to repeat the lousy blog. Jan particularly likes to go because we get a free meal. She is a fine cook but lately seems to be happy to go out
and eat.
When one runs out of subjects, one talks about the weather. Is it at all possible that Al Gore is on to something. Global warming ! I don't think so but it has been beastly hot around here the last week. Don't believe the weather reports. They keep telling us that Houston hit 99 degrees. I go to our friend ,Arthur Mometer, who informs us that it is more like 102 and has been for the last few days.

Minneapolis disaster

No ! No! No! Not that bridge disaster. We've heard about that one enough already.
This is another story, not quite as dramatic as the bridge thing but very disturbing.
Actually, it hasn't happened yet. Let me explain.
About 10 or 12 years ago, 3 or 4 intrepid nuns moved to Minneapolis and plunked themselves down in what they jokingly refer as the Hood. This is a crime ridden area of
largely minority residents. Murder, rape , dope addiction, and thievery are rampant.
Their intention was to create a presence in the area in hopes of influencing the imhabitants.
They have never been mistreated by the people there and seem to have helped some. The children have a place to come and play and learn and many of the parents have come to like them.
The Visitation Monastary of Minnesota has now grown to 8 brave and holy members and here is the point of the story. One of the sisters, Joanna came from Britain on some sort of religious visa. She is a useful, dearly loved member of the monastary community but she broke the law. She overstayed her temporary visa. The Dept. of Immigration is hot on her trail and seems determined to deport her. As of this writing, it seems that there is little that can be done
to keep her in the country. An immigration lawyer, working on the case , does no see a way to save her from this fate. They are thinking of unleashing some sort of press campaign. They may have to enlist the help of their congressperson ( That is the Moslem rep that was recently elected to congress ). Barring some sort of intervention, she will shortly be sent out of the country. Potentially a tiny little disaster in Minneapolis.

Pesimist or optimist

I used to be an optimist and wish I still was. However, when I look at the condition of my dearly beloved country I sometimes think things are going to the dogs. Here is a short list of the things that seem to keep me awake at night:

1) The ever worsening international balance of trade.

2) The huge and ever increasing national debt.

3) The troubled health care system.

4) Lousy educational system.

5) Social security system going broke.

6) Raods and bridges and national power grid deteriorating.

7) Air traffic control system obsolete and inadequate for our ever increasing air travel.

8) Inflation out of control.

a) 50 years ago prices were about 10% of current prices.

b) Inflation seems to be government policy. They are raising taxes without raising taxes.

They are paying down the national debt withou paying it down.

9) Our investments are shrinking as the value of the dollar is debased.

10) Congress inaction on the imigration and energy problems.



Are you an optimist ? Let me know why.

I am a collector

An old time friend of mine collected anything to do with chickens. Another one collected dolls. A very nice neighbor, seemingly intellegent, collects elephants.
I don't know why these things happen. Many years ago I decided to collect matches and within a short time had such a pile of them that I finally threw them away. Next I did something much better. I collected little miniature bottles of liquor. I have hundreds of them and still will pick one up if I run across something unusual. How smart is that ?
But now I am doing something much better ( and much more expensive ). My current collection is the newly minted dollar presidential coins, one issued every three months, of the US presidents starting with Washington. It will take years for them all to be issued and I suppose I won't be around to complete the collection.
I am buying $25.00 rolls and leaving them in the package.
Why do I think this is so smart ? 3oo,000,000 of each isssue is being minted, about one per person in the US, not to mention foriegn sales. As far as I know, none has actually been circulated. Is it possible that they may become obscenely valuable
one of these days ? Jefferson is next on the list. I can hardly wait. It gets issued in September.

VACATION

Jan and I have just returned from a short vacation in the lovely village of Machesney Park, not far from Chicago. We visited Tom and Holly ( and kids, dogs, and cats ) for what seemed to us a short stay. Tom and Holly may have heaved a ssigh of relief when we left. Not only did they keep us amused, they also threw a great garden party for us. Holly obsesed over the food ( Lots of it and very good ) and worried that no one would come. Lots of people did, includding their kids and Holly's Mom. The dogs attended as well, proudly wearing decorative bandanas.
Their garden is enormouse and beautifully cultivated with much exotic flora and a charming fish pond. I suspect that they have put in lots of work on making the place so attractive.
Flying there and back was less fun. Every flight was delaayed. The food was, at best, mediocre, and the flight attendants looked like a selection from a fright show. They weren't very friendly either. In spite of the horror of flying, the plane was packed as usual. No wonder Continental is making money.

Strange verbiage

I tasted a rather expensive nectarine this morning and commented that it was not up to snuff. Where did that come from ? It was a lousy piece of fruit. Perhaps I should have said that it didn't cut the mustard. That way, in one fell swoop I could have covered several of the strange expresions that have cropped up in the English language.

On a completely different subject, the three heros mentioned previously were a mystery to almost all my failthful readers. 1) Generalisimo Francisco Franco ( Saved Spain from WW II
and communist domination, established order and left Spain with an excellent government
which exists to this very day ). 2) Chang Kai Shek (many different ways that is spelled )
( Thanks to our General Marshall he was defeated by the Chinese Communists but escaped with his army to Taiwan where he ruled with an iron hand till death but left a country of extraordinary prosperity and an excellent democratic government ) 3) Pinochet of Chile with a history somewhat like the previous two. He, as were Franco and Chang Kai Chek, has been
reviled by the liberal press and will go down in history as terrible . Pinochet is even under indictment for supposed crimes he committed.

Heros

I suppose we all have individuals that we have looked up to and admired.
The heros that I have in mind are not the granddads, parents, siblings , or children.
Rather, they are international people who have made a difference on the world stage.
I limit them to those who did something during my lifetime. Let me describe them.
There are three. All were military men who overcame comunist encroachments,
became dictators for a prolonged period and established order in their countries and then voluntarily retired, leaving excellent governments, based pretty much on good democratic principles. The countries involved have subsequently prospered greatly.
Guess who they are.

Medical Stories ( cont. )

Some confusion resulted from my previous entry:

The doctor's miraculous cure is a true story. The rest of it was supposed to be a joke.
I thought it was hilarious. Jan was not amused.

Medical stories

People of a certain age tend to like to tell stories about their ailments. I am horified to find that I am no different. Hence, this short tale of a recent adventure with my beloved GP.
A slight but persistent stomach ache found me in his office for a check up. He layed hands on my afflicted part and I was cured at that instant. The doctor was not sure that he had such curative powers and suggested a colonoscopy and sent me to the doctor of his choice.
Arriving at this doctors office I dicovered that he was a proctologist. My medical credentials are not extensive but I am almost certain that there is nothing wrong with my proct so I did the prudent thing and walked away. Smart move ? Absolutely ! I have had no recurence.

Back to naked in Mexico story

We have a report from one of my agents about the world who report on interesting stories
to include on my blog.

Mexico City is not a very attractive place to be at this time. We are given to inderstand that
it is not very clean. Lots of garbage and a deteriorating infrastructure are only part of the problem. Every dissatisfied group decides to have a manifestation and their favorite place is the Paseo de la Reforma, perhaps the most important artery in the city. On most days traffic is
stopped. Right at a key intersection a diehard group hangs about, naked as jay birds, still protesting whatever it was. Still almost unbelievable, incredible

Public television

I have never been enamored with PublicTelevision although they every once in a while put on some excellent programs. They had one the other night which went a long way toward improving my feelings about them. Peculiarly, it was a program that I didn't even see. I just liked the title ; JUMP-A FROGUMENTARY . That title is pretty funny, indicating that someone there has a sense of humor. I think it was about Mark Twain's jumping frog contest that started a tradition that goes on to this day.

More about Books

The book commentary of the previous posting seems like a popular subject.
What better way to get in touch with good books than to solicit suggestions and opinions.
Those books that I mentioned like " A Short History of Amost Everything" are just a few of my favorites. Reviews and comments are on the internet. Special mention for Sonya: This book takes you into outer space. It also takes you into microscopic
things like atoms and such. Strangely, it is really good science but is also funny.
I insist that you read it.
My personal preference tends toward history, sometimes disguised as novels .
One such book springs to mind : The Reason Why , published quite some time ago and likely out of print, is a history of the Chrimean (?) war and the charge of the Light Brigade and much more. Now I can't find the darn book. We keep lending things out and often never see them again.

Books

I wonder why it takes me so long to read a book while others( Jan ) can run through large tomes in a matter of days. She reads good books and some trash. I must select my reading so as not to waste my valuable reading time with inferior works.
Part of my problem may be caused by a tendency to fall asleep after reading about 20 minutes. Even so I have read several outstanding books lately.
Water for Elephants - It is called fiction but reads like maybe it really happened
A Short History of Almost Everything - Unbelievably fascinating.
Six Frigates - Early US naval history. Wonderful
Naturally, I have forgotten the author's names.

The nanny state

The government is looking after us. Two important groups are in charge of our welfare.
They are the Health Police and the Morality Police.

It really began, I think, with prohibition. This idea backfired terribly. It created criminals
( Joe Kennedy for example ) and scoffllaws by the many millions. Picture thousands of red necks
and hill billies, skulking about our forests with their stills cranking out gallons of moonshine,
some not too bad but some real rotgut too. The famous speakeasies and their patrons, scoff-laws all , include some of our finest citizens. Things got so bad that even the feds finally had to end it.

Then came the anti smokers. Both the morals and the health ones jumped on this one. It has been most effective. Smoking is down perhaps 75% in the last 15 years or so. Never mind that thousands of farmers and farm workers lost their livelyhood, as well as truckers and small retail outlets which lost a lucrative part of their business.

Now the health nuts are in complete charge. First, butter was bad so we ate margerine. Then margerine was worse so we are into olive oil. The eggs were bad. The day of cholesterol had arrived, and we were to be deprived of natures perfect food. MacDonalds was vilified. Their excellent hamburgers were deemed to be the unltimate junk food (meat, bread, letuce, tomatos are junk food ? ). Sugar should never be consumed. and this spawned an array of sugar substitutes which taste peculiar and may be harmful. Empty calories, we are told.

Now we are to worry about obesity. Do we care if some people are fat ? Is it really such a health problem for the whole nation ? Should we worry that fat people die a few years sooner that the skinny ones ? The world seem obsessed by longevity, at the cost of the bankruptcy of the social security system.

Final word : I can't find the spell check so no cracks about spelling and punctuation please.

Continued from previous posting

I have been accused of being a Bushy. I freely admit that I was pro Bush at one time and have downgraded that to neutral. He has made three egregious errors that I can think of. 1) Failure to enforce border security 2) Failure to try and control federal spending 3) The dismissal of the defeated Iraq army { We could have had a huge, disaplined force to help keep order }. Nobody seems to realize this latter failure
except for your obedient servant.
Aside from the above, I think poor old Bush deserves about a B. Now, please let me put this subject to bed.

A few more comments on presidential nominees : McCain, way too old. Count him out. John Edwards, $400 haircuts should put him out of the running. It must be awful to have so much money that you loose all perspective of the value of things.
One cannot help but admire the barber with the neerve to charge this much and still find suckers who will pay it.

Probably more on the political subject anon

A few comments

At the behest of El Ruco ( translation : worn out, useless ), our brother John Schmidt , residant of Guatemala, we are increasing the size of the font so that he, and other elderly people can better read our blog.
We were enormously pleased with the suggestion that Jan write something.
She read the responses and I think I detected a sneery smile on her lips. We will keep trying to encourage her but our chances of success are not guarantied.
Presidantial candidates: This could be an endless series but we will start out with the governor of Massechesets, Mitt Romney . I was thrilled when he announced that he was running. Then he ruined it. During a recent meeting with a group ( don't know who they were ) he proclaimed that he was an avid hunter and had hunted all his life. Later, it turns out, he has hunted a total of 2 times. Why he came up with such a stupid little lie is inexplicable. It reminds me of some of our previous presidents who had trouble sticking to the truth. I have decided that this type of phony is not who we want to lead us.
You will hear more about the candidates in the course of this endless campain.

We all know and love dear old Jan. (oops ! Let me rephrase that. We all know and love dear Jan. ) But how well do we really know her. The energetic Jan: We can generally find her cleaning, weeding, or reading. She has accumulated a huge store of knowledge, and a vast vocabulary. No one is perfect. She readily admits that mathematically she is useless. ( How come she balances the checkbook so easily ?) Mechanically she is a clutz.( I don't think she can operate our magical TIVO yet ) She eschuse the use of the computer , perhaps out of fear.
( I am kind of afraid of it myself)
I have been begging her to write something for the blog but as of now, she adamatly refuses.
Surely she has something to share with our numerous relatives , friends, and other admirers.
Dare I impose upon you all to write a few words of encouragement ?

Minimum wage

I wonder if you remember the days when if you stopped to get gasoline, a young lad would appear, check your oil, tire pressure, and pump the gas for you. You would then magnanimously tip the kid a quarter ( a dime if you were a real cheapo). Or, perhaps you remember getting on an elevator , only to find a greybeard in attendance who was able to direct you to the correct floor. The youngster in the first case and the old man in the second were working for a pitance
but at least they were employed. The work they did wasn't worth much but you may be sure that the tiny paycheck was greatly better than nothing. Besides, it kept them off the streets and/or out of the old folks home .
Think of the small businessman with a few emplyees. A small grocery store or a restaurant
with a payroll of workers, generally at low wages. Suddenly each worker will cost about $16.00 more per day. Some of those marginal workers will be layed off. Young starter workers will have a hard time being hired. The business will become less profitable and his prices will rise.( This is called an unfunder liability, a favorite tactic by our wonderful congress). Perhaps the biggest effect will be a kind of ripple effect. For example, if one earns $6.00 per hour, now he also will requirw a raise to peraps$8.00, &7.00 to $9.00, and so forth. Almost the entire payroll will rise proportionately. Did congress consider this when they reeled out their statistics ?
What effect might the new minimum have on illegal immigration ? Will it encourage the
illegal scofflaws or will it throw millions of them out of work and somehow, on the wellfare rolls ?
The minimum wage idea just will not go away. My opinion , it is a brainless concept that should be done away with forthwith.

Great inventions

We can't help but stand in awe of those clever people who have given us those things that we
can't live without. I think Edison may have started the whole thing. Try to imagine your life without electricity or light bulbs. Then came radios, telphones, television, and cell phones.
But the greatest invention of all was the magical TIVO. I confess that Jan and my principal entertainment in the evening is television. It is largely junk, punctuated by frequent and annoying adds. However, there are occasionally some good things to watch which, due to our active social life we might miss. Not any more. Our incredible TIVO records it and we watch at our convienience. Better still, we rush through the commercials and are able to watchthe typical one hour programs in 40 minutes. How cool is that ? It turns out that, in the unlikely event that there are two programs at the same time, we can watch one on regular TV while the other is recorded to be watched later. We even have the possibility of watching a third program on our old VCR machine to be viewed once again, at our leisure.
Almost to good to be true. There is a potential downside. If everyone has a TIVO ( and lots of us do) then the advertisers will no longer have any reason to finance the programs and the quality of TV, bad though it is, will get even lousier. Off hand, I can't think of a solution to this potential problem and must leave it to the industry to solve it. Any suggestions?

UNBELIEVABLE

A recent article in the newspaper tells us that 20,000 Mexicans took off their clothes
and marched through the streets, all of them getting together for a photo op in Mexico
City's enormous main square, the Zocalo. To put this into perspective, this is about one of every thousand of the population of the mega-city of about 20 million.
All the participants must qualify as idiots, morons,degenerates, or left wing protesters.
They were apparently called on for this display by someone who thought it would make some sort of artistic or political statement. Maybe they were protesting something; Global warming ?
Anti smoking ?--- aha ! I think I have it. Anti Bush.
There was a blurry picture accompanying the article. From what I could see, these
people were really stark naked. No bras, no panties,no jockey shorts. Incredulous, isn't it ?
Yes, it is unbelievable.

PET PEEVES

Here we are, in a crisis mode, due to a gasoline shortage. The skyrocketing price of
fuel is the obvious symptom. The price, as you know, is the result of supply and demand of the gasoline commodity. And yet, no real efforts are being made to fix the supposed problem.
There probably isn't one big solution but a big band aid might be as follows.
Have you noticed the proliferation of stop signs that are littering our neighborhoods. Some officious bureaucrats are most likely to blame. Most of these signs are unnecessary or could well be replaced with Yield signs. With over 200,000.000 vehicles on the road, each one making many stops per day and therefore burning fuel, I calculate that perhaps one or two million gallons of fuel are wasted each day. What to do? Since it is unlikely that our city fathers
or state representatives will help us out, I suggest that we all become scofflaws and ignore those
needless signs. Of course we take care that no one is coming the other way and there are no cops about. I think I increase my mileage by 5 to 1o%.

Sad News

We now have confirmed that the blog is out there so I can confidently write
whatever tickles my fancy.
A few days ago I got a call from Sister Mary Virginia and she informed me that my brother Toti has died. Through this same source we were aware of his serious illness
(brain tumor) and so we were not shocked by the news. A really sad aspect of this
is that I have had no direct contact with Toti for thirty years and very little for the twenty five years prior to that. It is almost unbeleivable that I have never gotten a letter or phone call from him. That is not only sad, it's pathetic. Comunication is a two way street but I long ago gave up trying to hear from him. By the way, the rest of his family is not much better.
I think there is a moral to this story. Unless there is some overriding reason, keep in touch with your siblings. It's so easy now and with e-mail it is quick and (for you
penny pinchers)cheap.

solving the worlds pproblems

Yesterday your scrible wrote a long and detailed explanation of world problems,
how they came about and who is to blame. I'm new at this game and seem to have lost the rather long essay. Surely a discouraging start. If this gets to the blog, you may be subjected to much more. OK, lets give it a try. Here goes.

first posting

This is my first effort at blogging. We will see how it comes out and will write my most intimate thoughts anon.