This is a letter more than an essay, in fact it is a letter copying a letter. I have been concerned about all the investigations at Fort Hood. But the Hassan incident at Fort Hood was the flowering of a weed, not its conception. You cannot kill a poisonous vine by cutting off the top. You must destroy the roots. My concern has not been about the investigation of the murders at Fort Hood, rather it is about the failure to examine the program at Walter Reed which permitted it.

I wrote to my senators and congressman about this. A reasonable copy (I’ve changed a few words) of the letter follows. I have heard nothing from my senators or congressman about it as yet, it is really too early to expect a reply, but it could be that they consider the idea it expresses unimportant. If you agree it is important, perhaps you might send it to your representatives in DC.

William D. Dannenmaier                                                               

1126 Earl Leach Road                                                                       615 789 6670                       

Cumberland Furnace, TN 37051                             wdannenmaier@yahoo.com blog: sparksfromthefurnace.Townhall.com

22 November 2009

Letter to congress:

In one of my blogs, I commented that Congress needs to investigate the Walter Reed Military Hospital. My reasoning then, as a retired licensed psychologist, was that ANY hospital which speculated that a student could be psychotic and still graduated him as a licensed psychiatrist should be investigated. There were also questions concerning his devotion to Muslim extremism. Now, we know that this same person was placed on President Obama’s Security Task Force (listed eighth on page 21 of report “http://www.gwumc.edu/hospi/old/PTTF, Proceedings Report.)

The Senate and the House are busy investigating FortHood security. More important would be an investigation of the Walter Reed training program. How many other persons have they certified as psychiatrists with such plans or problems?

William D. Dannenmaier

I read that Obama has promised to create 500,000 new jobs this year. Yes, five hundred thousand. I didn’t realize he would need that many new government workers for his programs.

People who are old, which now includes me, and who grew up in a Christian nation can recall the joke about how a child, caught doing something that he or she knew was wrong, would say, “The devil made me do it.” The current Democratic leadership, their hands too often appearing in the cookie jar, has changed this. The new excuse is, “Bush made me do it.”

Obama is talking about putting a salary cap on top executives. Will that apply to Congress and entertainers such as Oprah and football and basketball stars? If not, why not?

The brilliant Biden, well known for being consistently wrong on important issues over the years, has been bragging about the increasing diversity of the United States. Ignoring the problems of every nation or area that has diversity (Northern Ireland, the Baltic States, numerous African nations) has anyone ever heard of the Tower of Babel? In the book of Genesis, the nations all agreed to come together in one place. The result was disaster. What is the future of a United States with multiple laws and multiple languages in which Muslims control one area, Hispanics another etc.? Brag on Biden.

The United States Constitution decrees that Congress shall make the laws and the Executive, under the President, shall enforce them. As a check on the President’s powers, all persons appointed to top level government positions by the President must be approved by Congress. Former Presidents have appointed “Czars,” who report only to the President and exercise Presidential powers, to solve emergency problems. Usually this requires only one or two during a Presidency. President Obama has appointed more in his first six months than all other Presidents combined. Articles I have read have given estimates between 15 and 21. All of these Czars report directly to Obama.  He has asked for, and received, Congressional approval on none of these appointees.  To date, only Senator Byrd of Virginia, a Democrat, has complained that Obama is usurping the powers of the Congress by placing appointees in positions of power without their receiving Congressional approval.

Am I alone in remembering that when Clinton became President one of his first acts was to fire all of the Inspector Generals and replace them with people of his own choosing? There was no outcry and little publicity from the press or television news at the time. Then, when Bush became President he fired three Inspector Generals for not doing their jobs. He was roundly criticized in major newspapers and television news programs for this act. There was no hint that they were investigating any people that he liked, in fact there was no hint they were investigating anything. Now, Obama has fired two Inspector Generals, both of whom were investigating, and in one case finding proof of, misdeeds on the part of persons who were wealthy and politically prominent Obama supporters. I have not seen this reported by the mass media, only by the Drudge Report.  So much for the news reporting system which supposedly provides an informed citizenry.

I have read is that Obama declared himself a citizen of Indonesia at one college. Critics are now challenging his Constitutional eligibility to be President. I put little credibility into the value of these challenges. Everyone knows that Obama will lie for his own good at any time or place, why should he have been any different when it helped him get money as a college student?

I enjoyed the cartoons on Townhall.com today (Jun 22), but thought the one could have been improved. It showed an older couple looking at a beat-up, rusted pick-up truck surrounded by weeds with the caption, “…buy some gas and turn it in for our $4,500 clunker payment.” With my broken chest, bad heart and aching back, I thought a better one would be to have two women standing looking at an aged, bearded man in a rocker and wondering, “Is that $4500 clunker payment restricted to cars?”

I believe I have figured out why the Democratic Party was so pleased to have Obama nominated for the Presidency. With his looks and charm, he could easily defeat McCain. Then, with a young and inexperienced politician as President, it would ensure that the old line politicians of the Democratic party; including but not restricted to Ms Pelosi, Senator Reid, the Kennedys, Barney Frank and Chuck Schumer could continue to enrich themselves and run the nation at the expense and to the detriment of the working citizens.

The newspapers and television media made a great deal of the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska (something Governor Palin didn’t request), but I have yet to hear them talk about the multi-million dollar “Train to Poverty,” financed by the taxpayers to bring fools from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. A bill inserted and passed with support of Senator Reid, it will help impoverish people in Los Angeles and bring greater wealth to the casino owners and prostitutes of Las Vegas and greater wealth to Senator Reid, if not directly at least through the gratitude of the profiteers in Las Vegas.  Maybe it should be called the Highway to Hell instead of the Railroad to Poverty.

Most interesting, or should I say dangerous, is the creation of a new agency which will have the job of creating a data bank of all Americans’ medical records which would permit Obama’s minions to compare patients’ medical needs with other aspects of their lives. The Stalinist agency will also have the power to approve/disapprove treatment for persons who are ill and the right to “punish” doctors who treat people who have been disapproved. I suspect that when this takes effect members of ACORN will have all needs cared for quickly, but if I were Rush Limbaugh I would be seriously concerned about having a heart attack or even an in-grown toenail.

Christopher Dodd has done something I approve of – finally. In the “stimulus” package he inserted a provision that CEOs and other top administrators of any companies receiving Congressional charity from workers’ salaries would have a ceiling of one-third their salary on bonuses they received. Better yet, it would be retroactive. Looking for something else, I discovered that the salary of the CEO of Ford had a salary of $2,000,000 and a bonus of $4,000,000. If he had asked for a handout at the same time as GM and Chrysler, he would owe the government $2,666,666. I suspect he is glad he didn’t ask for “help” for Ford. As I read it, this not only applies to GM and Chrysler, but to all of the banks and Wall Street firms that have received government help. I love it!

The New York Times complained about the hypocrisy of Prince Charles flying about in a carbon dioxide spewing jet to talk about the dangers global warming from carbon dioxide emissions. The true hypocrisy is on the part of the New York Times. I have yet to see an article by them on the hypocrisy of Al Gore traveling hundreds of thousands of miles by carbon spewing jets in order to complain of those carbon dioxide emissions – or of the millions of dollars in fees he receives in doing this public “good.” 

I commented on this to my son Stephen, who was standing nearby. He responded by saying that if the government were serious about carbon dioxide admissions they would stop talking about taxing cows and ban all carbonated beverages. Champagne, beer, Perrier, and all soft drinks release large amounts of carbon dioxide as they are consumed, and they are consumed in the billions. Also, these are all luxury and vice products, not necessary to anyone’s health or well-being, but harmful to many. The world can do without them. In this, they differ from cattle which produce beef and dairy, which provided daily nutrition.  If the government chooses not to ban carbonated beverages, then it should pass a high carbon or sin tax per bottle. The tax would cut consumption, thereby reducing real damage done to the atmosphere and simultaneously providing Congress with money for important projects such as Nancy Pelosi’s multi-million dollar save the salt marsh mouse project.

Most interesting recently has been Obama’s proclamation that there will be no increase in taxes for the working class. I can reveal now that he has secret plans to issue a special card to all citizens making less than a hundred thousand dollars a year. When we purchase gasoline, beverages or tobacco or any of the other numerous items that swallow our money, we simply present this card and the higher taxes on these items will be deducted from our bill. If it were otherwise, the poor would again be paying a higher proportion of their income in taxes to the government since a higher percentage of their income goes to gasoline and similar luxuries.

Beggars Can Be Choosers

By

William D. Dannenmaier

During my employed years and extending for a few years past retirement, I did volunteer work. The majority of this was as a licensed psychologist, but it included work, as a volunteer, with Vocational Rehabilitation and as a representative of Equal Employment. The overwhelming majority of these people were poor and being supported by the government. Some of my work was successful, and some was not. Initially this was on an occasional basis, a graduate student would know someone in trouble and ask me to work with them, but it became formal in 1965 when I volunteered to spend one half day a week at the Mental Health Clinic (Friday afternoons) in Springfield, Missouri.

Most of my early, volunteer, work was with youth. I had read Dr. Sullivan’s book on working with schizophrenics and was impressed by his argument that to help them he needed to get into their frame of reference, to understand their thinking. I used this in my work. I have played catch, arithmetic flashcards, and hunted four leaf clovers with youth sent to me. One boy was brought to me who was failing in junior high school, but he was pool champion of the province of Alberta. We talked about pool a lot and he explained how he practiced every day after school and played all day on Saturdays, but he didn’t believe he could succeed in academic work. When he analyzed his own pool “practice” as study, he came to understand that the same type of effort would succeed in school. Another youth was failing seventh grade. After a few weeks “playing” arithmetic flash cards, he told me that the world was going to end in September – as taught by his pastor. Instead of arguing that point, I asked if God wouldn’t want him to do his best in preparation for heaven. He agreed, and his grades improved. 

Not all of my work was with children however. A young lesbian was brought to me by her “partner” because she had attempted suicide. When I first met her my desk, where I sat, was in a large office with the door about ten feet away. Afraid of me, she pulled her chair over by the door and her “partner” sat outside the closed door. Over a few weeks, she told me about her background and I learned that she had been taught, from childhood on, to fear men. (She also began sitting by my desk.) Then she confessed that her suicide attempt had come when she discovered that her “partner” was having sex with men – married men. I suggested that that was how her “partner” maintained her distrust of all men. On our last visit, before she left, we were standing together looking out the window at the stars. She told me that she wouldn’t mind having sex with a man like me. I answered that there were lots of men like me, she simply had to put herself in a position to find them. The next time I saw her, by accident, she was sitting at a table in the faculty club surrounded by a half dozen young men. I’m not sure her “partner” approved of me. I hope not.

During my years with the Mental Health clinic, I had some successes, some failures. One man finally confessed to me that he was planning on killing his ex-wife because she wouldn’t let him see his son and he was certain God didn’t like that. (He had been convicted of child and spouse abuse.)  I thought that one over and said, “I don’t think God would like that. If you killed her, we would put you in prison and then, if your son needed you, you wouldn’t be able to help him.” I watched the newspaper carefully that week, worrying. When he came in the next week he said, “Do you remember what I said last week?” (Did I!) He continued, “That night I went up on the roof of my apartment and asked God about what you said, and He replied that you were right.” The next time I saw him was about a year later. I was sitting in a park relaxing and he came up. He was working as a grounds keeper and was happy with his life. 

A failure that I remember well was of a woman, another welfare case, whom I finally told, “If you won’t do anything to help yourself, please don’t come back. There are too many others who need help and are willing to try to change.” I didn’t see her again for about six months, then she made another appointment. I was pleased that she had decided to change. She asked to borrow money to go to St. Louis!

A situation that interested me was in Tennessee. Teaching at the university, Judge Catalano telephoned and told me that she had heard I would do free work, would I help with the Girls’ Home. I became vice-president of the home for girls adjudicated delinquent and responsible for overseeing the activities of the home. A counselor, Sheila, told me that one night when they were talking to the girls about the need to do well in school to get good jobs. The girls replied that they could make more money than the counselors did – and proved it by adding up the value of food stamps and other welfare incomes they could receive in their current lives. 

Retiring, and returning to the hills of Tennessee where people at all levels of the economic scale live in close proximity to each other, I became active in community affairs and learned still more about people. A neighbor, whose income exceeded mine, had a wife who collected disability benefits. When their daughter became pregnant by a young man who wished to marry her, the parents convinced them not to marry – every thing would be free. They were correct: prenatal care, hospitalization, furniture for the child and diapers were all free. In addition, she received child support. In the meantime, the young man changed his mind about marriage and she left, leaving the child behind. The “disabled” grandmother received child support for caring for her own grandbaby.

The girls at the girls’ home were right. Poverty pays.

Now we have interesting examples at the other end of the scale. Our Democratic Congress passed laws requiring banks to loan to people to buy homes that they could not afford, loans without down payments. President Bush’s federal government enforced those laws and penalized banks that did not make the loans. Then, when the banks had economic problems as a result of those Congressional laws enforced by a “Republican” President, Congress voted billions of taxpayer dollars to bail them out. Badly managed financial firms have been “bailed” out and now the Detroit Big Three automobile companies have been bailed out. State governments that have spent unwisely and overpaid workers are applying for more help and the incoming President, Obama, has promised a trillion dollars in help. A consortium of universities have asked for help. None have made any great efforts to control the problems they themselves have created.

The poor receive help, the wealthy receive help – all on their own conditions. Beggars can be choosers. In a way it seems only right that ten or twelve dollars an hour workers in the South and Midwest who voted for the Democratic Congress, Bush and Obama should be taxed to keep the millionaires and automotive workers making thirty dollars an hour happy. 

Yes, President Bush is doing this to the very people who elected him, the workers. I now think of President Bush as President Benedict Arnold Bush.

Stray Thoughts

By

William D. Dannenmaier

My son Stephen announced to me that he has finally figured out “global warming.” He says there is no such thing, but that politicians spend so much time in air conditioned offices, airplanes and automobiles that they are shocked by their momentary exposures to the out-of-doors. They are also concerned about all the energy consumed by their air conditioners. Their solution is “global warming.” By cooling off the planet as a whole, they won’t need to expend energy – or their suppliants’ energy – by turning on and off air conditioners. 

Obama has suggested that if we keep our tires filled, we will increase our gas mileage and reduce our dependence on oil. That is true, but he should expand that theme. For one, we should quit using plastics. Plastics are an oil derivative. Return to glass soda bottles, they don’t require the use of oil and they can be re-used. Quit using plastic pipes, which have a short lifetime. Return to copper pipes, which last for years. Quit paving roads with asphalt which is an oil derivative, use concrete which lasts forever. Women should quit using make-up, again an oil derivative. The government should quit paying for highways which encourage drivers and use that money to support electric streetcars and buses in cities. Return to coal fired locomotives. All of these changes would do much more to reduce our dependence on oil than filling up our tires. They would reduce our dependence on oil companies and our need to drill for more oil also. 

For the past fourteen years, Congress and Presidents, primarily under the lead of Democrats have prevented the drilling for oil in known locations. Now the Democrats are complaining about the economy. Hasn’t it occurred to any of them that sending hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars to foreign countries every year for oil, while not using our own resources, is going to hurt our economy? It is remarkable, and a testament to the strength of our nation, that we have done as well as we have done during this stupidity.

Son Stephen said that people like Justice Thomas, Secretary of State Rice, Drs. Sowell and Williams and Star Parker aren’t real Blacks because they’re too busy being successful. He said it is only fair to say that Sarah Palin isn’t a REAL woman. While she has a successful, full-time career, she also has five children and a husband. No real woman would do that.  ((I have since read that the spokeswoman for NOW (National Organization for Women) has said that Palin isn’t a real woman!))

The cold that has plagued me through July and August has resumed its attacks. I mentioned to my bride that one of us should go to Dr. Smith and get enough medicine for two – a gentle hint that I KNOW she enjoys driving to Nashville. Her reply was that Dr. Smith never gives her medicine, only me. It’s a plot. To increase his business and the pleasures of my visits, he gives only me medicine. Knowing that Sheila and I are what you might call affectionate, he relies on the fact that as soon as I am well I’ll catch her cold again, requiring another trip to his office. (Actually, I’m afraid to return. I ate so many of their office brownies on my last visit – they may have been under the impression I was sharing with Sheila – that I need for Sheila to cook some treat before I return, which seems unlikely to happen until Christmas.)

Dinesh D’Souza ( Townhall.com, September 08, 2008) reports that Obama’s half-brother is living in poverty in Africa on a dollar a month. Obama visited that brother when he was publicizing his African “roots.” Then he left him in poverty. Obama has said great things about ending poverty for all, but if he won’t help his half-brother, what makes anyone, who is not a member of his clique, believe that he would help them? In a way, it was like his tour to Germany. When he found out that his press corps would not be admitted to the hospital in Landstuhl if he visited wounded veterans, he played basketball instead.  If it doesn’t profit Obama, forget it.

My bride was not disturbed by Obama’s reaction to his half-brother, but son Stephen was. He said that if any of his half-brothers or sisters were in trouble he would certainly do his best to help them, and I believe that. I also believe that those half-siblings would never permit their step-mother or half-brothers or sister to need help. In fact, two of them have already offered free housing to Stephen if he wanted to attend school in their communities. 

I was reminded the other evening of rule number three for helpful husbands. “Never take a shower immediately after putting a load of wash in on hot.” That comes immediately after rule one, “Always obey your bride,” and rule two, “always obey your bride.”