It was light this morning and I was still in bed. Not only I, but Sheila, got up and started our day. Then I looked at the clock. It was only 5:30. Shocked that my bride was up, I commented on it. She replied, “Well, I slept really hard so it was natural to wake up. Now, however, that hard sleep has left me tired.” If you can figure the logic of that, let me know.  Sheila has her own logic.

Yesterday it was over 95 degrees outside, but our grass needed mowing. Sheila commented that when it gets really hot outside, the cats want out, the dogs want in and I mow grass. It is nice that she considers me, even if I come in third.  Oh yes, I got all the grass mowed although, later, I decided I would have been wiser to use the riding mower than the push mower.

I went for a walk this morning: down to the valley, through the valley and up the next hill as far as Winding Way Road – a total of two miles. It was the farthest I’ve gone since my heart attacks. Headed home, back in the valley with most of it behind me I saw a red van pull coming down the road towards me. It slowed down, pulled into a triangular, circled and stopped. What a beautiful young woman I thought, she sees me staggering along and has decided to see if I need help, I’ll oblige her and permit her to drive me the last quarter mile. Then she started up, zoomed over the creek and headed back the way she had come. I believe that if the average motorist saw a walker lying in the road, they would stop, roll down their windows and suggest that the peasant roll over to the side to avoid being hit before they drove on.

I have been reading about ethanol recently. I did not know it was grain alcohol and that most of it is made from corn. We have been making ethanol in the hills of Tennessee since before Tennessee was a state, only, being ignorant, we called it moonshine. Just think, if you make ethanol in Tennessee, the government puts you in jail as a moonshiner. If you make ethanol in Iowa, the government gives you millions of dollars taken as taxes from farmers in Tennessee so that you can make more and make it more profitably. It is simply more oppression of the South by Yankees, but beware, the South shall rise again.

There are those who think the elderly don’t get enough exercise – we spend all of our time in rocking chairs. That is not true. We get lots of exercise. Consider my activities this morning as an example. Preparing to dress, I decided I needed a second cup of coffee. I walked through the house to the computer room. No coffee cup. Then I considered I might have left it in the bedroom. Back though the house to the bedroom. No coffee cup. Could I have set it down on the front porch when I let the cat out? Back through the house and out the front door. No coffee cup. Could it still be on the back porch where I was smoking? No coffee cup. The bathroom? No coffee cup. Frustrated, I decided to dirty a clean cup and went to the cupboard by the coffee maker where we keep out clean cups. There, next to the coffee pot, was my cup. I must have walked a half of a mile looking for that cup and that was only for the second cup of coffee. There were two more to go before I finished my daily routine. Now that I’ve written this I’m ready for my third. Now, where did I leave my cup?

On the other hand, was it possible President Obama, in supporting Trump by playfully concealing his birth certificate, was playing the old children’s game of confessing some trivial sin to draw the parent’s attention away from a major transgression? Certainly the flap over birthplace, which could have been settled months earlier when first raised, distracted everyone’s attention from the long list of Obama’s policy failures, both internal and international. What distraction comes next when Obama requires it, questions about his hidden college records?

I have been trying to think of a President we have had in the past half century who hasn’t started a war without the consent of Congress. Both Bushs did in Iraq and Afghanistan, Clinton changed a relief effort in Somalia and brought on the “Blackhawk” disaster with his change in policy, Reagan was into Grenada and Panama, Carter caused problems in Iran with a failed “rescue” raid, Kennedy failed in Cuba and got us into Vietnam and Truman started Korea.

Now Obama, continuing inherited wars which he swore to end when campaigning for the Presidency, is using the Kennedy tactic in Libya. First we send in advisors.  Done that. Then we send in air cover. Done that. Then we have our air force attack ground targets. Done that. What next? Foot soldiers?

Out of curiosity, I researched our military actions on Google. Since 1960 our Presidents have ordered military deployments to 39 different nations and 5 within the United States. None of these were to protect our borders. Since Hoover, only the equally despised President Nixon has failed to start a military action somewhere in the world. In fact, Nixon initiated our current peaceful relationship with China. It seems that peace doesn’t pay for politicians, starting a war does. 

Ethanol cannot be used on a routine basis in any small engine. It will ruin the motor in lawn mowers, snow blowers, all terrain vehicles, chain saws – in any small vehicle or instrument powered by gasoline. My current problem is finding a station in DicksonCounty that sells regular gasoline – the station where I formerly bought gasoline has switched to ethanol. I knew there were none closer than Dickson so I drove the fifteen miles to the COOP and, standing amidst a group of customers, asked the repairman where I could purchase regular gas for my lawnmower. After a minute, he replied, “I believe there is a small station where highway 70 crosses highway 48 that still sells regular gas.” In other words, in all of DicksonCounty there are, possibly, one or two places where I can purchase the gasoline I need for my lawnmower. I said, “And we elected these fools, thank you Congress.” Everyone cheered.

Just think. Trying to win votes for the Presidency, Mr. Gore supported the use of ethanol as environmentally friendly. We now know that ethanol is no better and possibly more damaging to the environment than regular gasoline.  The consequences of Mr. Gore’s support for ethanol have only harmed taxpayers. Congress passed laws supporting the production of ethanol with taxpayer money. This has greatly increased the use – and cost, of corn. All products using corn now cost more money. I know a good portion of dog food is corn meal. Pigs and cows are fed – fattened, on corn so pork and beef are more expensive.  And these are just increases in food prices, what about the many other uses of corn powder? Our tax money is being used to enrich a comparatively few corn farmers and to impoverish the rest of us.  

Considering Biden’s age, I wonder whom Obama will select for a Vice-Presidential running mate in the next election. How about Lindsey Lohan? She can run as a reform candidate… she needs to reform in just about every thing … her intelligence certainly matches Biden’s and her looks surpass his.   And, let’s face it, looks and promises matter to many voters, so the Democrats would have a great ticket: Lohan for looks and Obama for promises.  

Speaking of Hollywood, I heard a rumor this morning at the Cardiac Club. I can’t believe it is true, but its absurdity appears to fit in with the television and movie crowd.  I was told that one of the television channels is planning a series starring Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan. It is to be titled “Two and a Half Grams.”

I have been reading H. L. Mencken’s “Notes on Democracy” – a birthday present from Sheila. Mencken rants against the self-serving behaviors – think Biden’s airport and the corruption of elected officials, including Presidents, Congress and judges. He also had things to say about the stupidity of the people who elected them. I was shocked.  I thought he died long ago and here he was describing current our politicians and judges. Then I looked at the date. He published that book in 1926. Things haven’t changed much, have they?

Janet Napolitano and Gary Locke in an article in the Wall Street Journal (The Southwest Border is Open for Business, April 4, 2011) proclaim the safety of the border with Mexico. As examples of the dropping crime rates along the border, they cite Arizona and Texas. Is this the same Janet Napolitano who incited or encouraged (I don’t know which) Obama’s Attorney General to file suit against Arizona for enforcing their own and Federal laws by arresting and deporting illegal immigrants who were criminals? Is it just possible that the drop in crime rates in Arizona and Texas has anything to do with their arresting and deporting illegal invaders from Mexico – which she opposes?

Sheila and Andrew spent Easter Sunday at her folks where the church and family were celebrating her mother’s birthday (I rested at home) after attending sunrise service at the little Baptist Church Mission in Cumberland Furnace. (Little! There must have been close to two hundred people there!) She said everyone in Nashville was talking about the weather, they couldn’t remember when there had been so much wind and rain. What did they expect after Obama was elected? The wind was obvious from the start and the economy is certainly being rained on.

Speaking of the state of our nation, my most conservative children are worried about the future of our nation. More interestingly, the two most radical, liberal, members of the family want to move to Europe. Why? They voted for, and support, the nation they have.

Patrick J. Buchanan wrote a thoughtful and worth reading article on the Pastor Jones Qu′ran burning and its aftermath, “Who Are We Fighting For?” (Human Events.com, 5 April, 2011). His article and Ann Barnhart’s blog (http://www.youtube.com/watcg?v=Qeyrp-V3Jvc) do a much better job of addressing Pastor Jones behavior and its consequence than I can, but I would like to bring up an issue on which neither of them have focused. President Obama, General Petraeus and Senator Graham have denounced Jones behavior. I have yet to hear of any of them denouncing Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan for publicizing it, a publicity which has led to dozens of assaults and deaths. 

Personally, I think Pastor Jones is a rather foolish man seeking publicity, but that is not the point. I would have been much, MUCH, happier with President Obama or General Petraeus or Senator Graham if they had replied to Karzai, that in the United States people are free to express their opinions and that was Pastor Jones’ right, a right that millions of Americans have fought and died for over the years, rather than have them apologize to that Muslim dictator. They might even mention that if he and the other dictators of the Muslim lands would permit such freedom, they might have fewer revolts. The reason a tea kettle has that little spout is to permit steam to escape; otherwise the kettle would blow up. In the United States, resentment can escape, in Muslim nations bottled resentment leads to bloodshed.

I woke up about two in the morning, remembering life as it had been when I was in combat in Korea. I couldn’t get those memories out of my mind. One by one they crawled through and nothing I could do could stop them. I remembered clearly the first time that I heard a bullet go past my head. I was on a three man patrol as radio scout and a sniper took a shot at me – snipers liked radiomen. I remembered the shell that exploded within three feet of me, but the shrapnel went away from me. I remembered walking about a hundred yards back to the front line from an outpost following four nights of Chinese mass attacks – attacks that killed or wounded some 2300 of our men, and trying to take a step without stepping on shell fragments or other bits of the battle and failing to be able to do so. I remembered returning from a patrol and being under the muzzle of an artillery piece when it fired – I couldn’t see or hear for several minutes, but managed to get past before it fired again. There were other memories also, some too minor to enlarge on such as thirst and hunger, others more bloody. (These are detailed in my book “We Were Innocents,” Amazon.com)  I tried to focus on other things, matters of my current daily life but failed. I was awake all night.

I had six months up front; two as a radio man, four as a radio scout. Not counting my arrival on line on Christmas Eve, my first month, February, I was only on line four days, not long enough for combat pay. In March I was up for two weeks, long enough for combat pay – which you got after five days, but not long enough for four points towards return home. The next four months the only time I left the front line was either to work or, on a few occasions, to ride “shot gun” as protection against guerillas when we took a jeep back to get our drinking water and C-rations. (There was one other time, following a bad patrol when we were out all night and brought back for breakfast at Headquarters and our lieutenant gave us a fifth of whiskey to relax while waiting for the kitchen to open.) 

I was never, officially, wounded although a shell fragment cut open my boot and gave my foot a cut, but we were too busy at the time for me to go to a medic and by the time life calmed down the infected cut had healed. But that, as the recent night reminds me, did not mean that I didn’t carry some baggage, baggage I shall always carry, much of it emotional baggage unnoticed by me and others like me. My mother, for example, once reprimanded me, saying my father found me different, more difficult, after I returned. Once, trying to explain to my first wife, who was lying on the sofa, why a particular episode on “Mash” had disturbed me, she laughed at me. I slapped her and left the room. Lt. Col Wayne St. Pierre, a social worker whom I respected, once told me that he told one veteran he would have to forget those experiences. Wayne didn’t understand. We never forget, but the only ones who understand are those who “have been there.” Talking to one another helps.

This brings me to the reason for this blog. Almost thirty years ago, I was evaluating a disabled persons’ clinic at a university in North Dakota. One of its elements was a hearing clinic. I must have made a disparaging remark about testing hearing, because the director challenged me to take their tests. I did. And I was impressed. Afterwards, the director looked at me and asked, “When were you in combat?” When I asked how he knew I had been in combat, he replied, “You have the perfect combat hearing loss.” 

I thought no more of that at the time, but was reminded of it following retirement when my bride insisted that I needed hearing aids. Those things are expensive, so I decided to go to the nearby Veteran’s Hospital in Nashville. There, after examining my proof that I was an honorably discharged veteran, the director explained my situation to me. As a two year, unwounded, veteran, I was at the bottom of the list of those eligible for assistance. Purple Heart veterans led the list of eligibles, which I approved, but after that came a long list of groups; retirees, medically discharged and others. Two year vets were at the bottom, regardless of combat time.

At that time, I wrote to my Senator, Lamar Alexander, about my situation and said that I thought I deserved assistance from the Veterans’ Hospital. He never answered. I also made several telephone calls to his office. The person responsible for answering veterans was on vacation. He never returned telephone calls following the time I was told he had returned. I decided that my Senator wasn’t especially interested in this veteran - who was one of his constituents, and gave up. 

The number of veterans who have actually served in combat and emerged, officially unwounded, is tiny compared with the number of veterans who have served in peaceful or non-combat areas. Much smaller, I suspect, are the numbers who remained in the military following actual combat – at least of those I knew who experienced combat only one remained in the military and he transferred to the Air Force. Consider, who, having experience the carnage of battle, would care to continue it?  But the fact that they were officially unwounded doesn’t mean they don’t have conditions and carry baggage that is a direct result of their combat experience. 

At age 81, I am now past the time when the government needs to be concerned about me, but with three “wars” going on, there are going to be others coming home, or already home, who, like me, will be carrying baggage of which they may be unaware, but which deserve treatment when the need becomes apparent. It is my contention that combat veterans, regardless of length of service, should be placed second on the list of persons eligible for treatment at Veterans’ Hospitals, immediately under the Purple Heart recipients. If any of my readers agree with me, I wish they would contact their elected officials on the behalf of these men and women. Perhaps some of our other representatives will be more interested in their constituents’ welfare than Senator Alexander was in mine.  

I have spent years wondering about this “new towel” fetish. But, finally, I have discovered the reason. First, however, some background.

Since my retirement, I have done most of the washing. It started as something to do on Sundays during football game commercials. I would put a load in at the start of the game, up-date soap or softener requirements during commercials, transfer clean wet clothing to the dryer during long breaks, and fold and put away at half time. By the time the last game was finished on Sunday, so was the wash. 

This did not, of course, include Stephen’s, Andrew’s and Megaera’s dirty clothing, which they kept concealed in their rooms until desperation forced them to bring armloads down for emergency washings. But, let’s turn away from children’s abilities to hide dirty clothing and lose socks in their wanderings through the house and return to my talented washing.

I did a great job of washing. Better than Sheila, at least Sheila encouraged me to think so. Whites were always separated and had a first, hot, washing with Clorox, and then a second washing in warm water sans Clorox - Sheila claimed she could still smell the Clorox if I didn’t do a second washing. Dark clothing simply had a warm water washing and, if the rinse water was dirtier than I liked, a second washing and rinsing. My other specialty included softeners. Commercial softeners, as least the ones we use, have a tendency to prevent water from penetrating cloth, thus I always doubled or tripled the usual amount of softener when I washed jackets. Similarly, because I wish to be dry after using a bath towel, I never put softener in with a load of bath towels. It makes sense.  Towels loaded with softener repel water. Thus to be truly dry following a shower and “drying” with one of those “softener towels” nudity and a stiff breeze are required as you wander about to become truly dry. This, I might note, is not bad in the summer, but I find it undesirable in wintry weather or as children grow older besides which it tends to surprise any visitors in the house. On the other hand, towels sans softener may scratch a tiny bit, but leave a body nice and dry.  

Well, to leap seventeen years to the present, the other day I had a load of towels in the washer that I completely forgot. As a consequence, Sheila finished washing and drying using a softener in the process. After she had folded and put them away she came in to me and said, “There’s nothing wrong with these towels!”

Finally an explanation! Finally the truth! Drying with what she now claims were my “scratchy” towels, she would decide that the cheap things were coming apart and, when she thought of it on a shopping trip, would buy some new ones. They didn’t scratch. But then, as I washed, the darned things, in her opinion, began falling apart – getting scratchy. and new ones were required. The only reason the white ones have lasted longer is because she was so picky about the Clorox, that I let her wash them.

So this is why she bought so many towels and we still have so many. If anyone desperately needs a towel, they might drop by. Come to think of it, maybe the next time Joyce or some other friend stops in I could slip a few in their car while they are ignoring me and talking to Sheila.  

I have always enjoyed being with my wife. Laughter and conversation – at home, while driving and while wandering through stores have defined our marriage. Four years ago, a series of heart attacks ended the wandering though stores. I had too much trouble maintaining my balance and carrying objects over five pounds. The result has been that I have spent many hours watching young women at checkout counters and in the hospital. They, aware of my situation, have become friendly, providing chairs when I needed them and chatting with me during slack minutes. Once, stepping outside of one store, I saw one of these young women sitting and crying during her break. I asked the problem and she said, “All I want in life is my own home, a loving husband and the right to care for my own family.” Attractive, intelligent and a hard worker she was single, with a child. She was paying for her own way, but living with grandparents who were raising her child. 

I have met too many like her in the past four years. Now eighty, I am old enough to be “safe,” and they confide in me. I wish I could change their worlds, but all I can do is listen. Somehow, in the sixties and seventies, the idea of sex without cost came into being. There is no such thing for women.  Human nature does not provide “equal opportunity” in sex.  Men can sire children over a wide variety of ages, from early teens into their seventies and eighties, but men don’t HAVE the children, women do.

Women have babies. They also have a time limit on having babies. The ideal ages, physiologically, for a woman to have children are during the late teens and the early thirties.  However, as they age, the process becomes more difficult both for them and the child. In his textbook “Developmental Psychopathology” Yale scholar, Dr Thomas M. Achenbach points out that the chances of having a developmentally disabled child increases dramatically as a woman ages, that the chance of having a deformed baby is one out of four if the woman has her first child after the age of thirty-five. That time limit is, interestingly, only true for women having their first child after thirty-five, if they have had other babies prior to that those statistics do not apply.

Thus the public acceptance of living together without marriage is wonderful – for men. It provides all of the benefits of marriage, with none of the responsibilities. But for women, it reduces the possibility of a happy marriage with children with every year in such a relationship. The men in such relationships, whether they realize it or not – or care or not, are stealing the possibility of a happy marriage with children from the women with whom they are living, but whom they have no intention of marrying.  

Thus the ultimate irony of the feminist sexual revolution is that just as it freed women from the bounds of marriage, it has also freed men. Men no longer need to accept the responsibilities of marriage in order to achieve sexual relationships mixed in with such privileges as having someone cook, clean and wash their clothes for them. After all, if this young woman, after several years, tires of such a one-sided relationship, there is always another, probably younger, woman to occupy her place. It’s sexual freedom, but the price is high – for women. 

Feminism: The Dark Side

Part 1

The Feminist movement has a long history in the United States, beginning I believe, with women arguing that they should have the right to vote. They were right. According to our values and our Constitution, they should have the same rights as men: to vote and to compete for and obtain jobs for which their skills and abilities qualify them. They should also have the same pay and privileges if holding the same jobs and the same responsibilities as men. All Christian nations have accepted this philosophy and established laws protecting these rights. (The same is not true of nations following Muslim laws.)

The fights for those “privileges” were won over a long period of years. But since the nineteen seventies Feminism has gone far beyond such rights in their claims, and their successes have brought a dark side to “feminism.” Major evils have arisen from their publicized and adopted values.

Modern feminist leaders, primarily women who have eschewed marriage, have diminished the most important single element of femininity: the maintenance of a home and the raising of children. Only women can bear and nurse children. Men can’t. For any civilization, the one vital requirement for its continuation is the production and raising of children who will accept and support that civilization and its values in a responsible fashion. Women can produce those children and, with the support of responsible men, can raise such citizens.

As an example, I believe that my mother, in bearing and raising three children who became law-abiding citizens did more for the future of the United States than did my father, a responsible and law abiding citizen who spent his life working as a salesman to support her and the children. Let me note, however, that my father assisted her in this by both his efforts and example in providing a living for the family and his support of her and the family at home.

During their thoughtless harangues the feminists of the seventies diminished the role of the stay-at-home mother and often spoke of the mistreated wives held in subjection and mistreated by errant husbands. Did such women exist? Certainly! Did such husbands exist? Certainly! But advocates of modern “freedom” of employment and sexuality never compared the lot of such wives to those of the girls and women who worked – slaved would be a better word – in factories and as servants for minimum wages.  Compare “mistreated” wives with factory girls. Those factory girls were also expected to provide “favors” for their employers – if they wanted to keep the jobs they held. One text I read of the garment industry reported that attractive young women were expected to provide sexual favors for their foremen. Otherwise, they joined the ranks of the unemployed, with no recourse in the law and no way of supporting themselves. At least wives had the protection of laws, if they chose to claim them. 

Has this changed? Do attractive young women no longer accept the indignity of the casting couch in hope of bit parts in movies? Sorry, but my years of working as a professor, a counseling psychologist and in the military have provided me with too many examples of young women willing to exchange “favors” for advancement in their careers. I believe the “casting couch” continues to exist in many forms, in many occupations despite laws forbidding sexual “harassment.” In my volunteer work for the Federal Employees Union and for Equal Employment Opportunity in addition to real charges, which I documented, I also encountered some women who used the laws against discrimination and sexual “advances’ to advance their careers with false charges of “sexual harassment” or “sexual discrimination.”

I haven’t heard of feminism addressing these topics: those of the abuse of working women and by working women of “protectionist” laws. The world of work for women has not really changed; it has only become more subtle. A woman in a happy marriage is still significantly better off than a single woman in the world of work: at least studies in which mature women, twenty years following college graduation, reported their happiness and satisfaction with their lives reported married women as significantly happier – according to their own reports – than single women. 

Thus, just as married women raising families do more for our nation than most men in the jobs they hold, they also find greater happiness than men, married or single, or single women. By diminishing the value of the housewife and encouraging young women to seek a life of employment, our modern feminists are also encouraging them to choose a life which may provide temporary privilege and enjoyment, but whose end ensures greater loneliness and unhappiness.

In a somewhat slowly developing move, President Obama has created a coup in Libya that I believe no other President has achieved. He should be complimented. Libya has been run by a tyrant, Gaddafi, who had no love for the United States, but had decided to cooperate with us against the Al Qaida, a violent, terrorist, enemy. His subjects revolted – at least some of them. After some delay, what ignorant Republicans called dithering, Obama threw the power of our armed forces against Gaddafi, who appeared about to defeat the insurgents. It was a brilliant strategy. He created a double lose situation for the United States. If the insurgents win, they will be controlled by Al Qaida, an organization that hates and sends terrorists to kill us. If Gaddafi wins, he will hate us. How many of our Presidents have had the wisdom to enter a conflict in such a way as to make certain that the winner will be our enemy?

George Lakoff wrote in an article in the Huffington Post (What Conservatives Really Want, February 19, 2011) that “Conservatives believe in individual responsibility, not social responsibility. They don’t think the government should help its citizens. That is, they don’t think citizens should help each other.” Note the complete twist of logic, which I find common among “Liberal” writers. Since when does individual responsibility not include social responsibility? As to government help, yes, in major disasters such as Japan recently had, only the government has the resources to provide the necessary assistance. However, on a daily basis to individuals whose own activities have created problems for them - as is true of single mothers, alcoholics and drug addicts, all the government does is to take money from the responsible, give a large amount of it to government employees and trickle down some to the irresponsible.  Responsible individuals, knowing their neighbors, do much more good in such situations than people working, occasionally, in WashingtonDC government offices.

Watching the evening news and reading news articles on the Internet, I am impressed by the items reporters consider important. Are any of them aware that we still have over 40,000 service men and women in Iraq?  They never mention them or their activities.  President Obama said he would bring them home. Probably he did, but he also sent in replacements. What about Afghanistan, which President Obama said was vital to our interests? We have over 60,000 military, many in combat or combat situations there, but one wouldn’t know that from listening to ABC, NBC or CBS or reading the New York Times or the Washington Post. 

Then there is Libya, our newest military adventure. A government spokesman, praising the Libya action, said Obama believes people should have the right to assemble and protest without threat and is acting to support their safety. He even mentioned the people of Syria and a few other mid-eastern nations as possibly having the need for our help. Great! Does this mean that he now supports the “Tea Party” assemblies and will have his FBI and Attorney General Holder arrest and try the hired thugs who try to disrupt their protests of government tyranny?

President Obama said we would be out of Libya in “days.” But how long is an Obama day? The Bible says that God created our world in seven days and some biologists whom I know argue that there are seven eras in the development of our current world. We all know President Obama has a good opinion of himself, which “day” is he on in Libya?

Changing the subject – slightly, having read article after article complaining about the salaries of the leaders of corporations including banks, I realized that I never saw an article about Union leaders’ salaries.  I decided to look up the salaries of the Union Officials, especially the ones complaining about attempts to hold the salaries of public employees to levels comparable to those of private workers in similar jobs. If anyone is interested, good luck. I could find reports on only two.  

Wisconsin Educational Association maintains a medical insurance business. It has twelve executives whose salaries exceed $100,000 a year. Including all financial benefits their total individual incomes range from that of the President and CEO Fred Evert’s $469,522.00 per year down to Carol Pelrick (Chief Accounting Officer) who makes only $181,792 per year. (directorblue.blogspot.com, January 2, 2011)  The article did not mention compensation for other Union leadership positions.

The Teamster Union has 98 officials who made salaries of $150,000 a year or more. These ranged from Earnest Sowell of Houston, whose total compensation was $329,962, down to Richard Smith of Des Plaines, Illinois, whose total was only $157,874 (annual TDU report) 

Incidentally, it is possible to find out how much money unions donate to the Democratic Party. I found it by accident. Think hundreds of millions of dollars, not hundreds of millions total, but hundreds of millions per union. No wonder Obama is exempting requesting unions from his health care plan.

Recently, being momentarily in charge to the check book, I bought a can of Planters Mixed Nuts, dollar or so more expensive than the cheap cans I normally purchase. A disaster, instead of more pecans and similar treats, I seemed to have fewer. It reminded me of a story my friend Al DuRocher told me. While awaiting orders to go overseas during WW II (Al fought his way through New Guinea) Al, married with children, took an evening job in a canning factory. He told me it was fascinating. A long line of cans with some vegetable would come down the assembly line. His job was putting labels on the cans. He said there would be so many of some expensive brand, then so many of some cheap brand. He said all of the cans were filled out of the same vats and there was no difference between the expensive and the cheap other than the label. I decided the same must be true of “Planters” and “Best Choice.” Having resolved to stop wasting money on the expensive brand, Sheila came walking in with an even larger can of “Planters” she had purchased for me. (It is as devoid of expensive nuts as they smaller can I paid for.)

Sheila’ physical therapists suggested that she receive massage treatment, an idea I questioned, for two reasons. One, it meant another day of driving into town for medical treatment – now five days a week, and it cost $50, which my insurance would not pay. Anyway, we had to go to Nashville to see Gary Smith, whom I trust completely, and when Sheila mentioned that the therapists wanted her to have a massage, he endorsed the idea enthusiastically, so I was won over. Sheila went on Wednesday and when she came home she was in better shape, moved more freely and had less pain than has been true for years! It seems that when a person lives with pain for a long time, in Sheila’s case for the past eighteen years, the nerves become accustomed to it and, even after the cause has been cured, continue to spread pain through the body in a process called “smudging.” A massage, by a competent professional, attacks this and the result was great for Sheila.  She has now, thank goodness, gotten beyond the need for that and intensive therapy, although she continues to need the lesser exercises she does at home and the Cardiac Club and some pain medication. The only negative element of her improvement is that she has spasmodic kicks in her sleep and I happen to share the bed.  

But our President has not been inactive during this time even if Bill O’Reilly in “Getting Gaddafi” has called him “indecisive” and accused him of “dithering.” He has played golf, plotted the basketball teams in the playoffs and predicted winners, and planned a vacation trip through South America. How can O’Reilly accuse him of doing nothing: of indecision and dithering?

Kathryn Lopez has an interesting essay, “Palin’s Terminal Velocity,” on Townhall.com (March 19, 2011) She mentions surprise at a Wall Street Journal poll which found that Democratic voters would vote for Charlie Sheen, the drug addicted Hollywood philanderer, over Alaska ex-governor, Sarah Palin, by 44 to 33%. More surprising, it appeared, to her, was that Independents would support Sheen for President over Palin by 41 to 36%. Why is she surprised? They elected Obama didn’t they?

I have been watching the Somalia pirate situation with interest which has been ongoing throughout the two and a half years of our current Presidency. It appears that President Obama, who spoke during his campaigning - if I recall correctly, of the President being a leading force in the world, is at a loss as to how to handle the situation for the good of all nations if not for United States citizens. I have a suggestion for a simple solution. President Obama should send a letter to the head of Somalia expressing hope for change. Then he should watch carefully, at the end of, say twenty-four hours, if there is no noticeable change, send another message expressing sorrow that the leaders of Somalia do not have the strength to deal with the pirates, but that the United States will help. Then send in the navy. Sink every ship in the harbor and every Somalia ship that can be located at sea. Sink them, don’t capture them: we have neither the room nor the wish to house several thousand Somalia pirates in our prisons for thirty years. Having done this, have the navy air force practice their bombing. Level the harbor and the city that surrounds it. Then send a third message to the chief of Somalia. Express pleasure at our ability to assist him in ridding his nation of pirates. Enclose a bill for the services of the navy. Don’t try to make a profit, just the costs, say a billion dollars or so.

If this idea helps you Mr. President, don’t bother to thank me, I’m just pleased to be able to assist you in finding the only solution possible, given the current situation.

It is not just watching political offices that I have seen that. As a youth I worked in clothing stores, first as a stock boy, later as a part-time salesman. When a salesman was absent from the floor too often or when business was slack and the sales clerks spent their time standing and talking to each other rather than straightening the shelves and hanging suits, the store supervisor talked to the department head – and the sales clerks behavior changed.

This is what I don’t understand about the countless articles blaming the lack of progress on the teachers. Where are the administrators?

When one of my sons was in an algebra course under a first year teacher, it disturbed me that his teacher never checked his homework, she simply entered a checkmark that he had turned in his homework. She didn’t know if he had made mistakes or done it properly. I finally lost my temper completely when he told me that during class she would assign problems and then turn on the room television to watch her favorite soap opera. I created enough of a fuss, that a meeting I had with the teacher included the principal and the assistant director of education. During the meeting I brought both subjects up without contradiction from the teacher. Nothing changed. I spent weekends teaching algebra to the boy. What happened to the teacher? She was re-hired the next year. 

Principals are supposed to oversee teaching. If teachers aren’t teaching, why blame them. Why not put the fault where it belongs, with the administrators?

As a beginning teacher, I worked for a tyrant named Ben Milster. Ben came to school early to do his paperwork – with twenty-six teachers and thirteen hundred children I suspect there was a lot. But then he spent his day wandering the halls. I promise you, that he didn’t like to see a teacher sitting behind his or desk. In his opinion, a teacher should be standing up teaching or walking the aisles checking on the children’s work as they did desk assignments. We teachers didn’t “like” Ben, but we respected him. With more experience, my respect for Ben has only grown. Incidentally, our slum school students who came from the poorest of neighborhoods in our high school’s area, were routinely placed in top classes when they left us and went to high school. 

During the years that I supervised student teachers, I was in and out of many schools. I saw principals who worked at doing their jobs, they knew their teachers and they knew their students – at least the problem ones. They also knew my student teachers and could give accurate descriptions of their work. I also visited schools where the principal always seemed too “busy” to talk and knew little about my students. I suspect they knew equally little about their teachers. 

Taken in mass, it is my belief that in any occupation, from ditch digger to doctor, there will be people who will work as little as possible and that their work will be done as poorly as it can be done without being fired or sued. That is why, or should be one reason, for having supervisors and administrators.

Let us stop blaming teachers from not doing their jobs, let’s begin blaming the administrators who don’t do theirs: who fail to supervise and, even as in the case of my algebra teacher, when a teacher has been proven to neglect her teaching and ignore her students, keep employing them to the point when they receive tenure.

Sheila made my annual treat last night and it sits in the freezer awaiting my attention. It is a Black Forest cake. For those unacquainted with this delicacy, it consists of three layers of dark chocolate cake. You spread the first layer with cherry liquor, then a covering of cooked cherries. We prefer a mix of cooking cherries and sweet cherries. Then on top of this comes an inch of whipped cream. Then comes the next layer of cake, treated in the same way and, finally, a third layer, also with cherry liquor, but no cooked cherries, instead a heavy layer of whipped cream with sweet cherries sprinkled on top. It is worth eating and Sheila does her best. I could take it more than once a year. 

Anyway after our workout we did some shopping. First, to the Christian bookstore for Sheila, then to the farm supply store for a can of Neatsfoot Oil. It is amazing how few people know about this oil, in fact, the girl who sold it to me didn’t know its use. Baseball players formerly, and perhaps still, used it to oil their gloves. Made from the inside of a cow’s hoof, it waterproofs and softens leather. I like to put it on my leather shoes and it is great for leather jackets. After that, we just happened to stop at Dickson Donuts, which makes the best donuts in town. Then, following brief stops at the grocery and the bank, home to an eagerly awaited pipe. 

My gifts from Sheila this year have included books. Added to those I’ve purchased already, I have a lot of reading to do. I purchased Mike Huckabee’s “ ASimple Government.” Now one third of the way through I’m glad I voted for him last time and will again unless I hear and read the ideas of someone I like better. It is NOT an autobiography, instead it a compilation of his beliefs for government, all of which – so far – appeal to me. Last time, in voting for him, I was actually voting against McCain and Romney.

I would, of course, vote for Dr. Thomas Sowell first if he were to run for the Presidency. I’ve always enjoyed his essays on Townhall, but his book “Barbarians Inside the Gates,” which is one of Sheila’s presents and which I’ve just finished reading is brilliant.

Another of Sheila’s gifts is Dr. Walter E. Willians “Doing the Right Thing.” At first it didn’t impress me, but his essays become, to me, sharper and more pertinent as the book goes on. Primarily, at least as far as I have read, it consists of essays written in the nineties. Shamefully, the problems he discusses all continue to exist and there has been a complete failure to try any of the solutions he suggests: solutions which I believe would be successful. 

I’ve also been reading C. S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity.” A book well worth reading as Lewis chronicles his development from atheist to Christian. I, who have attended – under Sheila’s orders – a number and variety of churches from Mormon to Church of England and have found them all wanting in one or two, often to me, minor details relate easily to Lewis’s beliefs. For questioners such as me, it would be an excellent book.

The other book that I’m working on is “The Qur′an” translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Currently I’m up to Surah (chapter if you wish) 11. I intend, when I’m finished, to do a full report on it, but at this point let me say that I do not believe that anyone who accepts the truthfulness and direction of the Qur′an can possibly believe and accept the United States Constitution. I’d like to know a Muslim well enough to get him to explain why they are not incompatible. Of course, any true Muslim, following the law, would not associate with me on any social level. Such socialization is forbidden by the Qur′an. In the meantime, I would like anyone who thinks we can accept Muslim teachings in our country without destroying our government and system of laws to read this book.

Anyway, so much for now, I need to eat some birthday cake. I wouldn’t want Sheila to stop making them, it would eliminate a reason for living to 82.      

An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear Mr. President:

Certain foreign affairs appear to be troubling you at this time. I have suggestions regarding two of them which may help you.

First, I have been watching the Somalia situation with interest. It appears that you and your advisors are at a loss as to how to handle the situation for the good of all nations. I have a suggestion for a simple solution. Send a letter to the head of Somalia expressing hope for change. Then you should watch carefully. At the end of, say twenty-four hours, if there is no noticeable change, send a second message expressing sorrow that the leaders of Somalia do not have the strength to deal with the pirates, but that the United States will help. Then send in the navy. Sink every ship in the harbor and every Somalia ship that can be located at sea. Sink them, don’t capture them: we have neither the room nor the wish to house several thousand Somalia pirates in our prisons for thirty years. (Currently the 18 pirates who killed four Americans are being transported to the United States for civilian trials.) Having done this, have the navy air force practice their bombing. Level the harbor and the city that surrounds it. Then send a third message to the chief of Somalia. Express your pleasure that you have been able to assist him in ridding his nation of pirates. Enclose a bill for the services of the navy. Don’t try to make a profit, just the costs: a billion dollars or whatever. If you don’t wish to charge Somalia, at least quit sending them millions in foreign aid.  

My second suggestion concerns Afghanistan. I have a grandson on his way there with the Marines, but I am not only concerned about him, but also about all other young people there. I have some experience with this, having served as a scout with the 15^th Infantry Regiment in the mountains of Korea. Combat is not fun, it is vicious. It is unpleasant to see friends and fellows die, but at least we had a purpose. We were to drive the North Koreans and the Chinese out of South Korea and we did. And we kept them out. That is not possible in Afghanistan. The tribes there have hated and fought one another for at least two thousand years. They will not change, just as the Sioux and the Chippewa still hate each other – it would be a mistake for a Sioux to go on a Chippewa reservation and vice-versa. Similarly, the Blackfoot and the Crow continue their hate. These feelings continue despite a hundred years of enforced peace between these different tribes. With your background you should be aware of such problems. Having lived and attended school in Hawaii you must know that it is a mistake for a Hawaiian of some tribes to walk down a street inhabited by members of certain other tribes, at least this is what a friend, a native born Hawaiian told me.

Thus the conflict in Afghanistan is not winnable without the complete destruction of the Afghan society which would require the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children: guilty and innocent alike, as we did in Japan and Germany.  But this approach is not possible politically.  Those Afghan tribes are not going to have a love fest and our current approach won’t change that. By sending young men and women into such a situation, you are simply sacrificing young American lives without purpose or hope. Declare the war Bush’s fault – in a way it is, after the Taliban were defeated, his purpose for going there, he should have withdrawn all troops. He didn’t. By continuing that debacle you are simply continuing his mistake. Accept the fact that it was his mistake, and bring our young fighters home. They could serve a more useful purpose on the Mexican border, a border that Mexico doesn’t appear to recognize.

If these ideas helps you Mr. President, don’t bother to thank me, I’m just pleased to be able to assist you in finding the only solutions possible, given the current situation. 

Sincerely yours, with hope for change.

William D. Dannenmaier

Essays I’ve read on the boondoggle in Wisconsin have been interesting. No wonder the teachers of Madison are on strike. Who can live on a guaranteed average income, including salary and benefits, of a hundred thousand dollars for nine months of occasional work? After all, consider how successful they are. Approximately 45% of the students graduate from high school (approximately 35% of blacks) and, possibly, many of those can read and write. The state government should be ashamed of asking teachers to help pay for their own health and retirement benefits. President Obama, Pelosi, Jesse Jackson and the Democrats in the State Senate are all supporting the strikers and protestors. They are even bussing people in from other states to protest. Why should a governor elected promising to restore fiscal sanity do what he promised to do before the election? Few of them do. If all else fails, bring in the SEIU thugs, bring on mob rule. Anything is better than an honest politician permitting people to have what they voted for. 

When running as the Republican candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Reagan said that he had always been a Democrat, but that the Democratic Party had abandoned their principles and deserted him, he had kept his principles as a Republican. I have always believed that the Democratic leadership had deserted the people, working for their own selfish interests, and that friends of mine who voted Democrat were voting for their memories and wishes, not their reality. This was brought to mind by a recent article in “OregonLive.Com” (February 19, 2011). Congressman Wu, of Oregon, while running for re-election, was behaving very oddly at times, in public as well as in private with his aides. His behavior worried his staff members who advised him to seek psychiatric help. He refused. Several of them, who later resigned, urged him to seek help for his emotional problems. He refused. In short, Democratic Party leaders knew that one of their Congressmen was increasingly suffering from emotional problems, which had reportedly occurred on occasion during his tenure in the House, but they were content to have an emotionally ill person remain on the ballot, represent the people of Oregon and help determine laws for the nation as a whole. The value to them? Another Democrat in the House, doing as Pelosi told. The public be damned.

Returning to the Wisconsin mess, I have several questions that I have not seen addressed in any reports. First, will the Senators who left the state and refuse to return be paid for the time they are refusing to work? My second question arises from all the articles I’ve read on how much the “rich” business leaders are being paid. I have never seen a report concerning how much union leaders are being paid in salaries and benefits. I would like to know. This seems particularly important in Wisconsin where public employees, teachers included, are required to join unions. One article I read said that if teachers did not have to pay union dues their paychecks would actually be higher even after the proposed health and retirement benefit charges were deducted from their salaries. The union bosses must be doing very well indeed. No wonder they are fighting so hard to avoid passage of a bill which would make union membership voluntary. Those union bosses would have much less money for their own salaries and benefits.

Napolitano, Obama’s director of Homeland Security visited Afghanistan over Christmas to advise Afghans on establishing a secure border with Pakistan. Consider her success in keeping illegal immigrants and terrorists from entering the United States via the porous border with Mexico, the Taliban should welcome her advice to the Afghan government.

Obama gave an interesting State of the Union address. It was glorious, arousing and forward looking – as long as the listener didn’t think. It is difficult for me to understand how he is going to “freeze” government spending while providing more money to education, highway construction, light rail systems and other projects. 

More interesting, and logically consistent, to me was Congresswoman Bachmann’s reply. I highly recommend that anyone reading this look up her speech on Google. Her speech made me decide to begin looking over her actions as a potential Republican Presidential candidate. I expect that the press and the major television news media will begin searching for into any “sins” in her background. They can always make some up, as they have with Palin, if they can’t find any real problems. Remember the insinuations that Palin’s fourteen year old daughter was hoping for sex with some ball player? Or was her disabled child was really hers? Maybe Bachman eats beef – consider the fate of those poor cows. After all, how does this differ from Palin eating elk or moose?  They will probably insist that she produce her birth certificate and school records, as they did of Bush. And Obama?

I have noted that the New York Times is heralding Romney as the leading candidate for the Republican contender for the Presidency. They liked McCain also. It is interesting how the liberal press always touts for the Republican contender most likely to lose. That can’t possibly, of course, be deliberate. To claim it was deliberate would suggest they were capable of thought.

I see that Mr. Gore is now saying “global warming” is responsible for the blizzards that are crippling the United States from Texas to Maine. Just a few years ago his Democratic friends in the Senate were saying that global warming was responsible for the LACK of snow. Why not? Memories are short and a lot of money has been made and is being made off of global warming – tax payer money of course.

I have always been a fan of Newt Gingrich, my bride hasn’t been – and isn’t (She doesn’t approve of men who cheat on their wives.) Having read an extensive article entitled “Professor Cornpone” in the Wall Street Journal (Monday, January 31, 2001), I have come to her opinion. Mr. Gingrich gave a speech in Iowa praising ethanol. Like Gore, he appears to be willing to support anything that might help his chances to be President. I should add that the Journal article doesn’t stop with his speech in Iowa; it brings up his voting record. He appears to be more of a good conservative Republican in speech than in action.

Some political leaders in Israel and Egypt have expressed surprise and accused President Obama of betraying President Mubarak of Egypt. Why the surprise? If I recall correctly, and I believe I do, the first person Obama “threw under the bus” was his white grandmother in Hawaii who raised him and paid for him to attend expensive private schools. The second was the “Reverend” Wright, whose church he attended for twenty years, helped him get elected and was proclaimed, by Obama, as his mentor and advisor. Michelle had best watch her step. On the other hand, she might know too much about Obama for him to seriously annoy her.