Nobody 831

Sunday, August 29, 2010
Nobody 831

Nobody Asked Me But:

Thursday morning: So where are the trombones? I said good-bye to Mr. 75 last night. If 76 is just as good to me personally, I will have no complaints. So let me begin my new year by wishing health and happiness to my family and friends.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to Starbucks for an iced Americano.<<<

Same day – later, at UCLA for pre-football dinner in Wilson Plaza: I overheard God, at the next table, confessing that he really grew restless on the 7th day, and wanting to create something special, something of breathtaking beauty, he designed the Bruin campus.<<<

The picture above is of your author enjoying ice cream in New England, which he plans to do again very soon.<<<

Like Abraham Lincoln and Dr. King, I too dream of a better America where people like Glen Beck will be seen for who they really are, liars and racists.<<<

It pains me to say this, if political stupidity could be bottled and sold, every Democratic politician would be richer than sin.

One small example - Democrats passed one of the most important pieces of legislation since 1965, the health care bill, but, instead of selling it as such, they have been running scared ever since. They are so quiet about it, that one would think it is a national security issue. (Actually it is – the good kind of national security.)<<<

FYI: By far the most dangerous American job is being a fisherman, which has 200 fatalities per 100,000. Runner-up is logging with 61.8 fatalities per 100,000.<<<

Reading or listening to the Rad Right always reminds me of former NY Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

My quote of the week comes from Maureen Dowd whom I have neglected lately. In a column last week, she described President Obama as “a rational man running a most irrational nation, a high-minded man in a low-minded age.”<<<

I just finished Three Stations, the new Martin Cruz Smith novel about Moscow police inspector Arkady Renko. It is an excellent book, both for its story and its insights about Moscow under capitalism. Or, as one character says about the shrinking number of Moscow millionaires since the recession, “We don’t know how to run capitalism, but, as it turns out, neither do the capitalists.”

In one telling scene an upper middle class woman berates Renko for parking his Lada in her neighborhood, because “it will ruin property values.”<<<

Two things I can’t stand in modern America:

Self-dramatizing journalists – who create the story and/or makes themselves the center of it, and

The coarsening of our society by our accepting such ads as this one in Sunday’s LA Times that proclaims in large type that the new season of Weeds grabs “Monday by the balls.”<<<

TOMATO SOUP

Tomato is no longer the ugly duckling among soups. Even Campbell, with their tomato bisque, puts out an above average version. But if you want great TS you need to get into your car or on a plane. Here are my top 4 versions listed from closest to most distant:

Boudin Bakery – This small chain of San Francisco based bread boys makes a wonderful roasted garlic tomato soup. And you do not have to go to the Bay Area to get it, because they have a restaurant next to the Barnes and Noble that is just west of South Coast Plaza.

Ballard Hotel – Ballard is a tiny village between Solvang and Los Olivos. The hotel has an excellent restaurant that serves an outstanding tomato soup with thin rounds of garlic toast floating on top.

Bistro Jeanty – This restaurant, one of my favorites, (and a favorite of local chefs too) is in Yountville, a great eating town in the center of Napa Valley. Their TS is served with a puff pastry cover and is wonderful.

Sara Beth - Sara Beth’s is a small bakery located in the old Nabisco Building in Greenwich Village (NYC) that is home to The Food Channel. She also has a café in Lord and Taylor, which is where we discovered her Fresh Tomato Soup. The name tells it all – pieces of fresh tomato, in a delicious TS flavored with garlic and many other fine seasonings. (Oh, and if you do not have time to fly to NYC, there is still a pint in our freezer, out of the three my wife had shipped for my Christmas present.)<<<

Signs of the Hypocralipse:

Right Radicals who are absolutists on the Second Amendment, think the Freedom of Religion guaranteed by the First Amendment is open to limitation.<<<

Famed football coach Bobby Bowdin, in his just-published book, says he was called to coaching by God. I am suspicious about whether it was really God, because the caller reversed the charges.<<<

Foyle's War – I have always wanted to watch this series. Thanks Hugh, for lending it to us. Chief inspector Christopher Foyle investigates murder in Southern England during the early years of WW II. He is often faced with the difficult choices and moral dilemmas that go with a nation at war. Since I love pondering both, I am becoming addicted to the series.

Here is an example: In the first show the Chief Inspector determines that a man vital to Britain's war effort has committed two murders. He does the right thing by arresting the man but later admits that he had, at least for a moment, considered letting the man go.

I am strange. (Don’t even think about agreeing.) In many things I am a moral relativist, but in this I was absolute. Neither murder had any redeeming social value. The motives were selfish. The killer was a bastard. The High command will have to find somebody else to break the German codes.

Second show, second example: The White Feather is about a fascist group in England. Towards the end, the leader gives an impassioned speech about loving his country too but not wanting them to sacrifice British lives in a wrong cause. Foyle, who has a son in the RAF, seems, for a moment, to listen and treat the argument with respect. But it doesn’t deserve even that moment’s respect, because this man is violently anti-Semitic and those who hate without good reason are evil. Thank goodness, at the end, Foyle sided with me. I knew I liked the guy.<<<

Action: LA Times columnist Chris Erskine, writing about a trip to Paris, reported being hustled by a hooker in front of Starbucks. Reaction: I wonder if the lady borrowed the old stewardess line, “Coffee, tea or me?<<<

LA Times sports columnist T. J. Simers crossed the line this past week. He was writing about ex-Dodger pitcher, Dave Stewart who is now the agent for the Dodger’s underperforming centre fielder, Matt Kemp. Simers correctly criticized Stewart for his “Kemp can do nothing wrong” stand but was off base to include this sentence: “No idea what Stewart has against L.A. because he was known in his time here to just pick someone off the street and immediately befriend them.”

Yes, when Stewart pitched for the Dodgers he was rumored to be gay, but Simers’ shot was off-the-chart mean-spirited, even for him.<<<

Action – Indianapolis: Certified nursing assistant Brenda Chaney found an elderly lady on the floor of the nursing home where she worked. But Brenda could not give aid, because of the woman’s instructions that she only be helped by a white caregiver.

Reaction: Lay, lady, lay!

Action: “We will take the civil rights movement back, because we were the people who did it in the first place.” Glen Beck

Reaction: I am shocked! I did not know that Beck was black.<<<

Here are the three questions I want to leave you with this week: Why are we here? What does life mean? Are premium gins really better than cheaper ones?






















































































































































































Nobody # 830

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Nobody # 830

Nobody Asked Me But:

The more I think about it, the more I am sure that Howard Beale was right. And, like him, “I’m mad as hell and I am not going to take it any more.”

DAMN IT BARACK – stop equivocating and get on message!

I can understand your political ambivalence about the Islamic center close to 9/11’s Ground Zero. But make up your mind. You have 3 choices. (1) Yes, religious freedom guarantees this right. (2) No, it doesn’t. (3) This is a close call, and I haven’t made up my mind yet. Numbers 1 and 2 are the decisive responses, which most Americans want from their president. Number 3 is weak. And contradicting yourself overnight is the weakest of all – especially when your reason for doing it is political expediency.<<<

One of the reasons many give for opposing the center is because Abdul Rauf once said that U.S. foreign policy was “an accessory to the crime of 9/11.”

Guess what? He’s right.

Don’t misunderstand me. The Islamic terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 was both evil and wrong. But, in the decades prior to 9/11, United States policies in and towards the Islamic world were sometimes wrong to the point of being immoral, and gave, not legitimacy, but excuse to the terrorists.<<<

Action: Here’s the Newter on Arab emulation - "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.”

Reaction: Freedom of religion is a weakness?

Reaction # 2: Tolerance is a weakness?

Reaction # 3: It sounds like Newt is a (not-so) secret admirer of Arab intolerance or, to paraphrase two lines out Harry Chapin, “He wants to be like them, boy, you know he wants to be like them.”

One of the people Newt, and other Republican leaders are listening to in this debate to is blogger Pam Geller. Ah, yes, this is the same Pam Geller who promoted the view that Obama is Malcolm X’s love child.

THE ISLAMIC CENTER - THE BOTTOM LINE

Newt and company join with the neoconservatives in not really believing in American values. They see them as idealistic and weak, deserving only lip-service support.<<<

A TALE OF TWO PRODUCTIONS

I finally watched the over praised AA nominee from last year, Inglorious Bastards, last week. I thought it was mediocre enough to consider erasing it from my DVR at mid-point, but good enough that I didn’t.

I watched the Lincoln Center’s superb production of South Pacific last week on PBS and did not want it to end.<<<

The host for South Pacific was Alan Alda. Some of you may know that his father, Robert Alda was a Broadway star. A few of you may even remember that he was the original Sky Masterson in Guys And Dolls. But I’ll bet that none of you know that his real name was Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D’Abruzzo.<<<

GOOGLE AGAIN

The Giuseppe in Robert Alda’s name reminded me of a poem we studied in 8^th grade English that delighted me and that I had never seen since. So I googled Giuseppe the barber, and there it was. And here it is:

Mia Carlotta, written in 1916 by Thomas Augustine Daily

GIUSEPPE, da barber, ees greata for "mash,"

He gotta da bigga, da blacka mustache,

Good clo'es an' good styla an' playnta good cash.

W'enevra Giuseppe ees walk on da street,

Da peopla dey talka, "how nobby! how neat!

How softa da handa, how smalla da feet."

He raisa hees hat an' he shaka hees curls,

An' smila weeth teetha so shiny like pearls;

O! many da heart of da seelly young girls

He gotta.

Yes, playnta he gotta—

But notta

Carlotta!

Giuseppe, da barber, he maka da eye,

An' lika da steam engine puffa an' sigh,

For catcha Carlotta w'en she ees go by.

Carlotta she walka weeth nose in da air,

An' look through Giuseppe weeth far-away stare,

As eef she no see dere ees som'body dere.

Giuseppe, da barber, he gotta da cash,

He gotta da clo'es an' da bigga mustache,

He gotta da seely young girls for da "mash,"

But notta—

You bat my life, notta—

Carlotta.

I gotta!

Two views on the LA Times series in which teachers are publicly evaluated based on their student’s standardized test score improvement:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan supports the series asking, "What is there to hide?"

Diane Ravitch, a former federal education official and author of the bestselling book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education" says "I thought it was disgraceful," "There was a fundamental meanness about [the story] that turned my stomach."

I’m with Diane. Whatever the merits of the evaluation plan, what is to be gained by publicly humiliating teachers whose students, for bad reasons or good, failed to improve or failed to improve as much as those in another classroom? If it is to be used as part of the evaluation process, it should be limited to teacher, administrator, student and parents.<<<

Mr. President – What is your core belief about “Don’t ask, don’t tell?”

Obama – “Don’t ask, because I won’t tell.”<<<

Confusing quote of the week:

“Every night on the court I give my all, and if I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself,” LeBron James

Say again LeBron? If you give 100% every time, then why do you ever need to criticize yourself for not giving 100%?<<<

Signs of the Hypocralipse:

Isn’t there something contradictory between being a Born-again Christian and listing Las Vegas as one’s favorite city to visit?<<<

John McCain and other Republican leaders are calling for Obama to heed the public will by not supporting the Islamic Center, and, at the same time,

John McCain and other Republican leaders are calling for Obama to ignore the public will by continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<<<

Breaking news – pictures at 10: A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.<<<

Tee-shirt sighting – My Indian name is yes dear. Which leads me to he who laughs last:

This summer I found some Calvin Klein shorts with a mid-calf length that is perfect. So I bought them in two colors. Having passed on a third color, navy, and with them being in short (no pun intended) supply, Barb found and reserved a pair for me at Macy’s in Burbank. We stopped to get them yesterday and, to my surprise, they also had my size in a fourth color – a beige. I told my wife, “I think I need these.” “You already have that color,” she pointed out. Ah, ha, the I’m finally going to be right trap was sprung. It just so happens I had looked at the disputed shorts the night before and they were not beige but bone. We debated for a few minutes, and then I said I was going to buy them and that I was so sure I was right (this time) that, if wrong, I would give her foot rubs for life. Fat chance.

So when we got home I headed for the closet, grabbed and waved at her my ………beige shorts.

Excuse me. I have to wind this up. I am scheduled to give a foot rub in five minutes.<<<

Nobody 829

Sunday, August 15, 2010
Nobody # 829

Nobody Asked Me But:

We had an excellent day over the hill this past Wednesday. (The destination was over the hill, not yours truly.) We started at Huckleberry Bakery. Their stuff is great and WOW expensive. We ordered a strawberry tart but blanched when the register rang up $15. When we pointed out that it was marked $7.50 in the case, the cashier’s response was, “Oh, that’s just the price to look at it.” So we ended up eating leftover crumbs on the table – but they were delicious crumbs.

(Note: The above picture of the author was taken a few days ago.)

ALL ABOUT HONOR

Fareed Zakaria - Man of Honor

Zakaria writes a weekly political column for Newsweek. He is thought by many to be one of the best foreign policy minds in the United States. Five years ago he was awarded the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize by the Anti-Defamation League and was “thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired,” one whose mission statement was “to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”

But now the ADL has a new mission that doesn’t fit with its stated ideals. They are sleeping with the enemy, working with the Right, to prevent the Islamic center from being built two blocks from Ground Zero.

Because of this, Zakaria has returned “both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it,” and has urged the ADL “to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation.”

In this era of self-promoting journalism, it is both rare and thrilling to find a Fareed Zakaria.<<<

MORE ON HONOR Honorable congressmen of the Week – (Note: This award is given only occasionally due to a lack of qualifiers. It is very rare to have two in one week and the fact that both are South Carolina Republicans could almost be considered a sign of the apocalypse.)

“Why do I have to see Democrats as my enemies? I've got Al Qaeda. I've got the Taliban. I've got enough enemies. I'm supposed to call this President despicable? The people who are despicable are the ones who constantly mislead the public in the interest of selling books. Or themselves. And always cloaking themselves in patriotism. Shame on them." Representative Bob Inglls

"She (new SC justice Donna Kagan) is not someone I would have chosen, but it is not my job to choose. It is President Obama's job. He earned that right." Sen. Lindsey Graham.

But Lindsey has to immediately return half of his award for his support of rewriting the 14th Amendment – and for associating on this proposal with John McCain who, in recent years, has rejected the very concept of honor.<<<

Characteristics of a just world:

For Barbara – There would be a shoe store with every style and model next to Pie N Burger.
For me - Plumarias would blossom and scent our back yard year round.<<<

Here are two terrible questions faced by those we send into battle:

1. After what I've done in the war, do I deserve to be happy?
2. After what I saw in the war, can I believe in a world that makes moral sense?<<<

I am reading another book by a British writer (“Restless,” by William Boyd) and, as always, I love some of the phrasing. In describing the way a character gardened, Boyd writes – “She planted close and pruned hard.”

I also continue to be pleasured by British names for things, as in phone cabin for phone booth and phrases such as “she stood on her half-smoked cigarette” and “he too was a widow.”

I was also intrigued by Boyd’s mentioning Mateus Rose, which was my first regular wine – until I discovered that pink is a poor excuse for red.<<<

On to Norway where face can mean nerve, guts, etc – as in “You wouldn’t have the face to ask him that.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK – VOTE HERE

"I hear these people saying he's [Obama's] like George Bush," Gibbs (White House aide) told the paper. "Those people ought to be drug tested."

"Someone needs to go to Washington and knock the hell out of the plase." Ben Quayle (Dan’s son)<<<

Ponce de Leon had the right idea but the wrong state. The Fountain of Youth is on Tampa (perhaps that is what confused him) Street in Northridge in a place called Marie Callender’s. I know this, because I felt years younger eating there Wednesday night, in that Barb and I were kids compared to most of the other diners. And my chili size was very good.<<<

HISTORY CORNER Johnny Cochran Junior High – yes, that is a strange choice for a name, even if “the glove guy” did attend the school – sits on the site of Wyatt Earp’s last home. (4004 W. 17th Street) I used to be an Earp fan, but then I found out he was a lifetime Republican. But just to show that it is never too late to “see the light,” (Hugh) his last vote was cast for Democrat Al Smith. (Wyatt liked it that Smith favored repealing prohibition.)

When the school was built, Wyatt’s house was moved across the street. (Yes, it’s that green one.)<<<

BORN TOO SOON – If the Internet had come along even 10 years earlier, Barbara’s dad and my mom, both of whom had a an intense curiosity and a love of learning, would have been avid browsers.

Four writers who have long covered the NFL recently listed their choices for the all-time top five running backs. I combined their votes awarding 5 points for a first place vote, 4 for second and so on. Here, with point totals is their consensus top 5.

Barry Sanders 16
Walter Payton 16
Jim Brown 9
Emmitt Smith 7
Eric Dickerson 4

My list would put Sanders all alone in first, move Brown up to second and insert the great Chicago Bears open-field magician Gayle Sayers into the four spot between Payton and Smith.<<<

And this just in about Sharron Angle, Nevada’s to-the-right-of-Tea-Party Senate candidate:

"Sharron is the poster girl for Christ," said friend Sally Shaw, "and if you support Jesus Christ's values, you're labeled as extreme."

Reaction: WOW! I didn’t know that Jesus was an avid supporter of the Second Amendment?<<<

Action: A Long Beach Superior Court judge sentenced a youth convicted of carrying out a murder, to avenge his younger brother’s slaying, to 255 years and eight months to life in prison Friday.

Reaction: See! We don’t need a death penalty. My bet is that when he gets out he will be a changed man.

Reaction # 2: I think that by adding the 8 months, the judge’s sentence becomes both “cruel and unusual” and violates the 8th Amendment.<<<

Action: "This isn't 'Saturday Night Live,’ Al," Mitch McConnell to Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat, who was presiding over the Senate.

Reaction: Mitch got that right. SNL is made up of intelligent people who are funny on purpose while the Senate is made up of accidental clowns.<<<

Nobody 828

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Nobody # 828

Nobody Asked Me But:

THE THIN BLACK LINE

I am referring to a line of font, because fiction writers seem to be our last line of defense against Homeland Security. (Sara Paretsky, for one, writes about the Age of Fear in her novel Hard Ball.) Only they seem to realize how much freedom we have given away unnecessarily to this monstrous agency. The Republicans, to their everlasting shame created this enemy of freedom, and, even more shamefully, the Democrats have allowed it to continue. Wake up America!

They came for my neighbor and I said nothing………………

…………………………………………………………….

Then they came for me.<<<

HOW I SEE IT

There is no mystic or profound “purpose of life.” Life is an accident and accidents have no purpose, they just are. However, there can be goals in life, because goals satisfy individual and group needs for structure and satisfaction.<<<

Examples of goals – I could want my life to be:

Happy

Successful

Loved

Loving<<<

(My granddaughter Emily, in the above picture taken 13+ years ago, obviously is achieving all four. She is also trying out for the lead in the new version of the film, "Angels With Dirty faces.")

I do not trust the honesty or efficiency of either the public or the private sector very much. But I lean towards the public sector (except for Bell, CA) because I trust their humanity more than I do the private.<<<

I think I want to move to France. I love their grape sociability. Every time two or more people get together, it is a reason to eat something and pour glasses of wine – even at 9 am.

And did you know that in rural France most babies were born in May which, by some strange coincidence, was nine months after the community grape-stomping?<<<

Speaking of being born – HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUGH!

Let’s see if you can follow this better than I. Michaele Salahi was on “The View” a few days ago and felt “demeaned and degraded” because of the frequent references to her being a “gate crasher.”

Remind me, please, why was she famous enough to be on “The View” in the first place? Oh that’s right. By being a gatecrasher. (She and her husband crashed that White House lawn party last year.)<<<

"He (Rick Pitino) is a grand ambassador for this athletic program." Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich, who went on to announce that the school is offering a new major, Screwing Around, in Pitino’s honor.<<<

Test Time: What do the religious far right and the political far right have in common?

They both use a cafeteria-style approach to their favorite writings - Bible and Constitution respectively. “I’ll take a little of this and some of that, but I’ll ignore that because it is not on my diet.”<<<

As a public service, I have condensed the pro and con arguments over the Obama Health Care Law into one sentence apiece:

I have mine, too bad about you.

I have mine; it is only fair that you have yours.

It is a nice idea, but we can’t afford it.

I am uninsured and desperate, so thank you.

I’m a number two, my contempt is for number one, my empathy is for number 4 and this question for number three:

Why is it all right to fight unnecessary and/or unwinnable wars while being the only Western democracy that “can not

afford” to insure the medical costs of its citizens?<<<

(This picture is of the famous climbing goats of Somis)

I watched the first two episodes of AMC’s new thriller, “Rubicon,” this past week and it is very good, with a shot at excellent. It reminded me slightly of one of my all-time favorite movies, “Three Days of Condor.” In Condor, Robert Redford has the boring and seemingly routine spy job of reading books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world, looking for hidden meanings and new ideas. He stumbles across a pattern that gets his fellow workers killed and sends him on the run trying to escape an assassin. “Three Days” is based on the James Grady spy thriller, “Six Days of Condor” – yes, they cut Redford’s days on the run in half to speed up the action. Six days or three, this is an excellent book turned into a film that is at least its equal.<<<

While I was waiting for my eye appointment at Kaiser last Monday, a worker walked passed pushing a cart containing four large urns of coffee and three bottles of wine. She was a tough one, refusing to give me a sample or even reveal the name of the doctor for whom they were intended.<<<

Get serious California. Apparently we are. Only UCSB, which finished eighth, made the Princeton Review’s annual list of the top 10 party schools in America. As usual, the University of Georgia led the way. What, no ASU this year?<<<

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: “Posting classified war documents was morally wrong.”

Actually what’s morally wrong is sending our military to be killed or wounded in a hopeless cause.

Actually what’s morally wrong is to deceive the American people by hiding the truth behind a “national security” wall.<<<

It used to be commit a crime, go to jail. Now it’s commit a crime, go to Mississippi (and play football for the Rebels).

With the sorry state of the owner-challenged Dodgers and injury-plagued Tigers, here’s whom I am cheering for among teams who still have a real chance:

ALE – Devil Rays

ALC – Twins

ALW – Rangers

NLE – Braves

NLC - Reds

NLW – nobody<<<

Two lead lines from last Tuesday’s papers:

1. 8 people shot and killed at Connecticut business.

2. 8 shot, 2 killed at party in Indiana.

NRA reaction: Lucky it was just guns. Think of the carnage had the killers been using knives or slingshots.<<<

Action: Palin says the president lacks “cojones.”

Reaction: Do you know what Sarah’s problem is? (Make that one of Sarah’s problems.) She thinks her outrageous statements are cute and will be well received outside her small group of malcontents. But they are not, and they just reinforce the general view that she is (to paraphrase her quaint attack word) a numbnut.<<<

Another nefarious scheme - Damn that United Nations!

Dan Maes, a Colorado Republican vying to capture the party's Aug. 10 gubernatorial primary, is cautioning voters that an effort to boost bike riding promoted by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the leading Democratic candidate, is a “nefarious scheme propagated by the Democrat's U.N. overlords:”

"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters. "This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms. These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."<<<

You think that’s bad? You are right, it is. But how about this:

According to a Harris Poll almost one in four Republicans suspect that Barack Obama is the Antichrist.<<<

(This picture is of a store in Edinburgh. Advice may be cheap but certainly not free in Scotland.)

Nobody 827

Sunday, August 1, 2010
Nobody # 827

Nobody Asked Me But:


Pictured above is my first computer (along with my first and last red sweat outfit). And while on the subject of computers, my iMac has a sleep disorder. Periodically when I put it to sleep at night it refuses to keep its eye closed, and I have to get up and shut the damn thing down. It will do this for a couple of weeks and then revert back to normal. Go figure?<<<

During the Civil War it was called irritable heart. In WW I it was shell shock By WW II they were calling it battle fatigue or war neurosis and in Vietnam we named it Post-Vietnam Syndrome. Perhaps Homer even details it in Achilles grief during and after the Trojan War. And now with Iraq I and II and Afghanistan we call it PTSD - Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

By whatever name, it is the terrible price of war that America does not want to acknowledge. It is a war wound for which we do not give Purple Hearts nor provide adequate treatment. We spend hundreds of billions on killing and a pittance on those whose minds and spirits are wounded by the carnage and chaos they participate in or witness. We send moral men and women to do what is too often an immoral job and close our eyes to the price they pay. What a disgrace.<<<

Announcement: I’m through with capital letters, at least as far as e-mail is concerned. By my count I have wasted 11 months, 13 days, 9 hours, 6 minutes and 35 seconds replacing small with capital simply because I lift my hand from the caps lock too quickly. So I will be writing my e-letters all small from now on. I hope that none of you see this as a capital offense.<<<

I am going to have an engraver change the inscription on my glass plaque that now reads “Life is too short to drink cheap wine.” I want it to read “Life is too short to drink cheap wine – except for Two-Buck Chuck,” which is better than many more expensive varieties.<<<

And while on the subject of the grape, I had an excellent Louie Martini 2006 cabernet with my pan-fried steak at Taylor’s last week, where one of the dinner songs was Doris Day singing “Secret Love.” Talk about nostalgic:

Once I had a secret love
That lived within the heart of me All too soon my secret love
Became impatient to be free

If life gives you lemons…. Cut them in eighths, and sell to restaurants to put in glasses of water.<<<

Last restaurant add-on: I would rather be thought a fool by tipping too much than cheap by tipping too little.<<<

TURNERCOURT: In the case of The President of the United States vs. WikiLeaks.com, this court finds that transparency trumps the ambiguity of “national interest” and rules for WikiLeaks.

And isn’t it past time that we stop shipping money to our phony ally (Pakistan) and wind down a war in Afghanistan that has always been unwinnable? Or do we continue to buy pseudo-safety with the deaths and ruined lives of our young men and women?<<<

This week I am initiating the Willie Nelson Crazy Award (you know, the song he wrote – “Crazy, crazy for feeling this lonely”)

For this award, it’s Crazy, crazy for being this stupid – and for the first week we have three winners:

1. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R- Texas) for speculating that U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants actually are terrorist moles planted here to grow up as U.S. citizens as part of a long-range plot.

2. Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who argues that the 1st Amendment’s freedom of religion clauses do not apply to Muslims.

3. The conservative church in Florida (Dove World Outreach Center) that is organizing "Burn a Qu'ran Day."<<<

Headline: Bush's unpopularity among voters starts to fade.

Jimline: Time has a way of doing this – of turning bad into mediocre.<<

I can believe Kim Jong-Il when he says he invented an invisible telephone so that he could counsel North Korea’s soccer coach at the World Cup. After all, the man’s both a genius and a sensitive human being who didn’t want to publically embarrass the coach. But when he claims that he shot -38 the first time he ever played around, I confess that I have some doubt.<<<

Tell me why…. No one has ever been elected to baseball’s Hall Of fame by a unanimous vote? – Tom Seaver has the all time high with 98.84% of the votes, with Babe Ruth 95.13%, Willie Mays 94.67%, with Reggie Jackson and Ted Williams at 93.62% and 93.37% respectively. Reggie Jackson above Ted Williams??<<<

DEPARTMENT OF I KNOW AIRLINES ARE RIPPING ME OFF A PIECE AT A TIME, BUT THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS: When a Mr. Smith was buying his ticket to fly American, he was asked if he and his wife would like to sit together. Of course he answered yes and was charged a $48 seat selection fee.

Then there is Allegiant Airlines that charges you a nuisance fee for booking a ticket by phone and a convenience fee for booking on line. Apparently their wish is for you to show up on flight day and bribe your way aboard.<<<

Action: Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a vote on a bill that would force special interest groups to disclose their donors when purchasing political ads, defeating an effort to impose new campaign finance regulations before the November congressional election.

Reaction: How do you spell transparency in Republican? You can’t. It is not in their dictionary.<<<

It seems to me that a little s can make a huge difference: Is the word illegal a pejorative? Of course not. But add an s at the end and it often is – especially in Arizona.<<<

When I read on the Kaiser website that I have Presbyopia I thought my early church membership had cursed me. But then I found out that it is just the normal worsening of vision with age, especially near vision.

I also have Cataract Nuclear. Does this mean I bombed out on my test?<<<

Don’t always believe what you read. It said in Time On Line the other day that Kangaroos may have originated in South America.

If this is true, mate, why are they always singing “Waltzing Matilda?”<<<

Isn’t it going to be tough in November for Republicans who ran up huge budget deficits under Bush to campaign for fiscal responsibility? Actually no, that would only be difficult for someone who minded being a hypocrite.<<<

Truth and lies - Rule 1a: When someone says, “just kidding,” they are almost certainly not.<<<

Truth and lies - Rule 1b: When a politician ridicules another race and then says he was misunderstood, he wasn’t.<<<

HIGHER MATH – Q: What is addition by subtraction?

A: Addition by subtraction is what would have happened if the Dodgers had been able to trade Manny yesterday.<<<

I was a little disappointed in episode one of “Mad Men’s” Season 4. There were too many personal problems and too few professional struggles. However, a smash ending saved the day and pushed me eagerly towards tonight.<<<

DYK: In the early 60s, in his eternal vigilance against subversives, J. Edgar Hoover assigned an agent to read every page of Playboy. From what I understand, the agent took a pay cut to get the assignment.<<<

(This logo chart is taken from a recent Newsweek.)