Nobody 701

Sunday, June 24, 2007
Nobody # 701

Nobody Asked Me But:

Question: Not counting people, name something that makes you smile?

My answer - Times when I have nothing that I have to do but many things I want to do.

What’s yours?<<<<<<

From a recent Time Magazine article about eating:

“Somewhere in your brain, there's a cupcake circuit. How it works is not entirely clear, and you couldn't see it even if you knew where to look. But it's there all the same—and it's a powerful thing. You didn't pop out of the womb prewired for cupcakes, but long ago, early in your babyhood, you got your first taste of one, and instantly a series of sensory, metabolic and neurochemical fireworks went off.”

Reaction - That is not the way it worked for me. It was tacos, not cupcakes, and the circuit connected at 14 rather than babyhood. But then perhaps I was maturity impaired.

Time goes on:

They're studying the neural wiring of the stomach and intestines, as well as the operation of the genes that drive our appetite, to track how satiety signals are sent and determine why they sometimes get lost.

Reaction - That’s easy – satiety signals get mugged by taste signals before they reach the brain.<<<

Now that I am through with Time, I am going to rip off Newsweek a bit and do something like their weekly Conventional Wisdom report with the up and down arrows – only no arrows because I can’t make them on my computer. Instead, I will use the words up and down (and sideways for ambivalents.). The other change is that it will be Jim’s Wisdom rather than conventional. Most weeks, as long as the fun lasts, I will do about a half-dozen, but there may be more if I get carried away.

Note – Things may shift from week to week because just as conventional wisdom changes, so may Jim’s.

JIM’S WISDOM

UP: Libby and Jack, for their recently celebrated 40 years of marriage.

DOWN: Hillary. “We” need a winner next year, and the Gallup Poll has her trailing Giuliani by an average of 5 percentage points in three surveys.

UP: Barack. He is this week’s “sure thing” Democrat, because he is ahead in all the match-ups - by 5 percentage points over Giuliani, 12 over McCain and 16 over Romney.

WAY DOWN: Kevin Kidd, 45, a Democrat who owns a bar in Farwell, Michigan and who said a female president would make the United States "look a little wimpier."

WAY UP: Father’s Day, for the way I was treated by my kids and my wife. I felt like a king.

DOWN: Me having to sleep in the living room for a week to 10 days.

UP: Barb will be joining me, as our bedroom is being remodeled.

SIDEWAYS: Your writer, for having two grandchildren with birthdays this week - Emily will be 11 and Benjamin 6. It is wonderful to watch them grow up, and it is sad to watch them grow up.

UP: Stanford University, for offering gifted high school students an online education. They log on to classes from all over the world. While I think that going to regular classes every day is still the best way to learn, it is nice to see an innovative alternative.

Down: Dick Cheney. It’s not that he says, as he did again last week, that he talks only to God. He believes it.

WAY UP: Sitting in our backyard with a BBT gimlet, enjoying good conversation and/or a good book and feeling the day’s heat ease into the evening’s cool.

DOWN - The “Surge.” Iraq violence is up since our troop increase, which means that the surge is working – the surge of violence that is.

Up: Rachel Resnick, a member of Sacramento's Congregation B'Nai Israel, for warning those protesting against gay rights last week that in demanding a literal interpretation of scripture they should be careful lest their wishes come true. "

Are the protesters eating shellfish and pork?" "Scripture says you should be stoned for this. Are they wearing clothing made from two different fibers? That too is a sin."

WAY DOWN: Fouad Ajami, the Lebanese-American academic and war proponent who fantasized that a liberated Iraq would have a (positive) "contagion effect" on the region and that Americans would be greeted "in Baghdad and Basra with kites and boom boxes." As Frank Rich wrote, “I guess it all depends on your definition of ‘boom boxes.’"

Up - Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii, for being the only states that do not have at least one poisonous snake species in the wild.

Down – Sand, for causing of 16 deaths in U.S. 1990-2006, four more than fatal shark attacks.

DOWN: – Congressional Democrats, who will have this spot reserved for them in every Nobody until they get some guts.

Way down - Henry, The Ego, Kissinger, for his two-paragraph letter last week recommending a suspended sentence for Gordon Libby in which his accolades for himself seem to outnumber those for “Scooter” by about 10-1.

Down - Insurance claims by civilian contractors, who return from Iraq and claim to be afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder. Let the companies pay for care out of their excessive profits.

Way up – Yours Truly, who, when asked last week by his wife to guess how many dimples there are in a golf ball, answered 342. (The correct answer is 336)<<<

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“In Washington, however, hypocrisy is a perennial crime in both parties; if all the city's hypocrites were put in jail, there would be no one left to run the government.” Frank Rich, NY Times<<<

News item: Palestinian group holding BBC correspondent threatens to kill him

Reaction: Make me Prime Minister and I would warn Hamas that if they kill our journalist, the UK will hold them responsible to the point of declaring war. Some things are worth going to war over. This is one of them.<<<

I’m no Albert E., but here is my formula for both inter and intra-societal tragedy. Take impoverished hopeless young men, mix in exploitive leaders and you produce an explosive reaction.<<<

Remember my vow to have ongoing comments on virtue and justice in America? Last week’s example of injustice centered on the Supreme Court. So does this week’s. It will not always be so, (especially since they will soon be on their summer break) but they do provide some vivid examples.

1. Keith Bowles, is serving a sentence of 15 years to life for murder.
2. He challenged his conviction in federal district court and lost.
3. A federal judge told Mr. Bowles that he had until Feb. 27 to appeal.
4. He filed the appeal on Feb. 26.
5. It turned out the judge made a mistake. The appeal should have been filed by Feb. 24.
6. Justice says that Bowles should not be penalized for a judge’s mistake.
7. Injustice ruled 5-4 that he should and denied his appeal.

If we don’t guarantee justice from the Supremes, who are at the top of the system, where in system or society can we expect it to prevail?<<<

From the Arizona Daily Star (6/15/07): “A former U.S. customs agent convicted of sexually exploiting a young girl over a two-year period was sentenced to 6,242 years in prison Thursday.”

Here’s hoping he lives out his entire sentence.<<<

And finally, a great Coach Wooden story:

One morning while eating at his favorite breakfast hangout, VIPs in the valley, a woman came up and asked him to autograph something for her. As Coach was signing his autograph, she sat down at his table, picked up a fork and started eating his pancakes. After she left, his dining companions quickly asked, “Who was that?” His reply – “I don’t know. I have never seen her before.”<<<

Nobody 700

Sunday, June 17, 2007
Nobody # 700

Nobody Asked Me But:

And so it ends – with neither a bang nor a whimper. Once more Tony Soprano struggled, once more he prevailed. Once more, this time for the final time, the audience was left to wonder – how long?

The feds are still trying to make their case. A. J. is still trying to get his act together. Tony and Carmela’s marriage has evolved into a stage of ambivalent love.

From the beginning, ambivalence was always the series theme: love and hate, violence and laughs, bangs and whimpers. Could it have gone out any other way? I don’t think so.

Perfect.<<<

Imagine if you will an administrator sent straight from Hell to Hale. He would do impossibly “evil” things like pick up a set of keys left in the front office by a teacher, hide them in his office all day while the frantic teacher looked for them and then give them back at day’s end telling the teacher that he was “teaching her a lesson in responsibility.” Or perhaps he would call two teachers “his possessions” and tell them to obey his commands or else.

You can drop the imagine part. The man is real and at work at my old school. I keep wanting to drop by some day and tell him that he is an as…, excuse me, I mean idiot, but my wife cautions me to stay out of it. She’s right ---- I guess.<<<<<<

Lead story from last Monday’s NY Times - U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies

“Commanders are arming groups that have promised to fight militants who have been their allies in the past.”

Two comments:

I will believe the promise of an Iraqi religious group whom we deposed from power at the same time that I believe my promise to lose 20 pounds.

Didn’t we arm Saddam twenty-something years ago to fight our battle with Iran? How did that work out? Let’s not set ourselves up again to have our own guns turned against us.<<<

Headline: Powell: “It's time to close Guantanamo”

Reaction: Gee, Colin, it would have been nice had you spoken out “yesterday.” You knew then that everything about the war was wrong. Had you resigned at the time, those very many people who respected and valued your opinion might have gained inspiration from your courage to dissent.<<<

Atheists Books.

Have you noticed that the names of all three authors who have published atheistic books this past year end in s?

Sam Harris - “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and The Future of Reason”
Richard Dawkins - “The God Delusion”
Christopher Hitchens – “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

Is it true that this is no coincidence, but rather a sign that they are all linked to sin and Satan?<<<

On fathers: “He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” Clarence Budington Kelland

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL AND A “WE MISS YOU A LOT DAD” TO THOSE OF US WHOSE FATHERS ARE NO LONGER WITH US!

I went to the dentist Thursday for a cleaning and routine x-rays. After the latter a new dentist came into the room, peered into my mouth and saw $1,200. Now he may be right, or he may be a new hire whose job is to up-sell work and increase profits. Who knows?

But these are the same teeth that Dr. Rosen has been looking at for several years, the same uncomfortable feeling in the one he crowned last year, the same missing chip from the upper front, the same everything. Nothing is new except that now they need expensive work where before they didn’t. As I said, who knows?

If I really need the work, I can’t complain. These teeth have been good to me for almost 73 years. But really being the key word, let’s hear it – all together now – WHO KNOWS!<<<

With recruiting a little slow right now, someone posted a thread on Bruin Report asking for opinions about the best scene in movie history. So, off the top of my head, and in no particular order, here are a few that should make the final cut. I am sure that I am forgetting many so feel free to jump in.

The interactions between Rick and Capt Renault in the closing scene of “Casablanca.”
The bicycle scene in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
The kiss in the rain scene in “The Quiet Man.”
The panning back scene showing the wounded in Atlanta in “Gone With The Wind.”
The taxi scene in “On The Waterfront.”
The walls of Jericho scene in “It happened One Night.”
The opening scene in “The Godfather,” when people come to pay their respect to Don Corleone.<<<

David Brooks, my favorite conservative columnist, thinks too many people “flee from discussions of substance and try to turn them into discussions of (the safer topic) process.” He wants less talk of technology and methods of communication and more about virtue and justice.

I’ll buy that. First, here are definitions of the words:

Virtue - the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong.
Justice - the quality of being honorable or fair.

Now we are ready to talk. I will make this a regular theme as part of this and future Nobodies. For today, let’s start with the recent Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Lily Ledbetter had worked for 19 years at the company’s plant in Gadsden, Ala., and was paid substantially less than men doing work at the same level. That she didn’t realize it for all that time is because Goodyear’s pay rates were not transparent. After a debate so heated that Justice Ruth Ginsberg read her dissent in court, the “Supremes” ruled by their usual 5-4 margin that Ledbetter’s suit was not “timely,” i.e. not filed within Alabama’s 180-day limit that dated from the original transgression.

Their decision was neither virtuous nor just. True, they ruled in accordance with the letter of the law but in so doing ignored their responsibility to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, both of which guarantee due process (fairness) not only in the administration of the law but in the law itself.

This is where the unholy four, five when Justice Kennedy joins them, so often fall short of virtue. By defining their role as being arbitrators only of the law and not of the overriding due process requirements upon which the law rests, they forfeit their right to be called Justices.<<<

Did you know: There are 268,000 millionaires in LA County and, no, I am not one of them.<<<

My book-loving Barbara enjoys softer mysteries that are usually categorized by the unflattering name of “cozies.” I much prefer this newer term “delicate but deadly.”<<<

On Senator Clinton's recent comment: "I believe we are safer than we were," I say, “Hillary, knock off the weed, it’s clouding your judgment.”<<<

I love these two pictures taken from this week’s Time Magizine of a young Bill Gates. The first is a 1977 mug shot of Bill after being arrested in New Mexico for speeding. In the second, Geniuses at Work, Gates, 13, is with his friend Paul Allen. The two would skip college, pass Go, found Microsoft and be worth $70 billion+ today. (Gates $50B+ and Allen, who sold off his part of Microsoft in the early 90s, between $15B and $20B)<<<

WOW! 700 Nobodies. When I wrote that first one 11 years ago, I had no idea that I would write 699 more and still be going strong. Thanks to all of you for reading those for which you had the time.

Numbers 1 and 2 are lost somewhere in cyberspace, so I thought I would show those of you who were not “present at the creation”

April 21, 1996
Nobody # 3

Nobody Asked Me But:

Teaching hatred and prejudice should be considered a form of child abuse. Certainly the long-term psychological harm rivals that of sexual abuse. Why not remove children from such an environment?

Add on: At the very least, parents and/or siblings of legal age should be held criminally and financially responsible for harm done by those they have taught, not wisely, but so well.<<<

The four great tragedies about the Simpson-Brown murders were:
(1) the victims themselves,
(2) the effect on the families, especially the children,
(3) the fact that the killer was found innocent and
(4) all the money that has been made off the brutal killings, most specifically the book money paid to the various lawyers and jurors.

There still needs to be some kind of limits placed on the right of defense lawyers to introduce implausible theories for the sole purpose of confusing jurors and, thereby, introducing a "reasonable" doubt. Yes, they need to give their client the best possible defense, but they, too, should be sworn to seek justice.<<<

Add on: perhaps no alternative theories should be allowed unless supported by some substantial degree of hard or circumstantial evidence. Of course, a definition of substantial would have to be agreed to, but that is not an impossible task. It would certainly be a step towards a search for truth as opposed to "get my client off at all costs.<<<

What Dan Rostenkowski did was both unethical and wrong. However, I have a tough time believing he should spend jail time for crimes no different than many, if not most, of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. While the law and rules are not new, the punishment almost seems a kind of legal ex post facto. Isn't it better to start fresh and announce, "this is the line drawn in the sand. Anyone who crosses it from this point on gets neither sympathy nor pardon."<<<

Some choices are truly Hobsen's with excruciating pain on either side. This said, I would have had no choice but to do what David Kaczynski did. Even the flesh of my flesh cannot be protected when the lives of innocents are at stake.<<<

One of the joys and responsibilities of a society is to help its members when disaster strikes. Remember the tradition of barn raising in early America when a fire or storm would strike a neighbor. Why then is Congress so reluctant to pass a disaster law so that we all share the financial responsibility when natural disasters occur. Everyone should be responsible enough to do that which is in their power to protect themselves, but when the destruction exceeds the ability of its victims to handle it, society, through the government, should have an already-in-place safety net much the way FDIC protects those who save their money.<<<

Life IS too short to drink cheap wine, so, like us last night, try a bottle of 1973 Freemark Abbey Cabernet. Incredible<<<

Nobody 699

Sunday, June 10, 2007
Nobody # 699

Nobody Asked Me But:

Buttermilk is for coffeecake, not coffee. Elizabeth and Emily really liked Barb’s two freshly baked coffeecakes, but when my daughter accidentally took the wrong container from the refrigerator and added buttermilk to her second cup of coffee yesterday morning she quickly decided that it was a taste that she had no interest in acquiring.

We all had such a great time together the past four days. Coming back from the airport we stopped at the Farmer’s Market and the Grove. Emily had been to neither and Elizabeth only to the FM as a young girl. They loved them both – except for my singing along with the fountain music at the Grove. And I thought that would be a highlight.

Then Thursday we went to the movies and saw “Gracie,” which in case you don’t know, is a “Rocky” type about a girl playing on the boy’s soccer team. We thought it was very good except that Emily didn’t much like the kissing scenes and held her hands over her eyes during those parts.

On Friday we went birthday shopping for Em. Her 11th birthday is not until the 27th but it was fun watching her shop at her favorite stores and pick out her own gifts.

Friday night we watched a re-run of “The Karate Kid” (another “Rocky” clone) on television and enjoyed everything that didn’t get cut for commercials.

Yesterday we drove the two E’s to Irvine so that Elizabeth could visit a close friend and see her new baby. Barb and I explored for the three hours and then picked them up for the trip back to LAX and a sad good-bye.<<<

Headline: Immigration bill fails key test, is withdrawn. Once more those we elect prove the truism - after all is said and done, much more gets said than done.

It is too bad because immigration reform is a priority and the original bill, although flawed, was a step in the right direction. But its opponents, mostly on the right but joined by a few on the too-far left, deliberately amended it to death.<<<

And while on the subject of my brethren of the left, I am once again scornful of their pandering to political correctness. Eighty-four percent of Americans say that English should be our “national language,” i.e., the official language of government operations. Seventy-one percent of Hispanics, the group most affected, agree. But Senate Majority leader, Harry Reed, in a brain-dead moment, called an amendment to make this the law “racist.”

Once more I find myself DIMD – disappointed in my Democrats.<<<

In a rare public discussion of her husband's infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God. No, no. Et Tu Hillary.<<<

Did you know that when Woodrow Wilson, first saw W. D. Griffith’s KKK-loving epic, “Birth Of A Nation,” he rejoiced saying this was “like history written with lightning.”

This is one of our great Presidents? I don’t think so.<<<

Did you know?

Manhattanhenge (also sometimes inaccurately referred to as Manhattan Solstice) is a biannual occurrence in which the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s main street grid. The term is derived from Stonehenge, at which the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices. It was coined in 2002 by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History.

The dates of Manhattanhenge are usually May 28 and July 12 or July 13. The two corresponding mornings of sunrise right on the center lines of the Manhattan grid are approximately December 5 and January 8 (as with the solstices and equinoxes, the dates vary somewhat from year to year).<<<

Hank Williams did not know that he was composing George Bush’s national anthem when he wrote his song, “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used To Do?”

Our tremendous wealth and power have long made other nations and people envious but our innate goodness also made us respected, admired and even loved – never more so than on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Now, just short of six years later, in a recent global survey most countries believed that China would act more responsibility in the world than would the United States.

How did this appalling thing happen? How did we fall so far so fast? It happened because we elected the most arrogant administration in American history* and then, in our post-9/11 fear, gave them a blank check to bully our enemies, our friends and even our Constitution. The Bush/Cheney arrogance seemingly has no limits. When they are proven wrong they lie in order to create their own reality. When their power is threatened, they play on the American people’s fear of terrorism. This is in itself a perversion, since their attitudes and actions have increased the terrorist threat. There are more people in the world today that would, if they could, do harm to America than there were on 9/11.

So, what can we do to again make our nation more respected than feared? Certainly not elect another Republican in 2008. I was repelled during the recent debate among the Republican candidates that, when not fighting over who could be the most anti-immigrant, (McCain excepted) most of the candidates followed the lead of Mayor Rudy by trying to scare Americans into voting for them by continuing to promote a climate of internal fear.

1. We can establish a date for withdrawal from Iraq – one that gives the Iraqis, their neighbors and the UN fair warning that we will not be permanent residents there nor continue to sacrifice American lives for a lost cause.

2. We can show the Arab world that, while our support for Israel’s existence is unconditional, our support for their policies are dependent on their moral and legal correctness.

3. We can demonstrate to the entire world that our commitment to the Constitution is not a convenience reserved for times of peace.

Number three is why, during the recent debate among Democratic candidates, I most appreciated Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd’s answer to the question, what would be your first priority if elected President in 2008?

Dodd replied, ''Restore constitutional rights in this country.''<<<

WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME - Words and music by Hank Williams, Sr.

Well, why don't you love me like you used to do?
How come you treat me like a worn out shoe?
My hair's still curly and my eyes are still blue.
Why don't you love me like you used to o?

Well, why don't you be just like you used to be?
How come you find so many faults with me?
Somebody's changed so let me give you a clue.
Why don't you love me like you used to do?

Nobody 698

Sunday, June 3, 2007
Nobody 698

Nobody Asked Me But:

I'm going to lay down my sword and shield,
Down by the riverside!
Down by the riverside!
Down by the riverside!
I'm going to lay down my sword and shield,
Down by the riverside!
And I ain't gonna study war no more!


"The terrorists moved into George Bush’s Iraq, not Saddam Hussein’s." - Maureen Dowd (emphasis mine)

I am disappointed that the Democrats did not make a stronger stand on the funding bill for the Iraqi War. They have the numbers and should have passed their original bill with a timeline for the withdrawal of our troops. Then, following the Bush veto, they should have passed the funding bill that the President demanded, making clear both their support for the troops and their belief that we should get out of this disaster as soon as possible.

I know that pre-election years are like the golden rule of medicine (first, do no harm) with "to yourself" added. And, of course, for Representatives every year is either an election year or a pre-election year, which means they do very little. But, in this case, most of the people back home are clamoring for an end to the war, so their vote would have been both right and politically safe. But most were once more cowardly lions.

And, climbing back up on my soapbox, I will say again that it is time to amend the Constitution in such a way as to give representatives 4-year terms, so that their political life is more than a never-ending campaign for reelection.<<<

To add to the tragedy, the Iraqi government that we put in place is playing Bush like a cheap violin. While Americans and innocent Iraqis are dying in ever increasing numbers, Iraqi leaders are getting ready for their two-month vacations.<<<

CNN -- Cindy Sheehan, (left)saying that “her son died "for nothing," declared Monday she was walking away from the peace movement. She is unhappy with the failure of the Democrats in Congress to do more, but what is even more telling is her charge that the peace movement itself "often puts personal egos above peace and human life."

This is the problem with the leadership of most movements. Once they get rolling, cause takes second place.

Luckily there are exceptions. Too bad they are few and only prove the rule. One example from a different cause was the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a “saint,” while pretenders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are hacks.<<<

I have never believed in the adage that says that hard work won’t kill you, but I was forced to put my life on the line this past week. Elizabeth and Emily, (left) who just finished elementary school two weeks ago (and yes, they grow up far too fast) are coming for a 4-day visit this Wednesday, which immediately shifted my wife into her “honey do” mood. You know the drill – “honey do the windows, honey dig the planting holes, honey, you missed this speck of dust under this stack of books.” To be fair, her own work assignments are even harder than those she delegates to moi.

I have been busy, and the truth is that at the end of each day my body feels better than when I spend it at the computer or reading or eating ice cream.

So maybe by avoiding physical labor I have been missing something all my life. Then again, maybe not.<<<

On the subject of graduation, congratulations to grandson Alec (left, with his dad) who graduated from high school, also two weeks ago, and will be off to Arizona State University in September.<<<

From Hugh, about a round of golf he played over the Memorial Day weekend:

"I Played terribly but did hit enough good shots to return for more in maybe a couple of weeks."

Pardon my semi-alliteration, but isn’t this is the golden rule of the gods of golf? Allow those who are not Tigers to make just enough good shots to keep them coming back for more, to keep searching for that lifetime low score at the end of the rainbow?<<<

Back to politics.

The national Republicans, rather than stealing a page from their California cousins, are taking the whole damn playbook – better to die on one’s sword of “principle” then “just win elections, baby,” especially if it means granting citizenship to all those illegals. Or, as Admiral Farragut Pullen, (below left)the Arizona State Republican Party Chairman famously said last week, “Damn the Mexicans and full speed to the right.”

Remember how James Madison feared the development of factions within the new American political scene – until he became the co-founder of one, that is? He would have a cow if he could play the fly on the wall at Republican Party meetings. (And, in case you are wondering, yes, cows and flies do have a close relationship.) Here’s what he would hear from the latest factions in the Grand Old Party:

On Immigration:

Get rid of all illegals and close the border except when our farm/business Republicans need cheap labor.
vs.
We need to make those illegals legal and turn them into Republicans.

On the Iraqi War:

The war in Iraq is good because it is part of our mission to spread democracy and get more oil.
vs.
I wish we weren’t there, but we can’t cut and run.
vs.
Get the hell out now.

On abortion:

Just say no to all abortions.
vs.
Some abortions are necessary evils.

On the budget:

Don’t tax, don’t spend.
vs.
Don’t tax but spend.
vs.
I thought we always believed in a balanced budget.

On settling internal differences.

Compromise for the good of the party.
vs.
Our morality or we sit on our hands on voting day.<<<

As for the frontrunner for the party’s candidate for president, I give the edge to Romney, the former moderate, who now never meets a social conservative opinion that he doesn’t like.

Which begs the question, is there such a thing as an evangelical Mormon?<<<

Answers and questions for the week – you know the drill. I first supply and answer and then a question to go with it.

A - That would be a waste of money.
Q - Will you give me a penny for my thoughts?

A - Perhaps when you are older.
Q - I’m almost 73. Will I ever be mature?

Any questions to submit? Big prizes for the best.

A spot for pot

A Trinity College philosophy professor was authorized to openly smoke marijuana on campus. The teacher had been smoking for over ten years as a therapeutic treatment for a chronic health condition, but he only revealed his pot use to school administrators this past semester. In order to help him, the school provided a ventilated smoking room in the basement of a building. Trinity College said the idea came from hearing about a similar room that the Portland Trail Blazers have in the basement of the Rose Garden.

This certainly gives a new meaning to “being high on the Blazers.”<<<

On those nights when you just can’t fall asleep, do you ever wonder:

Why train whistles at night always sound lonely and mournful? Not so in the daytime?

or

Why smooth peanut butter is cheaper than nutty?<<<

The big story last week in the City of the Angels was about the summer replacement for the popular television series “24.”Also happening in real time, it is a new daily comedy/drama series, “Kobe and the Busses.” It’s all very avant-guard, being simulcast on television and radio and with heroes and villains so ambiguous that the fan can choose either side to root for.

I’m a Kobe man myself. He is still a very young 29, which makes him talk too much, but at least he tells the truth. And his complaints are no different than those of most Laker fans. The franchise is slipping and the power people seem to be inept. Owner Jerry has completely surrendered to his playboy side leaving the day-to-day personnel decisions to son Jim, who is in over his head, and general manager Mitch Kupchuck, either the same or completely handcuffed by Jim.

I think that if daughter Jeanie, who once bared her “soul” in a Playboy spread, and her boyfriend, coach Phil (I warned you that this was part comedy) were in charge things would be different. But they are not.

Will Kobe stay or go? Will Dr. Jerry give up his toy-girls, resume control and fix this mess – a difficult task without the guidance of Jerry West? If not, will the fat-wallet fans continue to pay very big bucks for a mediocre product and will the average Laker-lover like me stop caring.

My two cents: Keep Kobe, make a bold move or two no matter the cost, and DROP THE TRIANGLE OFFENSE.

Stay tuned.<<<

And finally, the headline of the week:

DeLay: My Adultery Was "Different" Than Gingrich's.

Pretty kinky, Tom.<<<