Jason's Dad

OK, I still have an Obama bumper sticker on my car.

2010-07-14T04:08:00.000-07:00

I think about taking it off from time to time, but then I think about how hard I worked to help him take Berks County, and I leave it.

Yes, I am a little disappointed with him. I wish he were tougher, instead of trying to play nice. The opposition interprets any attempt at conciliation as a sign of weakness to be exploited.

Everything he proposes cannot even be debated. We need to do something about that. I think we should go back to the old days. If someone wanted to filibuster he actually had to stand at the dias and talk; don't leave the floor, not even to pee. Now, all that is necessary is the threat. What's that about?

This rant is because yesterday someone flipped me off and cursed at me because of the bumper sticker. Why does he think I am his enemy becuase we have different politics? What bought us to this point? I used to think that what made America special was that we counted heads instead of busting them. Now I wonder how far we are from the the politics of the Banana Republics we used to laugh at. How long will it be before the losers of an election exhort their supporters to take to the barricades? Not so long ago that seemed like an absurd thought. Now I wonder.

Jason suggested that devisiveness grows from the fact that more and more we are only exposed to political thought that supports our own beliefs. I think I agree; and I am guilty of it also. I get my news from Huffington and Wonkette. From now on, I intend to read at least one article a day with which I do not expect to agree. I cannot sink to Rush or Ann Coulter; maybe Michelle Malkin or Cal Thomas. I won't lie; my skin is crawling. But I will do it.

I will lose weight.

2010-06-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

I have not been very good this last week. We had a consultant in all week, so there were large lunches, late nights, little exercise. In spite of it all I gained only two pounds.

The shuttle picks me up at 3:30. Between now and then I will work out for an hour. Not sure if there will be an exercise room in the hotel. Peggy said it is five stories and she just runs the stairs for half an hour. Not sure I am up to that, maybe walk the stairs for half an hour. I am taking to rubber band so I can do some resistance exercises.

I must keep reminding myself to eat slowly, and that they repealed the "clean your plate" law.

Boy & Girl, if you are reading this, it is ok to comment from time to time, if only just to say hello.

Says it all...

2010-06-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Uncle Jim's Funeral

2010-06-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

It appears that Uncle Jim will not have a funeral, at least not one we will know about. I wonder if he will be buried next to Aunt Mary. I do not know John, his executor. But I am reminded of the mental deterioration Humphrey Bogart suffered in "Treasure of Sierra Madre". His greed led him to suspect everyone around him of similar greed.
Uncle Jim had a lot of money. John fails to realize, or would not believe, that we do not care about Uncle Jim's money. It would have been nice to have said goodbye, but we will honor his memory anyway. Perhaps in a more meaningful way than by attending a funeral.

Uncle Jim died yesterday

2010-06-17T05:36:00.001-07:00

Uncle Jim met Aunt Mary (my mother's older sister) when they both worked at Eastern Airlines in Miami. I was still in grade school. They were together for a lot of years before they married. I feel guily for feeling this way, but I always liked him better than her. She was always stressed about something while he always seemed unflappable. But they obviously got along well enough to stay married for a lot of years.
Carole and I visited him in Florida a while back. We spent a day at the dog track. Carole was the banker, Uncle Jim picked the dogs, and I placed the bets. A good division of labor, and a good day, a lot of laughter. I think we just about broke even.
He was 98. He had a good run, and I am sure he had no complaints. Well, I suppose we would all like just a little longer. I will miss him. Rest in peace Uncle Jim.

My Grandfathers

2010-06-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

My earliest memory of my mother's father was him having a job as a watchman at the water pumping station in Lacy Park, PA. It's a small subdivision near Hatboro.

My mother told me she got chills remembering the day her father came home and said Hotboro Savings had closed and they lost their life savings. Fortunately, they had some property and no mortgage so they managed. She always said it was better to be country poor than city poor. I think that is probably still true. They had a large garden, he raised chickens, pigs, and maybe a steer or two. He and my uncles also hunted and fished. So they ate.

There were lots of summer homes in the area where they lived. People who lived in Philadelphia would come for the summer. The broad street trolley stop was about a mile away. When the depression hit and these people lost their homes and jobs in the city, they came to live in their summer home. They were mostly Jewish, so a small Jewish community was established. Like everyone else, they had small gardens, raised a few chickens and maybe a sheep. They had a Rabbi, but no Sochet. The Rabbi approached my grandfather and asked that since he was known as a "rightous man" if he would be willing to learn the shechitah, the kosher method of slaughter. It was the depression, no one turned down work, so my grandfather slaughered animials for the Jewish Community.

The technique made sense to Grandpop Simons, so he slaughtered all his animals that way, even his pigs. In deference to his paying customers, he slaughtered his pigs and rabbits in a different area and with different tools. Even when he shot a deer, he would hang it and drain the blood as quickly as possible.

Because he was a farmer, Grandpop had plenty of gas during the war, and he would never drive past anyone walking. One day, in a blizzard, he picked my mother up at the trolley stop. On the way home they picked someone up. As soon as he got in the car, the man started talking about that SOB Roosevelt. Grandpop said, "You're serious, aren't you? You're not kidding?" The man said: "Hell no, I'm not kidding!" So Grandpop put him back out in the blizzard.

I was in my teens when he lost a leg to "old age". Even then he hunted, sitting in a chair at the edge of the woods, his shotgun across his lap. He died when I was overseas. The letter my mother send was lost in the mail I guess, because i was surprised to learn of his passing when i got home.

I will write something about my father's father soon.

Thyroid

2010-01-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

So, I am going to have my throid out because it is growing into my chest cavity. Joy. Also, it appears my heart is enlarged. More joy.

Progressive taxation

2008-10-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

Lately Barack Obama has been called a Socialist for daring to suggest that the marginal rate on the wealthiest Americans should be rolled back to its Reagan Era level. We have had a progressive income tax system since it began in 1862. Later, Theodore Roosevelt advocated a progressive system of taxation. And let’s not forget that Ronald Reagan himself introduced the earned income credit which provided a negative tax to working poor. Adam Smith, the Father of Capitalism wrote: “It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”
It has long been recognized that a progressive taxing system benefits everyone, even the wealthy. So please, let’s not pretend we never heard of it except from Socialists and welfare chiselers.

Obama to expand Faith Based Initiatives

2008-07-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry to rain on the parade, but I think this is wrong. "Faith Based" programs, no matter how well intentioned always favor one group over another. Under the Bush Administration, money has gone exclusively to right-wing Christian organizations. Perhaps it would not be as bad with President Obama, but it would still favor some groups over others. Can anyone seriously imagine the Obama Administration making a grant to a Mosque to establish a Madrassa? If you can get past that, how about a grant to a Wiccan Church? Or the Church of Satan? It doesn't work Folks!! That is why the founding fathers wrote seperation of church and state into the constitution. It is the reason the Supreme Court has time and again said it is better to stay out than to try to treat everyone fairly.

It is bad for religion too. Federal money never comes without strings. Federal non-discrimination laws may conflict with a church's hiring practices, for example.

I love the guy, but this is a bonehead idea.

Eric from Rhode Island

2008-06-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Eric is a jerk. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there is just no getting around it. He is a jerk, and a prime example of what is wrong with political discourse in this country.

Yesterday he called Pete Dominick's show (the best talk show on Sirius, by the way) and argued that the only way to deal with Iran would be to bomb their nuclear facilities. He argued that if Iran got the bomb we would be in deep shit and the only way to prevent that is to blow up their nuclear capability now. OK, I do not agree, but he is entitled to his opinion.

Where Eric crosses the line into jerkdom is when he expresses his attitude toward people who disagree with him. He told Pete he was stupid and naive to think we could talk to Iranian President I'm-a-dinner-jacket. He said things like, "Oh, I guess you think a nuclear Iran is a good thing!" (I don't know how he made that leap.) But worst of all, he told Pete that he (Eric) cared more about this country that Pete did. That is so outrageous that I was amazed that Pete let it go unchallenged. The arrogance implicit in such a statement defies belief. He was saying, "if you disagree with me, you are not only stupid, you are evil, and you don't care if we all die."

I wonder why we cannot all take it as a given that we engage in these conversations precisely because we care about our country. Even Crazy George Bush cares about this country. It will take a generation to recover from the mess he has made, but I believe his actions are motivated by at least some degree of concern for the well being of the United States. He seems to think the best way to keep us safe is to bomb the crap out of anyone who crosses our path. Crazy, I know, but not necessarily evil.

So, Eric in Rhode Island... SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE!!!

1952 Election

2008-06-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

My grandfather held Herbert Hoover personally responsible for stealing his life savings when Hatboro Savings and Load closed. I don't know if he ever voted for a Republican before that, but he certainly did not after.

On election day in 1952 I had just turned 5, and I went with him to vote. We walked to the polling place which was in the fire house on Easton Road. I asked him who he voted for and he said Stevenson. I asked why and he said because he was the Democrat. I said something like "What if the other guy was better?" and he said: "Then he would be a Democrat." Life was simple for my grandfather. Not easy, but simple.

My mother tells the story of riding with him during a blizzard. A man was walking. My grandfather would never pass someone walking, especially in a blizzard. He stopped and the guy got in. The stranger then started talking about that SOB Roosevelt. So Grandpop put him back out in the snow.

Uncle Pete

2008-06-19T10:26:00.000-07:00

Uncle Pete was my father's mother's younger brother. He had a glass eye and the tip of his nose was missing, making him look like Dick Tracy. He usually wore an overcoat and Fedora hat, which hightened the effect.
He lost his eye and a piece of his nose when he fell asleep while driving and hit a tree. I imagine "passed out" would be a more accurate term. Uncle pete surely knew how to drink. He lived in a single room somewhere in New York City. My grandmother wanted him closer so she could take care of him. I am sure there were things not talked about related to his drinking that made her decide to do it. I remember Mom and Dad and Joan and I went to New York to get him. As usually, we arrived much past the promised time. He was not at his room but the door was unlocked. We went in, i remember it smelled of stale cigarette smoke. He had not begun to pack and the place was a mess. We had rented a trailer so we packed him up and waited. Some time later he came walking along with a friend of his. They had been to the bar. He was so worried that we were late that he had to go to the bar and get drunk. I remember his telling my father "I'll never be the same." because he had been so worried. He got in the front seat and fell asleep and did not wake until we got home.
He always smelled of whiskey and cigarettes. He cried watching soap operas. He had to make due with the one bottle of Seagram's 7 that my grandmother bought him each week. He told us it was his cough syrup.
One day he was picking his toes and he tore his big toenail. It got infected and before he did anything about it it was gangrenous. They wanted to remove his leg but he said he was born with two legs, he would die with two legs. So he did.

Like many Republicans, Linda Chavez wants this election to be about anything except what it is

2008-06-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

Republicans must have already concluded they cannot win on the merits of John McCain's arguments over the war in Iraq, the economy, immigration, healthcare, etc. Why else would they constantly be trying to draw attention away from these matters and onto associations which are sometimes tenuous at best.
They have become very good at this tactic over the years, because it is all they have. We Democrats have tried to ignore this, assuming the non-relevance would be obvious. Unfortunately, just as a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has its boots on, so does this nonsense. The truth is, everyone in public life has associations they wish they did not, even John McCain. I am sure John McCain wished he never heard of the Lincoln Saving and Loan Association, much less taken $112,000 from Charles Keating. And what type of judgment does McCain show in hiring Terry Nelson? These examples are just bookends; there is plenty more dirt out there on the presumptive Republican nominee. If for no other reason than he has been around longer, John McCain cannot win at mud slinging. So, can't we please make this election about the life and death issues of our day, and not about tit-for-tat irrelevancies?

One of Pete's callers made me think.

2008-06-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

Private McGinnis does not look like a fanatic to me.

I benefit much more from callers I do not agree with. One such caller said the Japanese soldiers were fanatics and the Kamikazes were the first suicide bombers. I wonder if this caller thought Pfc. Ross McGinnis, who just received the Medal of Honor for saving his squad mates by diving on a grenade, was also a fanatic? Is the Middle Eastern Suicide Bomber a fanatic? Maybe he is just a father whose child has been blown up before his eyes. Was Thích Quảng Đức a fanatic for setting himself on fire in a Saigon intersection? I think it may be that all of these people thought they were making a sacrifice for the greater good. John the Evangelist wrote: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Was Jesus a fanatic?

John McCain says it is not important how long the U.S. occupies Iraq

2008-06-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

That is wrong on so many levels, it is difficult to know where to start. He and those who agree with him cannot be reasoned with, they simply have to be defeated. But even if we get rid of the warmongers in government, there are still plenty in business. Bob dylan wrote "Masters of War" about them, and they are still with us. They are even stronger now because in addition to controlling capital, they also now control a huge section of the media. The only way to push them back is with massive public action. I think the only way to create massive public action against the warmongers is to reinstitute the Draft. Only a Military Draft will sufficiently mobilize people to make a difference. Only when people have a direct and personal stake in the war will they demand it be stopped.

What have we learned?

2008-06-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

Forty-five years ago I was 15 years old and just completing my sophomore year in High School. Foreign policy was so far down my list of priorities that it did not exist for me. Viet Nam had not only failed to enter my consciousness, the nation was largely unaware also. Only political insiders and perhaps college professors had any interest. The movie “The Ugly American” came out in 1963, and was generally dismissed as comsymp (communist sympathizer) propaganda, if it was paid any attention at all.
That all changed on June 11th when that monk set himself on fire. Suddenly Americans began to wonder what the heck was going on in that country no one ever heard of, halfway around the world. Viet Nam became the subject of the evening news and fodder for the Sunday morning talk shows. We learned about Dien Bien Phu and the supposed vacuum left by the French withdrawal. We learned that Buddhist monks, if not insurgents themselves, were dupes of the Communist insurgents. We learned that Ngo Dinh Diem was the democratically elected (99% of the vote) leader of a free Republic of Viet Nam as opposed to the evil and oppressive Communist Ho Chi Minh who led North Viet Nam. After 100 years of French rule, there were a lot of Catholics in Viet Nam. They had been encouraged to move south for their own protection from the commie Buddhists, and I guess to shore-up Diem. The Catholics had the money and influence, if not the majority in the south. Government policies favored Catholics over Buddhists. Most U.S. aid was channeled to Catholic villages. Buddhists were treated as bad as blacks were in this country. Apparently it was bad enough for monks to start setting themselves on fire. We were not told that our government was already abandoning Diem to his fate because he could not control the Buddhists. I read somewhere that Kennedy became physically ill when told that Diem had been executed. Apparently he did not appreciate how serious these folks were.
A series of unstable governments followed which maintained power only because of U.S. involvement. No price, we were told, was too high to protect that part of the world from communism. In 1954, Eisenhower had warned of the “Domino Effect”. Obviously the physics of small wooden tiles applied to geopolitics.
I wondered in my last post there was some relationship between Buddhist self emolation in the 60’s and the suicide bombers of today. I am thinking the relationship is tenuous at best. But both speak of desperation, and a feeling of helplessness.

Gotta start somewhere

2008-06-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

It was 45 years ago today that Thích Quảng Đức sat down in a Saigon intersection, doused himself with gasoline, and struck a match in protest of the Diem governement's treatment of Buddhists. During the next few month's several other monks followed his example. Madame Diem called the self emolations "Barbeques" and said something like "let them burn; we will clap our hands." Sweet lady. On November 1, 1963, Diem and his brother were assasinated.

I have often thought of this and how it should have told us that the best thing for the U.S. to do was get away from that sad country as quickly as possible. There is no winning against people who are willing to go that far to make a point. And it should have told us something that we were supporting the regime that pushed this man to this desperate act.

I wonder if the suicide bomber is the modern equivalent.