Does it give the Obama Maniacs any pause for thought that Fidel Castro, who has led Cuba into dictatorship and poverty, and Hugo Chavez, who is working diligently to do the same for Venezuela have been praising Obama’s initiatives?

The Democrats and Republicans, excluding a few Republicans, in the House have passed a bill levying a 90% tax on bonuses given to the unsuccessful leaders of AIG, a bonus which was specifically approved in a bailout bill passed by the Democrats. This is frightening. First the government hands out, then the government punishes for accepting the handout. If this latest bill, which authorizes the punishment of people who obeyed Congressional law, is not challenged and defeated in the courts, what does it mean for the rest of us? Will it be the right of the county council or state government to raise the taxes on my home and twenty-five acres to an unpayable amount and then confiscate my land because I have not paid that money in the past years when I paid in full the taxes they had assessed? Ex Post Facto laws are clearly ruled illegal in our Constitution. You cannot punish a person for a crime which was not a crime when they committed it. This newest Congressional Bill is a clear violation of our Constitutional rights and a threat to all of us.

To date, we, taxpayers, have given 17.4 billion dollars to General Motors and Chrysler. They are now in line to receive 21.6 billion more dollars. Automotive leaders have stated that they may require “considerably more” money. In effect, Congress is requiring taxpayers to pay for automobiles they don’t wish to purchase. The only consolation to those, like me, who drive small, inexpensive cars, is that while we are helping pay for those expensive cars, indirectly increasing the cost of the cars we purchased, the same thing is being done to those who purchased the more expensive Detroit cars. 

I have been watching the mislabeled “Employee Free Choice Act” as it receives Democratic support. There are some, like me, old enough to remember walking by houses to see the blood stains of non-union workers who were attacked by union thugs – union thugs, not necessarily union members. I also recall one of my mother’s friends whose husband, a union machinist, who spoke up criticizing the leadership during a union meeting. He never had employment again. If anyone thinks that some person, paid to increase union membership (perhaps an ACORN thug), is not going to pay attention to someone who publicly documents his desire NOT to join the union in writing, they have little knowledge of either history or human nature. 

Senator Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate, is pushing to have casinos in Nevada included in the “stimulus” bill because they permit, on occasion, non-profit organizations to use their meeting rooms for free. I suspect some interesting accountancy is involved here. First, the casinos can deduct a large amount from their taxes for permitting the “free” use of unused meeting rooms and then they can profit from the money these people spend at their gambling tables and in their restaurants. Now, Senator Reid wishes to give them a few hundred million taxpayer dollars as a reward. This is, of course, only for the public good, although Mr. Reid may receive a few hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaign funds.

Nancy Pelosi is the most fascinating of our leaders however. In a time of crisis, when our national leaders were under attack, she, as Speaker of the House and third in line for the Presidency, received the right to use military aircraft without charge. The crisis is past, but Speaker Pelosi continues to enjoy weekly or semi-weekly trips from DC to California on these privileged aircraft. She has expanded this usage to include relatives, such as children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces and others. Shouldn’t her friends and relatives be reimbursing the government – known as taxpayers – for the price of first class commercial tickets for this privileged service?

Pelosi also continues to pursue the “fairness” doctrine, hoping to get it passed into law, which is probable considering the heavy Democratic majorities in both House and Senate. It will apply, of course, only to radio at this time, the one media which is open to all political persuasions. Newspapers and television “news” programs which elected President Obama and these Democratic majorities will be immune. My question is, if she successfully muzzles the voice of the people on radio, will she then censor the Internet? 

In the meantime, President Obama continues to do what he does best, romping around the nation, at taxpayer expense, showering praises on himself and raising money for the next election. It is a good thing Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid are running the nation so thoughtfully and so well in his absence. 

If people in business are required to give back money they haven’t earned, how about Congress?

Pluses to Bill. At the ripe old age of twenty, he could distinguish, at least at an intellectual level, between lust and love.

An activity this past week brought that occasion back to mind. Three mornings a week I exercise at the CardiacRehabilitationCenter. A primary activity requires walking on a treadmill. This is probably the most stupid and boring task of ever invented. It would be intolerable if we didn’t have some fun conversations and a television going.   One morning my neighbor on an adjacent machine and I paused our conversation to attend to two curvaceous young women in minimal clothing who appeared on the television screen. When that vision disappeared, I asked my neighbor, “Do you think they can cook?”

That is the heart of our current problem with the divorce rate. Too few people recognize the difference between lust, love and marriage. We all know what lust is, let’s jump beyond that. Love is something more, it is a caring which goes beyond friendship. We all have many friends whose successes please us and whose difficulties cause us to grit our teeth, but love goes beyond that. A loving relationship is one in which you stand ready to assist and make sacrifices for someone else in times of trouble in addition to rejoicing in their successes. You are concerned about them, and your concern goes beyond words.  People have many friends, but relatively few loves.

Marriage is a step beyond love: it is a partnership. As a partnership, it does not necessarily include either lust or love. Two sisters lived a block from me: one a year younger, one a year older. I thought of asking the younger for a date, but never did. I was surprised when their parents divorced following the departure of the last daughter from home. Later I learned that for years those two people had never spoken to each other. It was a working marriage, but a loveless marriage. Such marriages, I hope, are rare. 

In marriage, first comes friendship, then comes love and, finally, if we are lucky, then comes marriage. Lust is mixed in there also. Sheila’s showed signs of irritation on our way home following our two minute wedding ceremony - I invited my son Bill and Sheila’s two friends who had attended the wedding to go to dinner with us. When I quizzed Sheila about her slightly concealed unhappiness as we were driving home, she said, “I didn’t marry you to go out to eat.” 

Unfortunately, even good marriages fall apart. During the years I taught at college, too many older students said to me, “I had a good marriage, but I blew it and it’s too late to go back to it now.” At the time I attributed their failures to the fact that for the first time these young people were living on their own, irritated at and blaming the other for the often dreary tasks that accompany adult life. But I now think such problems are a minor cause of divorce.

I believe that our society, as it has evolved, bears a responsibility for the high divorce rate. In today’s world, both men and women are employed, rarely in the same workplace. In the morning, the man gets in his automobile and drives off to his job, the woman does the same. They each spend the day doing different things. Each has workplace acquaintances and friends, largely unknown to the other: not out of any deliberate act, but as a consequence of their working lives. Young couples who, as a consequence of living in the same area, attending the same schools or attending the same church and evolved through the pattern of lust, friendship and love become strangers to one another. Or, if not strangers, at best acquaintances. 

However, this estrangement provided by modern society can be overcome, and overcome happily. In this, I’ll defer to my bride, who has provided me with the happiest thirty years of my life.

Let us begin by saying that I have loved to swim since my brother Joe taught me how when I was nine. I swam at every opportunity. When I first came to know Sheila, she confessed that she didn’t know how to swim. I taught her. Since then we have swum together at all opportunities. We worked in different offices, but used our lunch hours to swim. In fact, we were on our way to the swimming pool when she told me she would rather go to the hospital. The result was Stephen. 

Early in our marriage, a former student challenged me to take sign language, which she taught. Sheila joined me and became considerably better than I at communicating with the deaf. 

Since then Sheila and I have taken courses together in computer programming, automobile mechanics and Korean. Even when I was taking a course which did not interest Sheila, she often took a class at the same place and time so that we could travel together. (Incidentally, taking courses together was not only profitable personally; it was also much less expensive than going to night clubs or movies.)

Our non-class activities included camping together, attending business meetings together and going to church together. Not all of our “together” experiences were items of first choice to me, and probably the same was true of her, but it gave us a common ground of experiences which solidified our relationship AND our marriage.

We also spent, and spend, time in household activities together, both before and after we had children. When I was cutting wood, there was Sheila, dragging the limbs through the snow to the house where I could cut them up for firewood. My bride insists that I include our cooperation in household tasks. She mentioned washing dishes and laundry. I am more appreciative that she is always there with glasses of ice water and warnings about my over-doing things when I am digging in the garden or pushing the lawn mower.

My point to all this is that despite different primary duties, married couples can overcome the separations imposed by our economic society and enjoy activities that continue and enhance the friendship and love – and lust - that brought them together in the first place. But it requires consideration and cooperation from both. 

I hadn’t seen Dr. Smith in some time and Megaera was ill, so I paid a visit to him. He thinks I come because he is an excellent doctor and my friend, but the truth is that there is a Publix grocery near him which sells fresh fish and spiced meats which are unavailable nearer and has a sinful bakery counter. Among Sheila’s purchases was a nine dollar package of fresh cod. She cooked it that evening. We took some for our evening meal and left the majority on the stove for the boys. Later, walking into the kitchen for a second helping, I found it all gone. But Stephen and Andrew had yet to come downstairs for supper. I had a very angry wife and a very satisfied mongrel shepherd – Yukon.

Incidentally, on the way to Dr. Smith, Sheila insisted that I take a different route which she claimed was shorter and less hazardous. True, the first two miles were easy, the next fifteen were on highway 47, which has the sharpest curves and the highest accident rate in middle Tennessee. Then we were on four lane divided highways, crowded, with a legal speed of 55 and a “keep up with the flow” speed of 75. Total trip, 49 miles – I checked. Coming home I took my preferred “long” route, two lane highway, gentle curves and little traffic. Total distance, 36 miles. Ah well, it wasn’t as bad as the time she took me a hundred miles in the wrong direction while serving as my navigator in Massachusetts.

Among the welfare animals (they produce no good, wantonly destroy our garden and consume our resources) which wander our yard is a rabbit, Suzy. I keep hoping she’ll run away, but she likes free-loading. The other morning, while sitting on the porch after feeding the dogs, cats and birds I looked over at the dog food tank. Sheba was asserting her authority by being first at breakfast and Baxter was sitting about five feet away waiting his turn. Then up hopped Suzy. She looked over at Sheba and then hopped over to Baxter and sat down next to him, turning her head to look up at him before beginning to groom herself. Our animals may be useless, but they do have a camaraderie of uselessness – much like too many people. 

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day I purchased my bride a five dollar box of chocolates the other day, not realizing that I was buying a lovely four and a half dollar box and six chocolates. On the way home, we shared one. In the morning I noted that she had erred and left the box on the kitchen table. Andrew was standing by and I congratulated him, saying it was nice that he and his brother had left their mother’s present alone. He said, “Well, Stephen and I did share one.” Opening the box, I saw only three remaining. Commenting on the one Sheila and I had eaten and the one he confessed to sharing, he quickly said, “Stephen had another one.” No one confesses to another’s sins so quickly as a brother or sister.

Telling this story in the Cardiac Club, it elicited numerous stories of children and grandchildren from our members and aroused a few memories of my own. One of my favorites concerned my nephew John, then about five, and his sister, Julie, an enterprising three. My sister reported that she had to keep punishing John for pummeling his little sister, then, one day she was in the front room cleaning. She could see John and a friend sitting on the front steps talking when Julie came out of the house, swung a fist, hit John in the back and ran in the house crying, two steps ahead of an angry brother. That day it was Julie who received the spanking!

Unlike many forgetful, neglectful and otherwise despicable husbands, I always remember Valentine’s Day. As soon as I’ve finished reading the news on the Internet, made my coffee, fed our welfare livestock, walk into the bedroom to dress for the day and see the card with the heart on it lying on my pillow, I rush to my bride and say, “Happy Valentine’s Day” and give her a big hug and a kiss. What more can a girl want? After all, she is my Valentine….

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.

Sheila spent a half hour “talking” with our grandson August on the Internet this afternoon.  He is a Marine in Iraq. He started by mentioning how he wished to be here and then drifted into his anger at our politicians who are ready to release enemy terrorists because of some imaginary legal error. When Sheila asked him how he was doing he said, “Well, we have our experiences.” I think I know what that means, I had hoped he wasn’t having them.  He went on to add that while Iraq had been won, we were in a global war with terrorists and asked, “Don’t people realize that?”

I started writing the following several months ago, but had about decided to let it die. For Augie’s sake, I’ve decided to finish it. I’ll begin with my original introduction and writing.

I haven’t been sleeping too well recently. Among troubling dreams were a lot that had to do with the military, and complaints by people who have lived in luxury all of their lives complaining about the conduct of soldiers about “torturing” enemies. 

Let me begin, actually I began up above, by saying I have some experience with soldiers in combat. I have six months up front with the 15^th Infantry Regiment, four of them as a radio scout. I should add, for any amateurs who read this, which I hope includes most, that being in combat doesn’t mean you are fighting all the time. It means you’re always ready to fight. Even though tense and watchful, most of the time you are sitting watching enemy lines, rummaging around for food and water, hoping people will write you letters and dodging the occasional mortar or shell fire – mortar shells are silent and you have to be aware of the “pop” that means one is on the way. If it sounds like a locomotive is bearing down on you, it means get down and deep as fast as you can; heavy artillery is coming in. 

You fight when you are sent out to do so, or when some enemy officer sends his people out to kill you. Sometimes it is vicious and bloody as in the battle for Outpost Harry in Korea where we lost 2300 men and killed some 7000, mostly in five nights of mass attacks or it may be small stuff a company against a company for example. Still, men, on both sides, who would rather be home with their families, get killed. You may, of course, and this is mostly a scout’s job, spend time out in no-man’s land, playing hide and seek with enemy scouts and always remembering that it is better to kill than to be killed. 

Now, concerning torture: it is always by definition – as seen in the eyes of the receiver or as defined by the ignorant. What one person defines as torture may be luxury to another; it depends on your experience.

I suspect that every parent has heard, “You’re torturing me!” more than once. Having had eight children I have heard it numerous times. Usually, this has occurred over such orders as do your homework or finish your oatmeal or you need to rake some leaves before you go to the movies. 

At the other end of childhood, we have some, perhaps many, Congress persons who would consider paying for their own tickets and riding on commercial aircraft torture.

But there is such a thing as real torture: something that brings pain to the person being tortured and, perhaps, permanent scarring or death. I know this is true.

Most people will tell you that persons who have been in combat will not talk about their experiences to others. The reason is that people who haven’t “been there” will not understand, but as a person who had been there I have had free discussions with men from the Second World War, Korea, and Vietnam. We understood one another. Up front, when you capture someone whom you believe knows something that might help save your life or the lives of others, you make certain they tell you what they know. 

If it is a guerilla, working behind your lines, after you have learned as much as you think you can, you kill him. If the person is a soldier – in uniform – that has been captured, and if it is safe to do so, you send him back to a prison camp. Otherwise, you have no choice. He or they, die so that you and your comrades live.

If someone is shooting at you from a house with women and children in it: you shoot back. If the women and children are killed, it is the shooter’s fault, not yours.

This was true in World War II in both Europe and Asia, it was true in Korea and it was true in Vietnam. Mercy and legal rights may be proper for prostitutes, shoplifters and Congressmen, but the rules of combat are different.

It is nice to be charitable, but combat has different rules. I know of two young Chinese soldiers who disobeyed this once. They captured a Greek soldier whom I knew: an exceptionally tall, strong man with a badly scarred face. They got careless. He killed both of them and returned safely. If they had been more experienced he would have died, and they would have lived another day.

Everyone I know who has served in combat is either aware of such situations, has witnessed them or has participated in them. If our political and legal leaders wish to imprison such persons, they should set up concentration camps and simply imprison all men who have actually served in combat – under their orders.

As my bride prepared lunch the other day, I settled in the family room to set up a movie for us to watch while eating. I looked forward to lunch that day. She had purchased a frozen diet meal of shrimp and rice which is a favorite of mine. To my surprise she came in with cheese and crackers. She had dropped my shrimp and rice. It turns out I’m not the only one in the house who enjoys shrimp and rice. Baxter and Yukon, our pure-bred mongrel shepherds, had cleaned the floor beautifully.

I fear I might have black fly disease. For the unsophisticated: black flies attack deer. Deer, who catch the disease black flies carry, die a slow death; tired and starving. Black fly disease is not supposed to affect humans.  I have been assured that even infected venison is safe to eat. When walking last year, I received numerous black fly bites. These only annoyed me at the time, but now I find myself tired a lot of the time. The medical profession is making a fortune off of me, with operations and treatments. But they are overlooking the real culprit, my problems have nothing to do with a broken chest, bad arteries or age. I have black fly disease. After all, I am a dear human.  Ask Sheila.

For some reason my son Eric brought four sets of colorful cotton pants for me on his last visit. They were for night wear. Either he saw me walking about on an earlier visit in the long underwear pants, slightly worn, that I purchased in 1982, or my bride had made disparaging comments about them to him. Anyway, Sheila has appropriated two of these. This morning, a cold one, she was walking about in them when we were preparing to go to the Cardiac Club. I got dressed, or undressed, to go (I don’t believe in excessive or heavy clothing when I have to weigh in every time) when I noticed my bride had changed into her jeans. Driving to the hospital, I asked why she changed. “Because they are pajamas, not outer wear.” “Why did you tell me to wear them yesterday when you refuse to wear them today” I asked? “Well if I went in there in pajamas, Mary Ann and Tammy (the nurses in charge) would check me for a fever and then send me to a psychiatrist, but if you wore them they would only say, “That’s Bill,” and forget it.

Mary Ann likes to write advice, especially diet advice on the blackboards. This morning one board was empty so I decided to help her out when she was distracted by business. I wrote, “Every one knows that cream is very light. It floats to the top in milk bottles, so, if you wish to lose weight, pour whipping cream over everything you eat. You’ll float on the scale.”

I saw Mary Ann read it, look at me, and shrug.  Why she looked at me, I don’t know.

Similarly, ex-Senator Daschle paid up $128,000 in taxes after being approached to become head of Health and Human Services. Richardson had to withdraw because of monetary scandals.

Daschle has now withdrawn from consideration, two days after President Obama proclaimed his complete support. Does this have a familiar ring? Didn’t then candidate Obama proclaim his complete support of the Reverend Wright just a few days before withdrawing support for him? 

Were I an employee of President Obama, I would get worried about my job if he declared his complete support of me. 

Michelle Malkin, in one of her typically excellent articles, “All the President’s Tax Cheats” (Townhall.com, 3 February 2009), reports that Nancy Killefer has withdrawn from her nomination as head of the new office to oversee budget and spending reform: another of Obama’s choices for a high level position, (overseeing compliance, organizational effectiveness of federal agencies). It appears that she also has tax problems.  Of course all of these people simply made “mistakes.” Had it been one of us worker bees “forgetting” something or including something that shouldn’t be there on a tax return, it would be criminal.

More recently, the Senate committee interviewing Obama’s choice for labor secretary suspended her hearing. It appears that Mrs. Solis, in whom Obama, I suppose, has complete trust, has a husband who has not been paying his taxes. He, I suppose, “forgot.”

A major reason I voted against Obama was that all of his associates seemed to be either criminals or anti-Americans. Some of his appointments and attempted appointments seem to verify a preference for such people. In the meantime, he is giving – or attempting to give – several billion dollars to ACORN, which is under investigation in several States for fraud and intimidation of voters. Will ACORN become Obama’s “civilian” militia? Will they wear black shirts, brown shirts or red shirts?

I continue to worry about President Obama. He truly, at least it appears to be truly, believes that we do not have the sense to run our own lives – we citizens who, with our ancestors, built this nation. Rather, lying, self-serving cheats, persons who would be criminals if they were not wealthy Democrats, working out of Washington DC will do better and have our best interests at heart. In case anyone remembers, Hitler also rose to power on a socialist program that proclaimed the government could cure all and had his own citizen army. They wore brown shirts. Obama has also written a couple of books explaining how great he is. In this he surpasses Adolph Hitler, who wrote only one such book (Mein Kampe) as he was coming to power. 

Obama campaigned on a platform of “Hope and Change.” Change seems to consist of placing old line, “forgetful,” politicians in important jobs. Now columnists are asking, “Where is the Hope?” “Hope” has been replaced by that song from “Hee Haw” which went, “ gloom, despair and agony all day, if you have no bad luck, you’ll have no luck at all” for the next several years – according to Obama.

In the meantime, Obama plans to send 30,000 MORE troops to Afghanistan. This despite the continuing criticism by the Afghan administration, which we helped install, of our current troops attempts to defend themselves in Taliban territory. Has it occurred to anyone in command – read President Obama – that Afghans don’t like foreign troops in their territory? A recent columnist commented that no outside army had ever pacified Afghanistan since Alexander the Great. That columnist doesn’t know his history. Alexander the Great never attempted to conquer Afghanistan. In fact, on his march to through India to the sea, he changed the route of his march to avoid the Afghan tribes.

The media have given considerable attention to the fact that Michael Steele has been elected the FIRST (my emphasis) national chairman of the Republican Party. Considering how few blacks vote Republican, that doesn’t surprise me. However, the black population has been the basic voting support of the Democratic Party for some 70 years. How many of their Party Chairmen have been black? How long will blacks be content to sit in the back of the Democratic bus?

Recently, I received the bill for my most recent hospitalization at Vanderbilt. Sheila took me in on a Thursday morning and I was released on Friday morning. When I received the bill, I read it to Sheila and Stephen. Total cost for the surgery, $31,962.58. Stephen, after recovering from the shock, laughed and said, “That’s the cost of restoring a classic.”

An article I read recently mentioned “organic” foods. Could anyone please tell me the last NON-organic food they ate, not counting salt? I, for example, have never eaten a limestone sandwich or a granite cookie – other than some my son Stephen made recently out of oatmeal.

Anyone who enjoys murder mysteries spiced with humor should read some of the Hamish Macbeth mysteries by M. C. Beaton. Hamish is a constable in a small town in the north of Scotland. He uses common sense to apply the laws of the land, but always catches murderers while in the process of solving village problems. It reminds me, in a way, of Cumberland Furnace. There are important things and unimportant things. Sheila says that is why they claim we are Celtic in our approach to life. (My friend Dick Gildrie claims that is why the working people of North and South Carolina did not support the American Revolution – they had no intention of obeying the King’s laws anyway.)

As liberal as I have always been, I would never expect rampant sex discrimination to appear in my household, but it reared its ugly head recently. Our friend Joyce invited Sheila to vacation in Hawaii with her in March. I appointed out that Sheila hasn’t been feeling well recently, but that I could accompany Joyce. This suggestion was ignored by both. I can only believe that sex discrimination is overcoming common sense in this case. 

Actually, this will be the second consecutive year the two have taken off together for a week. Joyce belongs to some organization where she pays so much a month and then receives a free week for two at some vacation spot. Once before it was a trip to Austria, last year it was a cruise to Mexico, now Hawaii. Joyce must believe, and Sheila agree, that Sheila has no responsibilities at home. What about me? Who is to cook and care for me during this week? Shows how little care the two have for my welfare. Reading this, Sheila said, “poor baby,” all while laughing. I would believe in her concerns more if she wouldn’t laugh while I was explaining some grievous injury I had, or was, suffering.

Truthfully, sexism appears to be rampant in our house. Megaera babysat two young loves, Chelsea, aged seven, and Dillon, all of four, for a friend the other night. This meant that she brought them to our house while Stephen played with them and she watched television. As she had them all night, she promised them pancakes in the morning, pancakes having been my ritual over the years on Sunday morning. The next morning Chelsea was up bright and early. She stood and watched as I located pancake mix, poured it in the bowl, added milk and an egg and then stirred. She begged to help, so when I was satisfied, I passed her the fork and she stirred happily while I heated the skillets and added butter. Then I cooked them, putting them on her plate. Sheila was standing there watching and, at my request, added syrup and cut them up for her. After the first bite, Chelsea looked up at my bride and said, “You make great pancakes!”

Following heart surgery and the required two or three months of bed rest, we are weakened physically and need time to rebuild our strength. There are approved activities and activities we are not supposed to do until “fully” recovered, which of course, we never are. Dr. Blazer and HorizonHospital maintain a Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit which we enter when released from house arrest following hospitalization. We attend three days a week. During this time we are taught exercises we can do and are closely watched, beginning with safe activities at a low level of energy, that are supervised and slowly increased, as we improve.  While in the Unit we are wired up with a small radio and our heart’s activities are monitored and printed out by one of the nurses.

When we are considered “ready,” we transfer to two days a week, no longer requiring all of the wiring, unless the nurses note something they don’t like, which happened to me a few months ago. Now, following more surgery, I’ve been demoted to the three day a week workouts until they, through Dr. Blazer, deem me ready, again, for the twice a week visits. 

I don’t really think of this as cardiac rehabilitation, I call it the Cardiac Club, because of the friendships we develop and the concern we all have for each other. 

Mary Ann and Tammy, who run the Cardiac Club, in addition to being first class Registered Nurses, have a nice sense of humor, although I did throw them into a tizzy fit the other day. After we finish our exercises, we are supposed to walk out of the back door, around the hall in the front door and back through the room twice.   On my second trip, I decided it would be nice to have a cup of coffee and wandered down the hall to find a free cup in the doctor’s office. Coming back, coffee in hand, I faced two hostile nurses. They were acting much like mothers do, who panic having lost a child and then get angry at him when he shows up. It seems the little electric signals the equipment I wear during workouts are good only for a short distance. I had gone beyond that when getting my coffee and the television monitor of my heart went into one of these straight lines like you see on television when someone has died. Mary Ann and Tammy had been looking for my body when I came wandering in, coffee in hand. 

 I have been forgiven now, however, on my promise not to go hunting for coffee again while wired up. Today, while Tammy was checking out my vital signs, I was telling children stories and she came back with one of her own. It seems that one rainy day when her children were four and six years old she was working in one part of the house while they were “playing” in another. She said that every time she turned around she heard “Mommy, Mommy.” Finally, she went into their room and said, “I don’t want to hear ‘Mommy’ any more today.” She returned to her work and said she had about ten minutes of peace and then a cry came from the front room, “Tammy, he’s hitting me.” She said all she could do was laugh. 

But not is all love and kindness for me in Cardiac Care. Not long after I first started, now two years ago, I told Mary Ann that we needed some improvements in the place. I suggested a hot tub and a snack bar. Mary Ann said “wait a minute” and left the room. She returned from her office carrying a bull whip and said, “I decide what we do in here.”

On my last visit I had gained a pound and turned to Sheila and said, “It’s your fault for cooking all of that good food.” Mary Ann, standing near, said, “And I suppose she shoves it down your throat with a spoon?” Tammy working on books couldn’t resist and joined the attack on poor old Bill. I responded when given an opportunity and finally escaped to the treadmill. Thinking about it later, I remembered the time that Sheila had gone to the Junior High to see our friend Miss Melton, the school counselor, for some reason. While standing in the hallway saying goodbye, she saw Andrew, who was walking down the hallway, intercepted by Mrs. Farthing, the English teacher, who was having some uncomplimentary things to say about his efforts in her class when she was joined by Mrs. Littleton, the history teacher. Then Joyce Melton joined in. It seemed unfair for three experienced adults to jump all over one twelve-year old. But I knew all three of them and they are excellent professionals. I laughed when Sheila told me about it.  Andrew needed a little straightening up. 

The difference between Andrew’s and my situations, both of which involved three women attacking one poor male, was that Andrew was deserved it. I was innocent of all their real and imagined charges.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, on Fox Sunday morning (January 18, 2009) amazed me. I have never seen a person more adept at answering a question one way and then reversing that answer completely in a second sentence. I believe her best, but not her only, such reply was her assurance to the nation that Congress would present a balanced budget and then going into the need to “borrow” almost a hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money to start the economy. Only politicians can balance a budget by borrowing money, but few can present such a contradiction as well as Speaker Pelosi did.

The fact that police in WashingtonDC were putting up signs, “prostitution free zone” for the coronation of Saint Obama pleased me. My initial thought was that everyone was getting into the act to welcome Obama, even prostitutes were servicing for free during the holiday. Then I realized no prostitutes would be permitted in that area (I guess they wear signs). What a travesty of campaign promises. Promising to put the world back to work, to restore the economy, Democrats are depriving hard working women of their jobs for a week that would have given them their highest income of the year from all of the visiting politicians.

While campaigning, then Senator Obama said he would immediately close the GuatanamoBay recreation camp for killers who profane the teachings of Muhammad by killing and advocating the killing of innocent men, women and children of all religious faiths around the globe. Now he suggests it may take four years to do this. Works out very nicely. Three and a half years from now he can campaign for re-election by promising to close the place immediately.

There are two questions regarding the handling of these avowed terrorists. If he simply wishes to quiet the negative publicity, he should move the place from its present location on the Caribbean. Currently, critics can go, visit briefly, enjoy the luxuries of the beaches and the bars of prestige hotels and then write scathing testimonials as to the mistreatment of the prisoners. Move it to some small town in northern Alaska where summer comes on July 4^th and the rest of the year you wear coats, hats and worry about frost bite. No one would go up there to visit, the Liberals would stay home and soon the place would be forgotten. However, if he truly wants to release them where they could do no harm and possibly improve the place, turn them loose in San Francisco. Or simply behead them all as they have done to innocent people. Granted this last would create a five minute burp in publicity, but then it – and they – would be forgotten.

Phyllis Schlafly has written an interesting article (1993 All Over Again) for Townhall.com (January 20, 2009). It is interesting, but I fear she is understating the case. Our economy had been in an extended bubble, but slowed down. The President put millions of dollars into an attempt to improve the economy, but unemployment increased and rose to 7.2%. The President with a Democratic Congress enacted laws and rules to restore the glory, but all failed. Now, a gifted speaker has been elected President and the Democrats have swept Congress all on vague promises of glorious change. 

Sound familiar?  No, it was not Barack Obama, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt. His slogan was not “Hope and Change” it was “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Ask the average person, including most college graduates, if Roosevelt solved the depression and they will answer, “Yes.” In a sense he did. He and Congress poured millions of tax dollars into the economy, constructing programs for the unemployed. At the end of the first four years of his programs that 7.2% unemployment under Hoover had risen to 20%, but he was still a gifted speaker. Re-elected, the unemployment rate rose to 24%. Then he maneuvered us into the Second World War, either deliberately or through bad judgments. Put 11 million men out of a population of 150 million in the armed forces, kill off or injure a million of them, and, behold unemployment is solved. End of depression!

Now we have another gifted speaker leading the faithful with promises of hope and change. President Bush, bowing to Congress, poured several billion dollars into the economy, but things only got worse. By the end of his presidency unemployment had risen to 7.2%. Now Obama promises to pour hundreds of billions of tax dollars into the economy. I hope it works, but the precedent isn’t very good. In fact, it frightens me.

This isn’t really relevant (if any of it is) but I read a recent news article extolling Obama’s selection of Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State. The writer exulted over Mrs. Clinton’s brilliance, claiming she had an IQ of 128. I had to laugh, but then looked up the statistics to be certain. In a nation of 300 million, which describes us, 6 million, 399 thousand and 900 people have higher IQs than Mrs. Clinton. 

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.

Family Meanderings

By

William D. Dannenmaier

This morning, gossiping while I was getting dressed, my bride, huddled under the covers, said, “I was having some happy thoughts earlier this morning, but then I fell asleep again and now you’re up and getting dressed.” It shows what near thirty years of marriage will do to romance.

There are some nice things about being confined to house arrests in-between hospital and doctor visits. Son Stephen had planted all of the trees and bushes I wanted planted this fall, following my instructions. Three cooking cherry spouts are now planted down by the blacksmith shop and four blueberry bushes along the driveway in addition to a replacement butternut walnut in the center of the front yard. 

Three or four years ago I planted a pecan tree, on my property between myself and the church. A neighbor, observing this, commented that I would never live to get pecans off of that tree. I said, “I know, but your grandchildren and perhaps mine will enjoy the pecans for years after I’m gone. 

I’ve never understood people who plant and do things that are only for their own, immediate, good. I don’t expect to see cherries on those seedlings Stephen planted, which is why I had him plant them in places where some other person would be unlikely to cut them down, but the birds will enjoy them whether I do or not. I do, however, hope to get blueberries in two or three years and stop freeloading off of Bob and Kathy Connors’ bushes. 

Sheila is busy hunting for a Bible given to Megaera by the church when she graduated from junior high school. Megaera can’t find it at her home. Sheila says she is positive she gave it to Megaera when Megaera moved, she knows because she didn’t want to because it is such a truly wonderful study Bible. She ended her conversation on the subject saying she had hoped Megaera wouldn’t take it, that it takes a truly evil person to want to steal a Bible from a daughter, and I married her.

Stephen had an A grade going into his final on one class and then missed the final. He went on the wrong day. I overheard his conversation with the professor, whom he telephoned to discover what he could do about making it up. He simply told the Prof that he had gone on the wrong day. The Prof made an appointment to discuss it with him. A problem is that Stephen is a very private person. I told him that the Prof didn’t know if he was out on a drunk or whatever.  I thought that was unfair. The Prof had a right to know that on the day of the examination I was in the hospital for heart surgery, surgery serious enough that I had postponed having my glasses repaired or purchasing new overalls because I saw no use in wasting money if I turned up dead. Our house was in a state of total confusion at the time. As Stephen admitted to me, all he could think about at the time was my surgery. Of course the Professor has the power to decide, but the people I have known in the teaching profession would treat a student who missed class because his father was in surgery would treat the situation quite differently from one who missed because he had partied the night before – a dubious excuse I heard many times was “it was my grandmother’s (grandfather’s) funeral.

It has always been my policy to tell my children and those who worked for me WHY I was doing something or wanted something done. The result has been mixed for the children, some teachers don’t like to explain why they are doing something. Perhaps they don’t know. I recall one boy asking me in my sixth grade class why we had to study a particular subject and my answer, if not intelligent, satisfied him. I said that the Board of Education required this to be taught and they paid me to do it. It was not a democracy. If I wanted to keep my job, I’d do it. The result for me has been that of my eight children, seven of them still correspond with me routinely and the secretaries, assistants and co-workers all liked me. One young woman, my office assistant at WashingtonUniversity, was given the choice by her father of spending a year in Europe, of working on a Master’s Degree at any university she chose, or of continuing to work with me. I learned this when she showed me a new Pontiac convertible her father had purchased her as a consolation prize for staying with me. (She enjoyed me discussing with her all the details of the industrial testing work I was doing and why I was selecting which tests.)

Ramblings

By

William D. Dannenmaier

I read that the multi-millionaire Huffington has been awarded several million dollars – I think ten – to keep her blog or Huffington Post out of bankruptcy. It seems only reasonable. She worked hard enough to discredit the Republicans and elect the Democrats. Perhaps her efforts should be rewarded. If that is true it may be a legitimate expenditure of taxpayer money. I wonder, were I to apply for a thousand dollars for help on my frequently broken down computer to keep my blog going, if I would receive it.

The difference with which our leaders and the news media treat the wealthy and the poor in our country - founded on equality - is interesting. Driving to Nashville for an interview with Dr. Petracik, I saw an older man, at 78 I hesitate to call someone who appeared to be in his sixties “old,” walking down the street in one of the poorest parts of town. His hair was disheveled, long, white and dirty. His beard was similarly long, white and dirty; and his clothing was ragged and dirty. It occurred to me that if he were to stand outside the courthouse and proclaim that he had invented the Internet, that man-caused heat was warming the universe – without regard to five consecutive years of global cooling – and that humans were destroying the earth the police would probably pick him up and take him to a mental hospital. On the other hand, when a multimillionaire, a former Democratic candidate for the Presidency, does it, people pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars to give speeches, award him a Nobel prize and the press honors his every word. 

Two recent blogs address the subject of global cooling. Debra J. Saunders in an essay entitled “When the Warmest in History Isn’t” (December 1, 2008, Townhall.com) reports that a recent report from the NASA Goddard Institute which said that this past October was the warmest in recorded history was based on erroneous data. Two bloggers discovered this. The error was acknowledged within twenty-four hours, but not before it had been released to the believing public. Reports I have read, and cited by Ms Saunders claim that the earth has been cooling for the last five years. 

More amusing, after thought, was an article in the Telegraph.co.uk. Stephen Hockman, a lawyer and former member of Bar Council, is calling for the establishment of an International Court for the Environment which would have the power to punish companies and countries which contribute to global warming and/or fail to protect endangered species. My first thought was, “another international body paid for by U. S. taxpayers and designed to punish the United States.” Other ideas included an attempt to abolish automobiles and return to horses and feet, but the least charitable was the idea that Mr. Hockman foresaw himself in a high paying job with glamorous secretaries and subservient assistants running a court he had talked a bunch of jackasses into creating – again at our expense. My suggestion is that if this is approved, it be housed in the Congo and all members be required to establish residence there.

Several recent news articles have noted the opposition of the automotive executives of the Detroit Three and of the automotive unions to the idea of declaring title eleven bankruptcies, which would not destroy the companies – as it did not destroy the airlines – but would require their reorganization. Two articles I have read, most currently “Recent Musings” by Burt Prelutsky (Townhall.com, December 1, 2008) mention that workers currently cost the companies $78 per hour. Mr. Prelutsky, I think a bit unfairly, extends this to figure the cost of a worker at $156,000 a year. In an attempt at fairness, I figured some of this went to retired workers, so I recalculated at $50 dollars per hour for a person actually working and came out with a salary average of $104,000 per year. Not bad. A bit better than teachers. On the other hand if the products of the automobile companies were as good as the products of the public schools, most of us would walk.

To return to the opposition, I have been told by my lawyer children that Chapter 11 bankruptcy would require a complete reorganization, probably costing these million dollar executives their jobs and restrict pension payments to fifty thousand dollars a year. Until now, I have been unable do discover what pensions retired workers receive. It is 90% of their working salary, plus medical and dental costs for themselves and their families. No wonder the Unions are opposing this! Ninety percent of $104,000 per year is $93,600 in income, plus medical (I pay $390 a month for my Medicare and Blue Cross insurances.) We would impoverish those millions of retired workers by reducing their incomes to 50K a year! On the other hand, my most liberal son says he doesn’t understand why someone working for $10 an hour at a store should be taxed to pay $93,000 dollars a year to retired automotive workers. I agree with him. For once!

Thanksgiving is now past. My bride baked eleven pies (four apple, four pumpkin and one each of blueberry, pecan and peach). She also baked a turkey with dressing and cooked a mountain of mashed potatoes, string beans, carrots, and macaroni and cheese. We also had a large fruit salad from our own fruit, deviled eggs – a dozen – and a Black Forest cherry cake. A visiting friend brought another pumpkin pie. In addition to the “boys,” Stephen and Andrew, Megaera and Shane came early, actually the night before so that Megaera could learn how to make dressing the way Sheila does – Shane loves it. Additional guests included Cindy and her daughter Cory with JoAnn and John with their daughters and JoAnn’s sister later in the day. No turkey is left and I can’t speak for the other remnants, which are stored in the fridge, but remarkable to me were the pies. When I wandered out at five this morning, one whole pumpkin pie, two half apple pies and half of the peach pie were all that were left of that total of twelve pies. 

Family Matters

By

William D. Dannenmaier

Driving to church the other morning, Sheila complained about the cold and said I should light the stove in the bedroom. I replied that I had wondered why she had been cuddling so much recently, but that I wanted to hold off until the first of November. After a moment of quiet in the car, Stephen said, “And if it stays cold enough, Dad will keep.”

That evening, walking into the bedroom after a strenuous afternoon and evening watching football, it seemed warm. I looked. Yes, Sheila had found time to light the stove by herself. It is good that she is a self-sufficient woman, even if one willing to suffer for a while hoping someone else will do the job. 

I met my cardiac surgeon the other day. I found him autocratic, arrogant and authoritative. I complained about this to Eric when he telephoned to see how the meeting went and received little sympathy. When he stopped laughing, he said, “Well you should know!” Later, in a meeting with Dr. Smith, I made the same comment and received Eric’s reaction, with slight differences in wording following the laughter. One expects more understanding from a family doctor, if not from a son.

The computer we use for the internet is causing all sorts of delays and problems, I don’t know how much longer it will work. I complained to my bride that it must have a virus and she replied that it was not a virus it was “corrupted.” I knew it! As soon as the Obama, Pelosi, and Reid mob began taking over, bringing to forefront all of the Clinton people as well as Daschle and others, CORRUPTION; the creeping corruption has even spread to my computer.

Tuesday, returning from my walk, I stopped at the bridge over the creek and looked up towards the house. What a beautiful sight! My hill was all colors of gold and red with the green of the pecan tree dominating the center. (The pecan in my back yard is at least a hundred feet tall, dominating the house and all else.) I told Sheila she should take a picture of it. Too late now! Wednesday morning we awoke to 20 degrees. All day we had green rain in the back as pecan leaves floated down. This morning, Thursday, I looked up again from the same spot and all I saw was the black and brown of branches with the exception of a little red from white oaks on top of the hill. Entering, Sheila was looking at the leaves covering the back. She commented on how beautiful the yard was. I agreed. Between the dogs, cats, visiting children, chickens and drought (in order of destructiveness), it was the first time our backyard had been green all summer.

I have another appointment with my surgeon tomorrow. We shall see what comes. In anticipating that I might be kept, Sheila has packed a suitcase of clothing for me to take along. In a slightly different anticipation, I’ve considered buying a package of good tobacco on the way home. If he says there is no point in bothering with surgery, I’ll enjoy myself. In delayed obedience to him, I have thrown away two packages of tobacco in the past month – one of them three times – and have not had a smoke in a week, and that was the first and only one in several days. I shall also get a prescription for Viagra from Dr. Smith and make an appointment with the funeral director. 

My meeting with Dr. Pretracek ended with him sending me to a different surgeon. He said my chest situation is too risky to attempt surgery. On the positive note, he reinforced Dr. Blazer’s comment, that he had never seen a chest more divided. He believes the other surgeon, a specialist in stents may be able to help with the clogged artery. I bought tobacco on the drive home. 

Joking with older brother Joe the other day during a telephone call, he stopped me with, “This is WW II humor.” I agreed. It was also Infantry humor in Korea. When you have no control over the future, and know it, you might as well laugh.   

Fun and Family

By

William D. Dannenmaier

So many of my favorite writers are black (Dr. Walter Williams, Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Larry Elder and Star Parker) that I had to check the mirror to see if I was still white and male, but we won’t go into the check I did for that. 

Senator Biden has proclaimed that all global warming is caused by human activity. With this assertion he joins that other renowned scientist, Mr. Gore. If we accept their expertise and intensive research in global warming, it raises another problem. If we are successful in getting people around the globe to stop “polluting” the atmosphere, at what temperature will global cooling end? Is there a danger of entering another ice age? Or what about another glacier age? While Senator Biden and Mr. Gore may welcome the thought of ice covering Alaska – eliminating Sarah Palin’s home state - they should remember that the glaciers extended southward to include half of Missouri. Some of those states that will be covered include states which support Biden for Vice-President. He should be concerned about this. 

Has anyone else noted that most of our historically esteemed recent Presidents (Truman, Eisenhower and Reagan) have been non-lawyers and persons with roots among working people while those renowned for mediocrity or worse have been lawyers? Incidentally, Obama and Biden are lawyers, Palin grew up in a working class family and McCain, while in a privileged family also worked for a living.

Sometimes one wonders about one’s friends. Coleen Small sent an e-mail response to Sheila’s letter saying they would pray for me but would certainly pray for Sheila. She said, “without Sheila Bill would be….well….difficult.” Is that a compliment? It is so irritating that were I to visit Kansas City in November instead of going to the hospital I would think twice about staying at her house or eating her cooking. Fortunately, this momentary pique will wear off and I will forgive her before my next visit.

Only the Democratic Party, the main stream media and 10% of the population approve of our Democratic Congress. Of the candidates of President and Vice-President, only Sarah Palin is not a member of Congress. Is it any wonder the Democratic candidates and their main-stream media are so critical of her? She doesn’t belong to the “Club.”

A recent article claimed that a study had shown, that next to entertainers, lawyers were the least trusted professional group in the country. Several other polls I have read say that only a small percentage of the people think Congress is doing a good job, 10% in one poll, 14% in another. Yet our Presidential and Vice-Presidential winners are two lawyers from Congress who are strongly supported by Hollywood. Politicians should be grateful that people never permit their thought processes to interfere with their voting or their hope for change to be embarrassed by a long history of evidence.

Jim and I were discussing politics, as usual, at the Cardiac Club, not having had time to start arguing. (Jim is a born-again Democrat and has been active in government as an economist - he has a doctorate in Economics.) Anyway, Jim interrupted my thoughtful analysis of Obama to ask about my health. I said I wouldn’t know anything until the 31^st, but anticipating problems I planned to vote immediately. Then, knowing Jim’s political savvy, I asked what would happen if I died after I voted, but before the election. Jim’s answer was consistent with my beliefs. “If you were a Democrat, we would vote you again in your new status, but as a Republican, we’ll simply eliminate your vote.”

Physical and mental abilities may decline with age, but stupidity survives the years. It may even improve with age. Three days before writing this, I used the four-wheeler to take trash to the dumpster. On my way home I noticed people working on our nine acre community center and a group of their youngsters wandering about: children between the ages of five and eight. I drove over and offered rides. It was glorious! One child at a time we sped about the former pasture, over bumps and small depressions, the child giggling and laughing. After all were satisfied, I came home. The next morning I could barely get out of bed: not passion, pain. The back still hurts, but much less now. The next time I take children for rides, I shall be more careful about the jounces.

Son Eric and Maria visited over the weekend. As always it was a delight to have Maria. Eric and I argued politics, as usual I could not get him to see the intelligent side of things. We did agree on one thing, we both detest the idea of the public paying for twenty years of bad management by Detroit automobile makers. 

My immediate plans don’t exist. I was to visit the surgeon in Nashville on Tuesday and have surgery to repair my sternum on the 20^th. He ordered another test first, so I spent Thursday in the hospital from seven in the morning until six-thirty that evening. I think the late exit was a sneaky bit on Dr. Blazer’s part. Initially, he told me the operation would begin about nine and end in three hours. Sheila claims I mentioned that was good, as I had some leaves I needed to rake in the afternoon. Dr. Blazer didn’t say anything at the time, but I didn’t get home until well after dark. I was warned before I left, that I should be prepared for an order to go to the hospital at any time.

Incidentally, a crew of six or seven nurses spent Thursday playing with me. I recall one telling me if I lifted my head again she would get duct tape and tape me to the table. Anyway, they all impressed me. Like Mary Ann and others I have met who work for Dr. Blazer, they were quick and efficient in their work and pleasant, ready to give and take humor. 

Anyway, the result was a telephone call canceling my visit on Tuesday and surgery on Thursday. Instead, I have another confrontation with the surgeon on Friday. Sheila is busy preparing a suitcase for me with the concern that I might be kept in the hospital on Friday or receive a telephone call saying, “Come now,” sooner – we were warned that might happen.