Nobody 715

Sunday, October 14, 2007
Nobody 715

Nobody Asked Me But:

Another day, another shooting spree at a school. It’s pretty old hat by now, so why the surprise? Why the wringing of hands? America loves guns! America makes it easy for anyone who wants a gun to get one. Guns kill!

We defend the Second Amendment with the lives of our children. So why the surprise?<<<

Headline: Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers

Reaction: GUTLESS! GUTLESS! GUTLESS! The Republicans have no conscience. The Democrats have no guts. Third parties have no chance. Where does an outraged voter go?

Hopefully a Democratic President will lead a Democratic Congress to higher ground. But it is easy see why, when polled, the voters consistently rate our lawmakers even lower than a failed President.<<<

I think that Bob Herbert, in the NY Times, with a little help from Stephen Sondheim, describes perfectly both parties in Congress:

But where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Don't bother they're here.<<<

Arthur Schlesinger Jr., while testifying before a subcommittee during the preliminary stages of the Clinton impeachment: “Gentlemen always lie about their sex lives.”<<<

If there were a God, mental exercise would do double duty – help both the body and the mind to stay fit.<<<

I am sure that all of you know that President Ford played football at the University of Michigan, but did you know:

That he turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers to play pro ball at $220 per game.<<<

“I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.” George, Mr. Sensitive, Bush<<<

On October 7, Hugh wrote:

Friday night was a great October evening. Cool and with a gentle wind
blowing when I left school late in the afternoon. It brought back memories
of past fall evenings, football and Halloween.

My reply:

I love those evenings. Fall is my favorite season. When I was a teen, we used to play tackle football on the Fisher Body lawn in Flint, Michigan - red and gold leaves scattered all around. With no padding. It is a miracle that we didn't kill ourselves.<<<

LOOKING BACK – PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the high and low points in the term of each president starting with Roosevelt.

Roosevelt – 1933-1945
HP – The New Deal
LP – Indifference to the European Jews who were fleeing Hitler

Truman – 1945-1953
HP – The Marshall Plan/Truman Doctrine – although ordering the integration of our armed forces was almost as special
LP – I would say dropping the bomb without some kind of warning to the Japanese, but the one that would be more generally agreed upon is cronyism

Eisenhower – 1953-1961
HP – His farewell warning about the dangers of the military/industrial complex
LP – His indifference to integration

Kennedy – 1961-1963
HP – Camelot - making the Presidency special again
LP – The Bay of Pigs

Johnson – 1963-1969
HP – The Civil Rights Act of 1964/65
LP – Vietnam

Nixon 1969-1974
HP – Tearing down the wall between China and the United States
LP – Everything else

Ford – 1974-1977
HP – He reestablished trust
LP – 2 ½ years of nothing else

Carter – 1977-1981
HP – Brokered the Camp David talks between Israel and Egypt – a rare success in negotiating peace in the Middle East
LP - Suffered from the same malaise he found in the country

Reagan – 1981-1989
HP - Willingness to negotiate with the “Evil Empire”
LP – Encouraged/tolerated too many “Ollie North type” loose cannons to ignore the Constitution

Bush I – 1989-1993
HP – Spoke of “1,000 points of light”
LP – He lit none of them

Clinton – 1993-2001
HP – Helped Democrats rediscover the political middle
LP – Even though compromise is the essence of politics, he did it too easily

Bush II 2001-2009
HP –
LP – His arrogance of power

As always, I invite your comments on this.

LOOKING BACK – BASEBALL

You know about the remarkable finish that the Colorado Rockies had to their regular season, as winning 14 of their last 15 games. But did you know that 1965 Dodgers topped that? They won 15 out of their last 16, and 8 of those were shutouts. Sandy Koufax pitched 3 complete-game shutouts and Don Drysdale 2. AND in another shutout, Koufax pitched the 9th inning for a save.<<<

LOOKING FORWARD – BASEBALL

(Written Thursday morning, so there is no cheating here.) This year’s two LCS are among the closest match-ups in a very long time. Both are almost u-pick-ums. So I will.

National League – The Rockies have better hitting and, aside from the Diamondback’s Brandon Webb, the pitching match-ups are close. But Webb, who may pitch 3 games, is a difference maker. And no team can stay hot much longer than the Rockies have in winning 17 of their last 18 games. So Webb and the law of averages mean an Arizona victory in 7 games.

American League- I am leery of Cleveland pitching. No team has a better set of top of the rotation pitchers. But Boston can match one of the two with Josh Beckett. And the rest of the Red Sox line-up gets a slight edge, so I say the Sox in 7.<<<

Add on – an amazing fact: The Diamondbacks finished with the best record in the league despite scoring fewer total runs than their opponents.<<<

Did you know: That if you apply today for a season ticket to watch the Green Bay Packers you will be number 74,659 on the waiting list and will get it in 37 years?<<<

I am anxious to get my first look at Stephen Colbert, “I Am America: And So Can You,” especially the chapter on higher education. In it he writes about a favorite course “Ethnic Stereotypes and the Humor of Cruelty” (“A professor will tell you a bunch of hilarious jokes, and you’re not allowed to laugh”).<<<

If you had a chance to read the David Brook column I sent, you know that current thinking is that the old 4-stage life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age) has changed to 6 stages (childhood, adolescence, odyssey, adulthood, active retirement and old age).

I think that a part of odyssey phase can be defined as a search-for-oneself period that delays adulthood/maturity. With that in mind, I would make one change.

In my opinion, many men used to, and some still do, go through their odyssey phase in their 40s. I know that I did. So these lives would have had 6 stages then and seven now with retirement added - childhood, adolescence, pseudo- adulthood, odyssey, adulthood, retirement and old age.

Thoughts?<<<

Today’s wisdom from the past comes from Adam Smith’s “Wealth OF Nations.”

"Were the expense of war to be defrayed always by a revenue raised within the year ... wars would in general be more speedily concluded, and less wantonly undertaken." <<<

The fact that USC suffered one of the worst losses in college football history and dropped only 6 spots shows once more that the C should be dropped from BCS.<<<

And if this is not the dumbest sports statement of the 21st Century, it is very close. It was in Bill Plaschke’s LA Times column Wednesday:

“He (Pete Carroll) is arguably the best coach in college football history.”

Carroll is an excellent coach but before he can even claim a place in the top 10, he must pass the test of time.<<<

This is the first time I have seen this word usage and I love it.

(You supply the name) seems very good at obviating the obvious.<<<