Nobody 664

Nobody Asked Me But:

Laura Moser, co-author of “The Rise And Fall of a 10th Grade Social Climber,” on the pain(s) of aging:

Several months after injuring my shoulder in October 2004, I flew to my hometown of Houston and paid out of pocket to consult a trusted family doctor about the pain that inexplicably wouldn't go away. He examined my clothed torso for about 15 seconds before offering this perfunctory analysis: "You're getting older, and your body's falling apart—it happens to the best of us. Something new'll break down every day, so you might as well start adapting."

When I protested feebly that I'd just turned 27, he threw up his arms and laughed. "I know—terrible, isn't it? Now don't forget to say hi to your mother for me, or you'll be in big trouble!" With that, he called for the next patient.

Reaction: I turned 72 yesterday, and I differ from Laura, not in kind, but in degree. With me two or three things break down between every dawn and setting sun.

But “Life Is Good,” and I have several tee shirts that prove it.<<<

A question for the author: Now that you have made it to seventy-two, what are your greatest personal fears?

A: My greatest fear is “losing it.” My second greatest is dying.

Q: Do your fears shame you?

A; Absolutely not! Without fear there is no courage.<<<

Joe Lieberman on whether Rumsfield should resign – “Yes” in October 2003, “no” in May 2004, “yes” in August 2006.

When Oscar Wilde said that, "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative," he wasn’t supporting ambivalence about an absolute. Even from the grave, Wilde has never faltered in his opinion that Rummy is a disaster.<<<

I read last week that college students on average spend about $900 to $1,000 a year on textbooks. That’s almost as much as I spend on books, and mine are not only boredom free but also have a much longer shelf life.

The dirty little (not so) secret in the textbook world is that so many are placed on their required list by the professors who wrote them. That would be like me charging you for Nobody. On second thought, those peoples aren’t so dumb. I will notify each of you in the near future about paying to subscribe to my writing. Not what it is worth – none of you have that kind of money – but a token pittance.<<<

“The Lion In Winter” – never having thoroughly studied English history I looked at Henry II simply as Peter O’ Toole, battling with his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, (Katharine Hepburn) raging at his “lion-hearted” son Richard (Anthony Hopkins) and favoring his youngest, the weak and nasty, John. (Nigel Terry) Now I find out that Henry was so very much more than that. He established many of the institutions of justice that remain with us today. He created the prototype of our modern Grand Jury. He used the shire-reeves (sheriffs) created by his grandfather (Henry I) to turn Royal Edicts into common law for all Englishmen. He enabled the decisions of local judges to be appealed and, not wanting to be overruled, these judges began using precedents as the basis for their decisions. These precedents, in turn, became part of the common law and continue as the outline for most of the legal systems in today’s English-speaking countries.

When Henry, and later Richard, died, English barons stayed within this general common law framework as they forced the evil John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. Not only was this the basic constitutional document in British history, it established the principle that the law’s power was greater than that of the ruler. So let’s give it up for Henry!<<<

And did you know: that John was such a bad king that no other British monarch since has taken his name?<<<

Q: Now that Pluto is no longer a planet, is Uranus next?<<<

Last week the editors of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have “contempt for democracy,” embrace “stunningly ignorant logic,” and use rhetoric that “borders on the criminal, to say nothing of the insane.” And they’re helping the terrorists win: “The immoral and ridiculous claims coming out of the Bush administration’s reign of error could ultimately be responsible for the kind of casualties that al Qaeda can only dream of.”

Two comments:

“Stunningly ignorant logic,” “borders on the criminal, to say nothing of the insane,” “immoral and ridiculous claims.” Why don’t you tell us how you really feel?

and

“Reign of error” – I wish I had thought of that.<<<

Remember the good old days when male movie stars had quaint names like Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson? Let’s not forget the father of the “quaints,” Sonny Tuffs.<<<

Robert Ingersoll once wrote: “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences.”

Does this also apply to politics? I guess we will find out in November.<<<

Make love not war:

France negotiated weak rules of engagement for UN Troops in South Lebanon and then stated that they would not send very many troops to that troubled area because of the weak rules of engagement.

Viva la France!<<<

The story below is taken from a Bob Herbert column in the NY Times. I have shortened it without changing its basic content and added my comment in the final paragraph.

Abdallah Higazy deserved to be investigated. He was staying at the Millenium Hilton Hotel across from the twin towers on 9/11. An aviation radio was later found in his room safe. He could have used it to guide the suicide planes.

The problem is that our government substituted “did” for “could have.” He was arrested by the F.B.I. as a material witness and held as such in solitary confinement while investigators searched for something to pin on him. (They obviously “forgot” that under American law a material witness is not supposed to treated as a criminal.)

Higazy claimed innocence as long as he could, but eventually an FBI agent elicited a confession from him by making threats regarding his relatives back in Cairo, saying they would be put at the mercy of Egyptian security, which has a reputation for engaging in torture.

End of story – right? Our government’s tactics were questionable but they caught a terrorist. We bend the rules so we don’t get broken.

The problem is that shortly after the forced confession a pilot, an American, walked serendipitously into the Millenium Hilton, looking for the aviation radio he had left behind on Sept. 11.

The moral of this story is obvious. Bent rules often lead not to justice but to injustice. Suppose the pilot had not gone back for his radio. Would you want Abdallah Higazy on your conscience? I wouldn’t!<<<

I bought a book a couple of years ago titled “Simplify Your Life.” While there are some really good ideas in it, there is also some science fiction, - especially the part that advises working people to live on half of their earnings and save the other half.

Although six glorious years have passed since I worked, (except for washing my wife’s car the other evening) I could no more have lived on half my earnings than I could have won a most handsome head of hair award. Maybe the author intends for people to supplement the usable income half by hand-lettering pieces of cardboard and working a corner or freeway off ramp for loose change.<<<

I do not know if John Mark Karr is a murdering psycho or just a psycho. Hopefully, the DNA will tell the story. I do know that poor JonBenet Ramsey was abused long before she was killed that Christmas night. Those guilty in that story are her mother, who turned her into a woman/child to satisfy her own warped dreams, and her father who, at the very least, allowed this Michael Jackson-like perversion to occur.<<<

Talk about perfect timing for our UK trip. In London’s War Museum, a medal awarded to the only dog to be officially registered as a prisoner of war in World War II has, for the first time, gone on public display.

Judy, a pedigree pointer, was captured along with members of her Royal Navy ship's crew in 1942. She was the ship's mascot.

She was taken to a Japanese POW camp in Sumatra, and there befriended by fellow prisoner, British airman Frank Williams who somehow persuaded Japanese officers to register her as a POW.

She went on to survive gunshot wounds and alligator bites -- as well as helping her fellow POWs by distracting camp guards -- until the end of the war, when Williams smuggled her onto a ship back to England.

While in London, so that we can all honor Judy, I will drink a Starbucks to her for you and you and you and you and the rest of you too. Or, if some prefer, I will wait until Scotland and make it a single-malt.<<<

For a special birthday treat we saw David Hyde Pierce yesterday in the pre-Broadway run of the new musical “Curtains.” It was very entertaining – excellent performances, catchy songs. The story was a little weak but not enough to make it anything but a smash in our minds. I mention it here, because this will be “curtains” for Nobody for a short time. But I shall return soon to sing the praises of our first trip to the “old world.”<<<

One final note: My wish for us all is that this will be another year when we remain, in the words of Bob Dylan, “Forever Young.”<<<

Nobody 663

Nobody Asked Me But:

Writer James Lee Burke is like fine wine. You have one bottle of great Cabernet a year – on your birthday. You then spend the rest of the year drinking the very good and wonder if there is a difference. But comes your birthday and with the first sip, there it is.

Would you like a sip? Here is a sentence from Burke’s new book, “Pegasus Descending:”

“He wondered if the role of public fool came in incremental fashion with age, or if you simply crossed a line one day and found yourself in a room full of echoes that sounded almost like laughter.”<<<

I have mentioned before that the LA Times has added an excellent weekly column on education written by former educator Bob Sipchen. In a recent piece he asked the following questions, which I have tried to answer thoughtfully and realistically. However, I am well aware that my concept of realism defines what should and can happen rather than what will happen.

Q: Who should be a teacher?

A: Someone who loves kids, loves his subject matter, is creative, flexible, and has a sense of humor. Someone who knows that what he is doing is serious and yet doesn’t take it or himself too seriously.

How do we create good teachers?

A: Good teachers are born, not “created.” Persuading these women and men to become teachers is another issue. You do that by making the career choice more attractive – a professional pay package, freedom to use their creative talents, better working conditions and enhancing the prestige of the profession by making them the good guys rather than the
scapegoats.

Q: How should schools recruit good teachers?

A: By offering all of the above - AND by weeding out the poor teachers who drag down the profession.

Q: How can schools retain good teachers?

A: By supporting them. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “give then the tools and they will do the job.” The tools are such things as smaller class sizes, computers, access to the Internet, modern labs. Another thing, small but important – eliminate unnecessary meetings.

Q: Who should judge a teacher's performance and how?

A: First the how – a public panel made up of appropriate educators and public experts in specific fields (no politicians allowed) should decide on minimum requirements for various career paths and for assuming the rights and responsibility of citizenship in a democracy. Teachers should be expected to educate their students to these standards by degrees along the K-12 pathway, BUT only after districts have (1) altered their curriculum to insure that teachers and students speak (literally) the same language – English, and (2) insured that teachers will not be downgraded on their evaluation for their failures with “refuseniks” – those who can not be made to care.

Criteria for evaluation: 1. student achievement of minimum requirements, 2. teacher’s ability to send students soaring above and beyond the minimums.

The evaluation itself would be a combination of the following: observation by a 3-person group made up an administrator, a parent and an expert, student evaluations, self-evaluation and test scores.

Q: Who should decide if and where teachers work?

A: The if is obviously decided by the results of the evaluation. At the end of the process, teachers should be divided into five categories (and paid accordingly) – master, excellent, very good, good and good-bye.

As to assignments, it should be an administrative function to see that every school has a balance of teachers from the categories above – except, of course, for the good-byes. These administrators should be held accountable for both the fairness and the success of these assignments.<<<

Headline: Iran and Syria Claim Victory for Hezbollah

I hate to say I told them so, but I did. Israel is no longer the lean, mean military machine of its youth – age softens urgency. It should have been war or no war against Hezbollah. Instead, it was a half-assed effort that encouraged its enemies.

But at least Israel’s effort, though feeble, was justified. Ours in Iraq is a disaster without justification.<<<

The creation story that came out of Zionism and Western guilt is a troubling one. But like many injustices, it is a fait accompli. Therefore the blood of dead innocents is not only the responsibility of Muslims and Jews. It is on all the creation countries that have not, by word or deed, crushed the myth that Israel is not forever.

To paraphrase Martin Niemöller: They sent their rockets and suicide bombers after the Jews. We were silent. We were not Jews.<<<

Did you know? In a post-cease-fire poll that appeared in the newspaper Maariv, 67 percent of its public believes that Israel should assassinate Nasrallah, even if that means destroying the cease-fire.<<<

From The Economist, Aug. 12th: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling a special session of the legislature to address the problem of California's overcrowded prisons. The article advises lawmakers to start by ending the state's three-strikes law, cleaning up prison-guard corruption, and taking politics out of the mix.

Comment: The three-strike law was a disaster from its moment of conception, which occurred, I assume, when sperm from a lobbyist fertilized an egg laid by a politician. The specifics of justice are better administered by the just than by the law-makers.<<<

NY Times columnist John Tierney, with some justice, calls Al Gore out for pushing busses as “the cheapest and most energy-efficient transportation for long distances,” while surveying the polluted world by plane, a travel method the former VP deplores for you and me. Obviously, it would be difficult to take a bus to the glacier melts in Antarctica, but I think Al often flies where busses dare to go.

But he is not the only “leader” who ignores the wisdom of Gandhi’s “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

For example, there are the “peace-loving” leaders who make war, the “pro-public school” people who send their kids private, the parents who demand a do as I say, not as I do from their kids or even Joe Lieberman, who will not lose with the grace he would have expected from his opponent.

And how about you and I? How often are we the change we want to see in the world?<<<

Iraqi eye-opener of the week: From the NY Timer: “Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.”

Bush = Iraq will be a shining beacon of democracy in the Middle East = Wrong, again, George.<<<

Just when I think that my opinion of politicians can go no lower, I am once again proven wrong. This time it was Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, claiming “our terrorist surveillance programs are critical to fighting the war on terror and saved the day by foiling the London terror plot.”

Great intelligence work by the British and the Pakistanis save thousands of American lives, and the Republicans take the credit. Shameful.<<<

From the LA Times: “Additional checked luggage strained LAX's 1960s-era baggage system to its limits. Three miles of aging belts that crisscross the lower levels of the airport's nine terminals struggled to carry the extra load, leading to delays getting bags onto aircraft and baggage carousels.”

Comment: Just one more example of how badly, California, the sixth richest “country” in the world, has damaged its infrastructure by under-taxing itself. Are we on the way to becoming the richest “third-world country” on earth?<<<

Here’s this week’s ethics question:

I was alone with my 85-year-old mother the day before she passed away. I asked her, If she could do anything over again, what would it be? She surprised me by saying she should have married “Robert,” an old flame, rather than my father. I’m conflicted over telling my brother and sister. It might be deeply disturbing to them, but it is an important part of our family history. Is it ethical to withhold this information? Name Withheld, Flagstaff, Ariz.

Absolutely! It is too bad that your mother made this death-bed confession to you. Whatever reward she gained was fleeting while the punishment she inflicted becomes part of her legacy. You don’t say whether or not you were pained by it, but what is too be gained by deeply disturbing your siblings? There are times when the price one pays for truth is too high.

Longfellow was right: “Let the dead past bury its dead.”<<< *

Houston 5, Pittsburgh 2: Roger Clemens posted his 345th win, giving up one run in six innings to help the Astros complete a three-game sweep. Clemens, who gave up four hits, yielded two runs or fewer for the eighth time in 10 starts. His 2.32 earned-run-average since June 22 leads NL starters.

Reaction: I do not like Clemens, but the man is still consistently pitching like this at 44. I think that considering his whole career, he may well be the best pitcher of all time. Koufax, Gibson and others had more talent but less longevity.<<<

Department of To Know Me Is To Know Me:

I don’t do waiting very well, but I am pretty good at sitting and watching.<<<

• Entire poem (The Psalm of Life) appears under poetry section titled
Friday Evening Blues on this site.

Nobody 662

Nobody Asked Me But:

Of men older than myself, there is one whom I loved and respected above all others. This man, whose goodness and kindness surrounded him like auras, was Barbara’s father, Ed Gold. The world is a meaner place when such men leave us.<<<

ON THE CURRENT TERROR SCARE. Let me start by thanking the British and Pakistani anti-terrorist units who prevented another beyond-terrible catastrophe.

I think my best way to comment on the current situation is to include the following excerpts from e-letters I wrote to Elizabeth and Hugh since the plot was uncovered:

Yes, we are a bit worried but, unless something changes, not enough to cancel. What we are more concerned about is all the packing changes that go with the new security regulations. As it now stands, I will not be able to take both my reading and distance glasses on the plane, unless I carry one pair without a case in a see-through bag. Obviously I can't do that, so I will have to decide on which pair. And we have to have our medicine, wallets, books, etc. in that same type of bag. No camera on the plane, no watch, no purses - although this last one won't affect me much.

Don't get me wrong. I think that security has been much too lax in the fading memories of 9/11, and I support any regulations to keep passengers safe. But do we want to go through the whole thing? The probability of a yes answer is about 95%, but we will sleep on it and decide for sure in the morning. Howeve,r it certainly does replace some of the pleasure with pain.

I think that our country may have to go to a system, like the one in Orlando that Hugh wrote about, where people can go through a one time intensive security check which would include fingerprinting, retina scans, etc. This would allow them to by-pass most of the airport security regulations. A person would have to pay a fee, but it would be worth it. And as much as I hate to say it, we may have to do more ethnic/religious profiling. Any Muslim with a bomb should not be allowed on a plane. Seriously, if most terrorists were bald men in their 70s, I would not object to being profiled.

I agree on Pakistan. It is a country riddled with contradiction. We must hope that their anti-terrorist government keeps as firmly in control as possible, even if we don't like many things about that government - including their possession of the big boom.

I wish we could catch all the son-o-a-bitch terrorists at a convention and nuke them all.<<<

Does staying in Iraq or getting out make us more or less libel to terrorist’s plots? Yes!

Leaving would be seen as a sign of weakness by terrorists and encourage attacks.

Staying is seen as an attempt by us to impose our will on Muslims and encourages terrorist aggression.

Thanks George!<<<

REPUBLICAN SPEAKS OUT ON FOILED TERRORIST ATTACK!

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman seized on the terror arrests in Britain today to attack his Democratic rival, Ned Lamont, saying that Mr. Lamont’s goals for ending the war in Iraq would constitute a “victory” for the extremists who are accused of plotting to blow up airliners traveling between Britain and the United States.

Actually I essentially agree with Joe that we can’t arbitrarily withdraw. Now if he would just condemn Bush for putting us between this rock and hard place, I might take him back into my party.

To me, that is the key to a Democratic victory in November. Condemn the war and the president who started it as tragic and stupid, an unnecessary mistake that has caused the death of many innocent American military personal and deadened the souls of many others. It has changed Iraq from a bad but stable buffer zone against the spread of Islamic radicalism to a bad and unstable radical link. It has made the world not safer from terrorism but more vulnerable to it.

The Democratic message must be “we will be incredibly tough on the real terrorists - and here’s how.”<<<

We went to a book signing a few days age and heard a new joke. Actually, I am sure it is pretty old, but new to me. The mother of the mother/daughter writing team lives in Minnesota where there are two seasons – winter and road work.<<<

Here is the Bush foreign policy in a sentence - The Bush people hope that somehow it will all turn out right.

But as columnist Joseph L. Galloway writes – “That reminds me of a sign that used to decorate the Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia:”

"Hope is NOT a method unless you are the chaplain!"<<<

From a recent NY Times: Tens of thousands of followers of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr rallied in support of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah on Friday, denouncing Israel and the United States for igniting violence throughout the Middle East.

Reaction: Once again the Times got it wrong. Those were Cheney Iraqis welcoming us with open arms.<<<

Did you hear that Annette Bening is going to play White House reporter Helen Thomas in the upcoming Nixon movie, Dirty Tricks? No way! I’ve seen Helen Thomas and, Annettee Bening, you are no Helen Thomas.<<<

Today (Thursday) I am not a David Brooks fan. His column misleads. I’m generally no advocate of political extremism, but Brooks’ thesis is that a “McCain/Lieberman Party” represents compromise, which has always been preferable to what he calls hyper-partisanism.

“Hyper-partisans may have started with subtle beliefs, but their beliefs led them to partisanship and their partisanship led to malice and malice made them extremist, and pretty soon they were no longer the same people.”

Brooks labels this bad, but isn’t it primarily how the Republican Party itself was born? Slavery hating hyper-partisans made their former Whig Party irrelevant, and by doing so destroyed “the peculiar institution.” (slavery, not Whigism) There are some moral issues that demand extremism. Sending Americans to die fighting the wrong war is one.

That’s strike one, David.

Brooks also calls those he labels “net-root Democrats, vicious do-anything-to-win flamers.”
The campaign against Lieberman was hard and pointed but hardly vicious.

That’s strike two, David.

“On fiscal policy, the McCain-Lieberman Party sees a Republican Party that will not raise taxes and a Democratic Party that will not cut benefits, and understands that to avoid bankruptcy the country must do both.”

I’ll give Brooks a base hit on this one, but overall your hit does not offset those two strikes.<<<

And, by the way, isn’t it refreshing to see an incumbent challenged? It does damage to the perversion that has evolved in American politics that incumbents have a divine right to be re-nominated and re-elected.<<<

But as much as I applauded Lamont’s victory Tuesday, I was very uncomfortable seeing Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson standing behind him. And, another supporter, Michael Moore does not speak for this Democrat when he says that even though both John Kerry and John Edwards have changed their minds and are now anti-war, it’s too late: "Their massive error in judgment is, sadly, proof that they are not fit for the job. They sided with Bush, and for that, they may never enter the promised land."

Who elected or appointed Moore spokesman for any Democrat? Making a good anti-Bush film doesn’t make him a “moore” qualified spokesman for the party. In fact, he is sounding very much like the Pat Robertson of the left. Just another radical nut who is a legend in his own mind.<<<

Speaking of radical nuts, I give you the Vicious Veep. From the NY Times: “Vice President Dick Cheney, went so far as to suggest that the ouster of Mr. Lieberman might encourage ‘al Qaeda types.’”

Isn’t playing the traitor card at least the equivalent of playing the race card? I don’t call many people evil, but Cheney comes close. He is dirt in my book!<<<

There are places I remember – another in the series.

I have found something to love in every New England state. There is Cape Cod, and Boston in Massachusetts, and Pepe’s Pizza and Greenwich in Connecticut. One of my favorite Starbucks is in Rhode Island. I am crazy about almost everywhere in Vermont as well as Dartmouth and Portsmouth in New Hampshire.

But the state that I miss the most is Maine. My memory starts with Bar Harbor, our first ever Maine stop – great doughnuts and ice cream, (but not the lobster flavor) and walks through Acadia National Park where we picked the tiny wild blueberries.

Jumping to the south end, near Freeport, there is the Harasseket Lobster, our little seaside walk-up with fried shrimp, lobster rolls and great coconut cream pie.

Between the two lies Camden and Portland. The latter may well be my favorite small city in the United States, a place where they have succeeded in finding the proper balance between old and new. Camden is the location of the wonderful Inn At Sunrise Point with rooms named after local writers and the Atlantic splashing a few feet from our bed. It is high on the list of our favorite places to stay in the U. S. This small town is so cool that two of our favorite authors, Richard Russo and Tess Gerritsen, live there.

Maine, we shall return – soon!<<<

But before we do, there is the UK (and Harrods) to conquer. Especially the latter, whose motto is omnia omnibus ubique - everything for everyone everywhere.<<<

Nobody 661

Sunday, August 6, 2006
Nobody # 661

Nobody Asked Me But:

As I write this Nobody and, as always, struggle to keep it to a reasonable length, I remember a line from Robert Louis Stevenson that I have used before: “The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” (Happy Thought, from “A Child’s garden of Verses.”)

So here are the week’s words from a happy King James.

What is even more scary than this administration’s attack on some of our most fundamental freedoms is that so few people object.<<<

As our first trip to the United Kingdom draws nearer, we surely hope that Lord Byron was joking when he said: “The English winter- ending in July, To recommence in August.” But we are packing umbrella’s and jackets just in case.

Here is my must list for the London part of the trip:

Visit the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone.

Visit the British Library to see the original Magna Carta.

Ride the London Eye.

Walk through St. James Park and remember that Henry VIII created it.

Eat my way through Harrods’ ice cream department and then wind up at their Starbuck’s for number 300 on my list. As Barb discovered on line last night, there are something like 170 SBs in England and Scotland, so I will be well over 400 by the time we start back home.

Have a drink at The Audley, a pub visited by Chris and Chloe in “Match Point,” and one of Woody’s favorite London watering holes.

See a play and attend a concert.

Visit Churchill’s War Room.

Buy a pair of shoes at John Lobb, where the shoemaker will give you simple style but great fit for only 2,000 pounds ($3,900) a pair. Pricy, yes, but remember the old saying; “take care of your feet, and they will take care of you.”

In this last must, the price is true but me buying a pair is one of the great lies of all time.<<<

Remember when Donald Rumsfeld boasted that “the care” and “the humanity” that went into our precision assaults on military targets would minimize any civilian deaths? Such casualties were merely “collateral damage,” unworthy of quantification.

Well that collateral damage has now been quantified. The “low” estimate, coming from the White House is 30,000. The LA Times recently said the 50,000 was a more accurate estimate.

And for what have they died? There is no peace in sight, no end to fear or death or terrorism. Hell, there isn’t even a restoration of electricity in many places.<<<

The quote of the week is from Thomas Friedman – NY Times

“It is now obvious that we are not midwifing democracy in Iraq. We are baby-sitting a civil war.”

Did you know that: In a world without Will Shakespeare a degree in English literature would take about 4 months to complete. The play wouldn’t be the thing nor would we wait “with bated breath.” - The Merchant of Venice.

Did Israel Lose the war on the seventh day?

Last week I was strong in my praise and adamant in my support of the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon to, once and for all, destroy or badly cripple Hezbollah.

Now I am not so sure. Had this been a Six-Day War the price may have been bearable, (if the death of innocents is ever bearable) but starting with day seven Israel has been the loser. The perception, back in those early years, was that Israel was the invincible military colossus of the Middle East. That perception weakened somewhat during their Lebanese misadventures in the 1980s and has taken a new and costly blow with their inability to quickly overcome and defeat Hezbollah. Hundreds of innocents are dead and the terrorist group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has become the folk hero who fought the hated enemy to a standstill while sending fear and death into Northern Israel with every missile. He has given hope to all the Islamic fanatics who believe that Israel is not forever.

As I write this Israel is in the midst of a huge ground offensive that may strengthen security on its northern border and reestablish its image as a power not to be reckoned with. So far, no good. I still hope it works, but it would have been better to hit harder, faster.<<<

Before American education takes another hit, its critics should note that the average Brit, when quizzed, can only name 3 of the 7 continents. It’s the relationships, stupid – child and family, child and teacher – and not test scores that measure success in education.<<<

Columnist Kathleen Parker sees a strange link between Susan Smith and Hezbollah.

Smith, you will remember, killed her two children and then got sympathy for her loss.

Hezbollah not only struck first this time but also pretty much invented the suicide bombing of innocents, as well as the use of women and children as shields. And yet, the “Twilight Zoners” of the world once more condemn Israel.<<<

A long time ago, in the land of Ajo where I first taught, I had a close friend. Now I have two or three – see how much I have progressed. Anyway this man and I spent lots of time together. We even moved to California the same year – Bob to Corona, me to Simi Valley. Despite our friendship, he felt ambivalent towards me. How did I know? I knew because when our group played poker, he would get a little (or a lot) drunk and start taking verbal shots at me. Which brings me to the Far Right Catholic’s lethal weapon – Mel – “I really love Jews,” Gibson.

You see, “Braveheart,” is asking American Jews to forgive him for his insensitive remarks. Here, by way of Maureen Dowd, is a response from Leon Wieseltier, the author of “Kaddish ” and the literary editor of The New Republic:

“He has been a very bad goy,’’ Leon said.

“It is really rich to behold Gibson asking Jews to behave like
Christians. Has he forgotten how bellicose and wrathful and unforgiving we are? Why would a people who start all the wars make a peace? Perhaps he’s feeling a little like Jesus, hoping that the Jews don’t do their worst and preparing himself for more evidence of their disappointing behavior.”

“Perhaps he thinks that all he needs to do is spend a few months in AA — Anti-Semites Anonymous.”

So, who do I think is the real Mel Gibson? I’m betting on an old Latin saying: In vino veritas, in wine, or in this case tequila, there is truth.<<<

In a recent Sports Illustrated online article there was a photo essay about Baseball’s nastiest pitches. Here is one of the 11.

Spitball - Gaylord Perry

“The effect of this pitch is more psychological than anything. Perry would mix it in with a vast assortment of pitches to keep hitters off-balance. He gets the nod over "shineball" artists such as Ed Walsh and Eddie Cicotte because, unlike them, Perry had to be sneaky about throwing it. (The pitch was banned in 1920.)”

Tell me again why Perry is Hall of Fame and Barry, Hall of Shame?<<<

While driving, I am listening to taped broadcasts of the old radio series, “Suspense.” Today an episode, broadcast during WW II, was a great example of, “my, how times have changed.” The sponsor was the internationally acclaimed Roma wine from that world famous California wine country around Fresno. Roma was not only cheap (because there were no import duties on it) but loved around the world, as illustrated by the Cuban gentleman praising its virtues to his American guest.<<<

While I don’t buy most of the libertarian line, I love this one. At the Marginal Revolution blog, George Mason University economist Alex Tabarrok weighs in with the libertarian perspective on our government’s inefficiency in war. I think he is much too general but his comment certainly applies to this administration in Iraq:

“The Pentagon is the Post Office with nuclear weapons.”

On second thought, how dare he insult the Post Office.<<<

Washington D. C. - The question of the week in our nation’s capital seems to be whether the Iraqi War was and is an ideological failure or a management failure.

I’m no Rhodes scholar, but I know the answer to that one: BOTH!<<<