Responding to the oil disaster in the Gulf, President Obama appointed a special presidential bi-partisan commission to investigate the situation. The co-leaders of the commissioner are former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, and William K. Reilly, former Chairman of the Environmental Protection Agency. Because of the emergency their report is due in six months. Both are lawyers. Commenting on the lack of any experts on drilling or petroleum engineers to my bride, Sheila replied, “Their job is to fix the blame – probably to Bush – not the problem.” 

It was nice for Obama to take time off from his major tasks of playing basketball and golf, fund raising, campaigning and criticizing the people of the United States to other countries to address the gulf problem – his way. And he did it quickly, after only a few weeks, after all, it took Bush three days to realize his people were not doing the job and visit New Orleans and the Democratic Governor a month to ask for assistance, as federal law requires. But Bush did not have as many important jobs to do at the time of the disaster. Obama will get to it, probably right after he visits the flooding disasters in Nashville and surrounding counties. (Bush ignored federal law by sending in the Coast Guard, which rescued some 20,000 people.)

Governor Jindal of Louisiana was unhappy with the two month delay in receiving approval from Obama’s people to build a barrier in the Gulf to protect the Louisiana wetlands. Perhaps this is a politically polite way of refusing to permit Louisiana to help herself. We have replaced medical care with ObamaCare, now we are replacing the Gulf of Mexico with the Gulf of Obama.

Obama wants BP to pay the salaries of all oil workers unemployed as a result of his (Obama’s) decision to halt off-shore drilling. Does that mean that President Obama believes the Federal Government should pay the salaries of all workers in Alaska, Colorado and Montana whose salaries have been stopped or marginalized because of President Obama’s refusal to permit drilling into known oil reserves in those states?

More recent headlines reported that President Obama was frantically busy sending out memos for action to various departments. It made me wonder what has happened to his 32 Czars. I have not heard any mention of them during the Gulf crisis. In fact I haven’t heard of any of them doing any work at all. I was wondering how much they are being paid for doing nothing, at least nothing publicly. First, I looked up Michelle Obama’s 21 person staff. Susan Sher, her chief of staff, makes $172,200 a year, I expected the Czars would make more since they are running the country, not a staff of twenty servants. I was wrong again. The highest paid Czar makes $172,200 a year. Number 3, Czar Nancy-Ann DeParle makes only $158,500 for overseeing the nation’s entire health system. Seems unfair: if the Czars do anything.

An article I read recently named four men serving long penitentiary terms at Leavenworth for killing “civilians” in Iraq. That is a problem for all combat military: courts, military or otherwise, whose members have never experienced combat have no basis for judging men who were in combat. In combat, it is always your life or someone else’s life, and everyone I knew preferred that it would be someone else’s.  In Korea our attitude was, better safe than sorry. Experienced friends tell me it was the same in Europe and Asia in WW II.  In Iraq and now in Afghanistan, our soldiers are being sent to fight enemies who do not wear uniforms. One of the men in prison killed an unarmed man in civilian clothing who appeared to be spotting American positions for enemy fighters. Everyone I knew who served in combat, including me, would have killed the apparent spotter. He was behaving suspiciously in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Come to think of it, according to our modern courts all surviving World War II veterans who served in the bomber commands should be imprisoned immediately. They killed hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children in Germany and Japan. Infantrymen should not be exempt either: we killed lots of people we considered enemies without reading them their Miranda rights.

Affirmative action strikes again. We received an advertisement from Direct TV which gave us the wonderful option of receiving “over 150 channels” for the bargain price of $29.99 a month for 12 months. Sheila, who can read, noticed that on the back, in Spanish, was an offer of 150 channels for 12 months at the cheaper price of $24.99 a month.

The end of April and the first three weeks of May my attention was focused on the census: I was one of Obama’s new employees. The first day of actual work was pure hell. I watched for traffic on two lane highways while trying to read mail boxes for addresses. The next day Sheila started going with me. She watched for addresses while I watched for traffic. It was a great help and amusing at times.  

Most of the people I met and some of the animals provided my greatest pleasure. One large dog liked me so well she climbed into the car. It was a struggle getting her out as she was too large to lift and she held onto the seat with her paws when I struggled to pull her out. On a required return visit, I was careful to close my car door when I went to the house. Returning, I ran around the car twice, the dog following and then reversed to confuse her, trying to get to the door before her. It was a tie, but I managed to squeeze in alone.

Quitting the census, I mowed the grass and resumed my morning exercises. Doing them, I bragged to myself that broken chest and all, I was still in better shape than most eighty year old men. Then it occurred to me it that most eighty old men are dead. It is easy to be in better shape, all you need is to be alive.

My garden did not prosper from inattention. Cut worms killed most of my green pepper plants and half of my tomatoes. Then I tried something new. Cut worms, according to Google, are the larva of night flying moths. Some attack from underground, some from the surface, but both within an inch or two of the surface of the ground. I saved emptied toilet paper rolls and forced new plants down into them so that their roots were at the bottom of the roll. Then I planted them in the ground, leaving the top of the roll an inch above the soil. While doing this, being short of rolls, I encouraged all family and friends to go to the toilet as much as possible.  (That tactic didn’t work either, my plants continued to die.)

Having trouble with constipation, I asked Sheila to check out the effect of all the medicines I’m taking. It seems that every single one of them has constipation as a problem – and I take FIVE. She commented that they said exercise helped. It was her opinion that smoking my pipe and playing solitaire did not count as exercise. I have a bride with a limited imagination.

My bride is slipping badly. Last night I told her three jobs I wanted to do over Memorial Day. The next morning, getting ready for the day’s duties, I asked her what they were. She couldn’t remember! Obviously her mind is going. When I commented on this she explained that it is a consequence of living with Dannenmaiers for over thirty years. It can’t be me, must be the children.  

Finally we had rain, a lot. Sitting on the porch, watching the rain, Sheila made the comment that the older she became, the more she realized how little she knew. It’s true. Intelligent people realize how little they know as they age. Only the young and the simple old believe they know everything. 

Driving to Charlotte for a few small purchases, I mentioned to Sheila that I had read a news report that said Viagra was associated with deafness. She replied that she had read an article that sex was good exercise for those who had survived heart attacks. I replied that since I was already deaf, I’d ask Dr. Smith if they had any octogenarian strength Viagra tablets. It might be worth the experiment. And some of my older children wonder why I would rather chat with Sheila then listen to the radio while driving.

Sheila likes the fan on during hot and reasonably warm, to me, summer nights.  I don’t. She claims she can’t get to sleep without it, I claim I can’t sleep with it. My solution is simple. I suggest she have it on, then, when she falls asleep, get up and turn it off. Sometimes wives don’t think of easy solutions.

Peggy Noonan’s article, “The Big Alienation,” (Wall Street Journal, May 1) was thought provoking. She discusses the lack of trust of citizens of the United States in the Federal Government and gives as major reasons the massive spending bills Congress has passed and the failure of the Federal Government to protect our borders: the failure to protect citizens.

Drug dealers and other criminals enter the United States across the Mexican border. One article reported that one third of all prisoners in California penitentiaries are illegal aliens. But not all of our illegal aliens are criminals – if one ignores laws about entry to the United States. A problem is that they take up the low skilled and beginning jobs leaving our citizens unemployed. About three years ago the electric company sent crews through Cumberland Furnace cutting trees which might fall on electric lines. I went down to talk to them when they were on my land. Only one person, the crew chief, spoke English, heavily accented English. All of the others spoke Spanish and appeared to be Mexican. At the time, I knew United States citizens in our area who would have been glad to have those low-skilled, high-paying jobs.  

Our political leaders, an entire stream of Democratic and Republican members of Congress and Presidents, have been reluctant to close our borders. Open borders may improve their chances of re-election but have nothing to do with the good of the citizens. Many, perhaps most, of those crossing the Mexican border illegally are unskilled people who are seeking a better life than they can obtain in Mexico. That is the problem. They take away jobs from our young and unskilled workers. This is why the Black Caucus puzzles me. They are elected by Black voters who expect them to do things which help them, but this open border appears to be the worst possible thing for many Blacks. If one divides the population by races, as the Democratic Party seems inclined to do, Blacks have the highest percentage of young, unskilled and uneducated workers. The members of the Black Caucus are not helping the people who elected them. Not all Blacks want to live on welfare; many would welcome beginning jobs that might lead to a better life. We need protected borders, not just to stop terrorists, drug dealers and criminals, but also for those seeking jobs, which reduces the possibility of paid work for our own citizens. 

Discussing this, Sheila talked about Arizona and the difficulty of establishing and coordinating State National Guard units to protect the border. When I commented that the army could do it, she argued that the army was not to operate in the United States. But aren’t borders different? 

The army established and protected our borders in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican Wars, and the Second World War. Why is it wrong now? Currently, we protect the borders of Taiwan, South Korea, the separated parts of former Yugoslavia, Iraq and now we are trying to establish and protect borders in Afghanistan. If we maintain and protect all of those borders, why not our own? If the Army will not protect the United States and its citizens from an invasion of illegal entrants – invading foreigners - why do we have an Army?

Just think, if the Army is not to control the borders, and I suppose, not the Navy the shores, the Germans and Japanese didn’t have to bomb or shoot at us, all they needed to do was load their troops onto barges and land them in Mexico. They could have walked in. As illegal aliens, they would have been entitled to all the rights of citizens.

Since writing the above, President Obama has announced that he is sending fifteen hundred National Guard troops to assist in patrolling the border. Let’s see: ten to twenty thousand American soldiers guard the Iraq border, twenty to thirty thousand guard the South Korean border, ten thousand Marines on Okinawa and more thousands in Germany, the Philippines and elsewhere. Sending fifteen hundred to the Mexican border is like telling a child to water the garden, watching him spit on it and then hearing him say, “I did it.” The difference is that Obama is spitting on the citizens of the United States.

The State Department has clarified Obama’s decision. The Guard is only to stop drug smugglers. How will they know? Do the smugglers wear signs? Hand out price lists? Could this be racial profiling? It’s nice publicity from the President, but still spit.

Sheila and I worked on the income tax together. The more we struggled, the more convinced I became that the tax code was written by an illegal Muslim immigrant from Chicago who doesn’t speak English and has been employed in WashingtonDC by the Obama administration to destroy the morale of American citizens. It is possible that I am wrong about this. It could have been written by a schizophrenic on loan to the government from a mental institution, but one of the two must be correct.

Income tax completed, I’m listened to the radio while playing solitaire when a program came on by some “doctor” promoting a mixture he has made from “organic” vegetables. It brought the same smile that I have when I walk through a grocery store that organizes “organic” fruits and vegetables. I asked a clerk at Kroger’s once if he could direct me to an inorganic fruit or vegetable. I confused him. 

Sunday I asked Stephen, if he needed a break in his studying, to walk up on the hill and spray the apple trees. Later in the afternoon, when I was napping, he took his walk. I saw him return. He carried a five pound potato sack stuffed with Morel mushrooms. Stephen and I enjoyed cheese omelets that included his Morels, cheese, bacon and fresh spinach from my garden for supper. We’ll not only have all we can eat, Sheila will freeze dry some for later taste treats. Oh yes, he forgot to spray the trees, but I’ve forgiven him. 

We have lost our Perdition. Mowing grass down by the road, I saw a dead animal lying in the grass. When I went to collect the body for burial, it was our Perdition. Of our four cats, Perdition was, without question, the most affectionate. She arrived as a kitten that should have been with her mother, needing milk poured over cat food in order to eat it. She developed the habit of sleeping between Sheila and I. She would find some crevice between us and creep in – a nuisance, but lovable. I missed her the other night and wondered where she was. I found out cutting grass the next day. I have routinely complained that four cats were too many, but I would be sorry to lose any of them and I must confess, that I am most sorry about Perdition’s fate. On the positive side, our mice, voles, chipmunks and birds will be much happier. Perdition was our best hunter.

Beginning April 27^th I became part of Obama’s surge in employment. I shall be employed by the Census bureau for three weeks. I had a lot of company. Sheila, Stephen and Andrew all applied, but I’m glad they weren’t asked. The 27^th begins finals week for Stephen and Andrew and I don’t believe Sheila’s knees would take the job and, if she tried, I believe she would pay for it with more than average pain.

On the way to the Cardiac Club we saw a car pulled over by the highway patrol in Charlotte. Sheila was amazed and upset. She didn’t know drivers were expected to obey the law in Charlotte. Driving through there a minimum of twice a day, two or three days a week, we have seen all sorts of interesting driving, but this was the first time we’ve ever seen a car pulled over. Sheila thought it was immoral for police to enforce the law in Charlotte. Slowing down on that, she took up the subject of my driving, which was reasonably legal most of the way as I was following a driver who slowed down to fifty (signs say fifty-five) on curves and hills with double yellow lines and then speeded up to fifty-six or fifty-seven in passing areas. Sheila appeared highly amused by my obeying the law. I don’t understand why. I often obey. The day the patrol car followed me from Charlotte to Dickson I was never a single mile above the speed limit.

Ray Barker and I irritated some in our squad when we were scouts, in combat, in Korea. We joked too much. Scouts had three types of patrols into no-man’s land and enemy territory: three man patrols, squad patrols and fight patrols when we led an infantry platoon out looking for an enemy. The joking Ray and I engaged in must not have bothered our squad leader, Stan O’Connor: we were always the two he took on three man patrols. On the other hand, maybe he was just trying to get rid of us. I still remember Ray laughing and saying if he ever saw a Chinese mass attack he was going to call our Regimental Headquarters and say, “Hello, Kingpost? This is Barker. I’m down south in Pusan boarding a boat for Japan. The Chinese are attacking up where you are.” It wasn’t a week later that we did have a mass attack. It lasted all night into the morning. The next afternoon Ray and I accompanied Stan to an abandoned bunker about 150 yards in front of the front line, just south of the point of the Chinese attacks, in order to see better what the Chinese were doing. We remained there for the next three nights of attacks.

Ray and I were not the only ones who joked. Van Ripper, a scout in another squad, was watching one time when my squad was in a squabble out front against a superior force and trying to get back as fast as possible. When he next saw me, Van argued I owed him $10. He had bet a friend that I wouldn’t get back alive (carrying the radio I was easy to spot) and he lost. His argument was that I had cost him the money and I should repay it. This debate went on for a few weeks, until we tired of it. 

We laughed about the guys who were injured swimming, which we weren’t supposed to do in the river between us and the enemy, and about one of our squad who got a bayonet driven through his boot and foot one day in a game of “dare.” We joked about how he was going to explain to the people in the back how it happened – telling the truth would have been a court martial offense. 

Laughter was common when we weren’t working and occasionally when we were. It was generally accepted that only fearful people were afraid to laugh. 

I thought of those days on a recent visit to our Census headquarters in Jackson. I had been driving about collecting census data from 7:30 in the morning until I tired at 3:30. Arriving home, I received a telephone call saying that if I didn’t drive to Jackson immediately to give a new set of fingerprints, I wouldn’t get paid. So, Sheila and I took off on the hundred and twenty mile drive to Jackson. Arriving, the fingerprint men said they hadn’t expected me until the next day, the person who telephoned was wrong. Finished, chatting with those men and the secretary, I said I should have come in and said I was a nineteen year old female Islamic terrorist come to clean out the place. A tall distinguished looking man had entered. He gave me a stern look and said I was in a FederalBuilding; he could have me arrested for such a comment. He probably wouldn’t have understood my thoughts in response to his demeanor and words. In combat, we never trusted the “tough” guys with stern, authoritarian looks. Few got “up front,” and most were relocated to safe areas as quickly as possible.

During the heart of the Second World War, when we were losing on all fronts, the newspapers and radio made constant fun of Hitler, Emperor Hirohito and other known leaders of the nations we were fighting.  They were mocked in words and pictures. 

Hidden among the many trivial and worthless “research” articles produced by college professors there were several produced in the forties that showed that humor was the best way to control and modify public opinion. It is simply true that laughter dispels fear. If you can laugh, you can win. If you can make your enemy afraid of you, to the point that he can’t laugh at you, you have won. 

This is what disturbs me about our current approach to combat Islamic terrorism. There is no laughter at its proponents. You don’t dare suggest that Muslims are conducting the terrorism. Our media are afraid to criticize a religion that produces terrorists by the hundreds around the world. Our President avoids the use of the word “terrorism” preferring terms like “man made disasters.”  I’m sorry, but the Islamic terrorists are winning.

Think of the fun reporters could have had with the Muslim terrorist with a bomb hidden in his underwear. I’ll bet that if the next creators of “man made disasters” were held up for public ridicule and then publicly executed, fewer youths and young people would be interested in joining their predecessors.  Being a hero and a martyr is one thing, being an object of jokes is another.

During the last Presidential election campaign, the Democratic Media ridiculed the leadership of Vice-Presidential candidate Palin, the popular and successful Governor of Alaska. One focus of criticism was her “Road to Nowhere,” a road she had had built into an under-populated, under-developed, area of central Alaska using federal money.  

The United States has built many roads to nowhere in an attempt to help people living in rural poverty areas gain access to the greater world. Our Army Engineer Corps has built “roads to nowhere” in Central and South America, and probably in other unreported (by the media) places to help indigenous peoples.  We have even built roads at the South Pole. We are not alone in building such roads. A half a century ago Brazil built a “road to nowhere” into the heart of Brazil. Today that road goes to the Capital of Brazil.  I suppose the criticism of Governor Palin was because the road was built in the United States.

Currently working on the Census, in and out of homes reflecting all levels of society, it occurred to me that there is a real “Road to Nowhere,” one that neither politicians nor the media discuss publicly. It is called the American educational system.  

When I still watched television news, a local station lamented the under-funding of schools in Tennessee. As a horrendous example they interviewed the superintendent of one small school system. To illustrate his need of more tax dollars, he showed the reporters the terrible shape of his high school football field.  

When I had children in high school, in a wealthier district, one son reported to me a shortage of equipment and supplies in the chemistry class. My daughter’s soccer coach was also a chemistry teacher. He agreed there was a problem. At the time, an older son was manager of a chemical factory in Boulder. He wrote that he had an entire warehouse full of equipment that was outdated to them, but that he believed was better than our schools possessed. He said that if they would send him a list of their needs, he would supply them. The only cost would be a letter of appreciation to the company. I turned in that letter to the teacher.   My son never received any reply or request. Incidentally, both high schools in that system have a football field, restricted to games, a practice field, restricted for the football team, a weight room and a training room. We know what is important in Tennessee.

I began teaching in a St. Louis slum. When introduced to the school, the principal told me, “These children need to be able to earn a living. They need to know how to read, write and do arithmetic.” My usual class size was forty, slightly higher than average because all boys and girls in the area, released from the reformatory in the fifth grade, were sent to me. Did we teachers work! So did the children. A result was that our class averages on the national achievement tests, despite being from a slum area, always matched, and exceeded in math, the national averages. Our school was a three story brick building with a black-top yard and a gymnasium. It had 1300 students, twenty-six teachers, one principal and one half-time secretary.

When I moved to Tennessee and enrolled children in the elementary school, I was impressed by the beauty of the building, the size of the landscape and the number of administrative personnel. There were three full- time secretaries, a full-time assistant principal and a full-time principal. Impressed, I wondered how many thousand children attended that school and asked. I was told approximately six hundred and fifty.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported on the “plight” of the public school systems in cities including Washington D. C., New York and Los Angeles. School administrators want more tax dollars despite failing state economies. The article reported on class sizes, salaries and retirement benefits. I was impressed. New York City school classrooms have an average of THIRTEEN students. Despite this, the article reports that achievement of the high school graduates on national tests bounces around the eighth grade level. 

Were I nasty, I might wonder what grade level their teachers would achieve if they took those tests, but I won’t.

Extremely interesting is that teachers and administrators of these school districts are among the highest paid by major systems - and it takes a lot of administrators when there are thirteen students to the class. (In my school of thirteen hundred students, that would have meant a hundred teachers.) People in those cities and states already have the highest taxes.  Their children also receive the poorest educations. Going to school in those districts, and in others like them, does not teach students the necessary skills to succeed in a technical society.

It would be helpful if reporters would focus on what is happening to the American people, beginning with our children. But promoting clichés and slogans, such as “Hope and Change” is easier than investigating and safer than reporting which might offend the powerful. Besides, the teachers’ union, with its powerful support of the Democratic Party, is happy with school systems as they are. They provide high salaries, excellent retirement benefits and few expectations.

Twelfth grade graduates who can’t read, write or do arithmetic! The true “Road to Nowhere” in the United States is the public system of education.

Not being terribly bright and knowing nothing about economics, I don’t understand how the improving stock market improves the lives of American workers. Our major corporations are international. They have goods made in other nations by non-American employees and sell them in foreign countries. This improves the value of their stock. The news media applauds this improvement as evidence that our economy is improving.  But, I don’t see how that reduces American unemployment.  It does, of course, help anyone who owns stock in those companies. 

The idea of the Value Added Tax (VAT) is being considered (batted about?) by our Democratic Congress and the media. Do these geniuses know how this works?  Or care?  If a tree is cut down in the forest and sold to a saw mill it increases the value of that tree, so a VAT is added. When the saw mill turns this into lumber it improves it, so when they sell it, a VAT is added. When the lumber is sold to a manufacturer, it improves its value, so a VAT is added. When the manufacturer sells it to a customer, a VAT is added. Add up the total taxes, each one can be small, but the total isn’t. The Wall Street Journal (April 15) reports that the total adds up to 25% tax in Denmark and Sweden. It is a complex cumulative tax, not a simple sales tax. How would you like an extra 25% donation to Congress on any item you purchase?

As a second note, don’t expect the VAT to hit the wealthy, who supposedly purchase more expensive things, harder than the middle class. The wealthy can always go to another country to purchase what they want. When I was employed by the army in Korea everyone was thrilled that the Kennedy clan was visiting. It seems they rented an airplane and flew over, the goal being Hong Kong, where they intended to stock up on inexpensive clothing and then return to the States. Do you think they are the only ones who would do such a thing? Note that people living near the Canadian and Mexican borders will have an advantage.

I dropped into the agriculture extension office hoping to pick up some pamphlets on spraying my fruit trees. I couldn’t find what I wanted, but I did find a United States Department of Agriculture pamphlet for “Blacks or African American Farmers and Ranchers.” I found similar brochures for Hispanic Americans and I found one for women. I found that interesting, one for women, none for men. Pamphlets for Blacks (their capital) and for Hispanics, none for whites (small w, not a capital noun).  Does the Department of Agriculture think that crops grow differently for different races?  Our federal government is willing to discriminate on race and sex, but their thinking seems limited, even retarded. How about pamphlets for the elderly or for the wheel chair bound or for city refugees living in the country – like me. Come on government guys, use your imaginations. There are thousands of ways of labeling and isolating people into different groups, don’t stop with race and sex.

My son Chris telephoned to the other day. He said that he believes our country is divided worse than at any time since the Civil War. I replied that one of the men in the Cardiac Club had also said that. Chris replied that the Civil War was fought over the right of everything a man possessed to belong to someone else. Many felt that was wrong and fought and tens of thousands died, to free those people. Now the Federal Government is taking about thirty percent of everything a person owns. At what point will people revolt? Will they tolerate 50% as the Germans and English do? What about 75%? Is there a limit?

Speaking of revolution, the church next door is having a meeting this afternoon. That is highly unusual, a bit fear provoking. When I attended they met for a brief hour on Sunday mornings. Perhaps they are forming another Christian subversive cell, such as those I understand the Attorney General, the Homeland Security and the FBI are tracking around the country. After all, they are Methodists, and the METHOD used to overthrow our current dictators will be important. It could be a return to the religious wars with Christians striving to dislodge the current government, all of whom appear to be fanatic members of the Church of the Holy Me.  

The Washington Post has reported that officials in the security commission (SEC) are spending thousands of hours watching pornographic movies on taxpayer time and taxpayer computers. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what sort of annual performance appraisals these people received from their superiors and how much they were given in bonuses?   These are the types who will be in charge of our medical system.

Obama’s director of education says that he is going to examine for disparate impact in education and punish systems where it occurs.  It could be that he is going to withhold federal funds from school districts in which more boys are punished for misbehaving than girls, but I doubt it.  I strongly suspect that he means in which more blacks are punished or receive lower grades than whites.  (Obama doesn’t appear worried about the fact that more whites are punished and receive lower grades than Asians.)

At first I thought this was unfair.  All evidence is that children from two parent families, regardless of race, who support education, making certain their children do their homework and spend time reading, do better on all standardized tests of achievement and receive higher grades in their classes than those children of one parent families who spend their spare time wandering the streets.  If more blacks and Hispanics than white or Asians prefer to enjoy the fruits of taxpayer money by having one parent families and permit their children to roam the streets, why shouldn’t their children receive lower grades in reading and arithmetic?  

While teaching counseling in Alberta a student asked me to talk with a teenager who was receiving poor grades in school.  I met with him and his mother.  His mother was disheartened by failing grades but proud of the fact that he was the regional pool champion.  Chatting with him about his success in pool, I asked when he played.  He said he played for an hour or two each day after school and on Saturdays.  I suggested to him and his mother that if he spent an hour or two each evening studying his school subjects instead of practicing pool, his grades might improve.  People get better at what they practice.  If they practice running the streets and playing basketball, they get better at those activities, if they go to the library and read, they get better at reading.

Perhaps the Federal government should consider reducing relief payments to parents who don’t encourage their children in school.  Or would that be a disparate impact?

Anyone who has taught school knows that boys are punished more frequently in schools than girls.  This is an adverse impact resulting from the enforcement of rules.  Just because boys break the rules more frequently than girls doesn’t mean that they should be punished more frequently than girls does it?  How does this differ from children receiving lower grades in school because they don’t study than children getting higher grades because they do?

(As a side note, receiving a complaint from a woman at the cardiac club when I said that girls were sneakier than boys, I replied that as a parent of eight, five boys and three girls, I could testify that boys were more blatant in their misbehavior while girls, perhaps just as frequently misbehaving, were sneakier about it and hid their sins better.  Her husband spoke up and said that, also as the parent of eight – three boys and five girls – he agreed with me.)

Remember, however, that this idea of disparate impact is nothing new for the Obama administration.  Just because all recent – last ten or fifteen years – terrorist attacks on American citizens have been committed by Islamic terrorists is no reason why Muslims should be singled out at airports for security checks.  That is a disparate impact based on religion.  Body searches must be randomly assigned to all people: elderly women, business men, and, according to Ann Coulter, women in short skirts.  There should be no disparate impact on Muslims because of their behavior.  Thus, the idea of punishing for disparate impact in schools is nothing new, just a logical extension of Obama wisdom.

But, back to disparate impact, consider the ways in which this Obama idea could be exploited.  Permit your imagination to soar.  What about the disparate impact of failure to sell alcoholic beverages or drivers’ licenses to children?  

We have a continuing invasion of undocumented people coming across our undefended border with Mexico.  Law enforcement statistics indicate that most of the people being stopped and checked are Mexican.  This is disparate.  They should check equal numbers of other peoples such as Swedes, Germans and Canadians.

The Obama administration is ignoring the most grievous disparate impact of all.  Haven’t they noticed that most, if not all, abortions are performed on women?  That most if not all babies are born to women?  A first step would be to restrict funding to Planned Parenthood clinics that serve a disproportionate number of women.  The other is a more difficult problem.  I don’t know how we can sue God for misbehaving in permitting women to bear all children.  Perhaps Obama’s attorney general can begin by suing Christian churches; they appear to be responsible for all other evils under this administration.

Recently, I modestly mentioned that I had achieved the age of eighty. In a responding e-mail, my friend and former pastor, Reverend Frank Chubb, wrote to say that his son, Kevin, was visiting and that the two of them had gone skiing. He said that they had achieved 79 kilometers per hour in going down the slope. He added that he thought that was not bad for an 86 year old man. I’m sorry Frank, but I have never considered boasting or one up-man-ship admirable qualities. I think they are especially sinful for a minister of the gospel. But I forgive you.

Sheila said Stephen was reminiscing of his childhood recently. He distinctly remembers when we decided that he and Andrew should begin sleeping in separate rooms. He said he told his mother he was afraid of the dark and received a reply that there was nothing to fear. Then he asked if she or daddy were afraid of the dark, and she said no. He said that when she left the room he thought it was unfair that he and Andrew, who were afraid, had to sleep alone while she and daddy, who weren’t afraid slept together.

Sheila and I have decided to give up television. When our government decided we needed the new, more expensive televisions, thus providing more profits and employment for the television industry, we switched to satillite so we could continue to watch the local news. We pay $40 a month for this. The problem is that our local news spends most of its time talking about the harlots of the entertainment industry and describing the weather we can see out the window. We quit watching that. Earlier we had quit national news because of its unrelenting and undeserved praise of Saint Obama. We found that the only things we watched were football games, which my bride claims I sleep through, and Fox Sunday. We decided we had better uses for our $40 than a silent, unwatched television. We continue to watch movies we purchase.

I am amazed by numerous and continuous articles publicizing the women who announce that they have been in bed with Tiger Woods and someone known as Jesse James. I find them a bit boring, but it is obvious that reporters don’t. Still, you can’t avoid hearing or seeing some of them. Tiger and Jesse don’t surprise me, it is the attractive women who announce to the world what sluts they are.  I should think they would be ashamed. Or is it possible that they are professionals and the publicity of having played with someone who is famed will permit them to increase their prices?

Currently Sheila and I are doing taxes. This always makes me very nervous. I don’t know why. Just recently I saw photographs of a new penitentiary that has been built outside of Chicago by “stimulus” money (our taxes). The exterior is almost unbelievably beautiful, which could lead one to think it was an especially expensive hotel. Pictures of the interior showed televisions in every cell, a full sized basketball court, a weight room where incarcerated hoodlums can muscle up for their next attacks on innocent people and a recreation room with Ping-Pong tables. They have other things also, such as free medical care, a library and a lunchroom. I didn’t see any ponds for fishing, but they may have those also. If I do my taxes incorrectly, I could be asked to be sent there. In fact, elderly people who have made the mistake of working all their lives and paying all of their taxes and who are living on cat food in Chicago slums should consider this place. All they have to do is hold up a bank. In prison they will be living better than their working lives and, now, retirement lives have ever permitted. Sheila asked about conjugal visits, but when you are in your seventies and eighties those are less important than good food, medical treatment, television and other relaxing goodies, all now provided to imprisoned felons.  Why should they stop committing crimes?

When the Saudi family decided the billions of dollars they were receiving from the United States for oil were inadequate and raised the price, the resulting increase in gasoline and heating oil prices roused popular outcry in the United States. “Why,” was the question, “don’t we drill for our own oil in Alaska, the western states and off the coast? Drilling will create jobs and those billions will remain in the United States.” We were told it would take ten years to get that oil into public use. We must pay the Saudi princes’ prices during the interim. Again the price of oil is creeping up. I’m certainly glad our politicians approved drilling two years ago. Or did they? Could Congress and Obama be more interested in the welfare of the Arabic peoples than they are of us?

A March 10th article on either Drudge or Google quoted Pelosi as saying, “… this person is a very sick person…” The article headline mentioned Rahm Emanuel and Eric Massa. I didn’t read the article, so I don’t know which of the two men she was talking about. Perhaps both.

I received a letter from the Census Bureau telling me that they were going to send me a letter. That letter probably went to a hundred million people, a letter telling them they would receive a letter. At first I was amused. Everything it attempted to do could have been done in a short paragraph in the coming letter. Then my taxpayer instincts took hold. That letter cost us a hundred million sheets of paper and a hundred million envelopes. It also cost ink and, perhaps, the salaries of part-time workers to get the letters in the envelopes and mailed. It was not amusing, it was disgusting.

In the last election I voted for McCain reluctantly – I didn’t like him – but was afraid of Obama’s history of friends and associates – remember the proven saying “birds of a feather flock together.” Now I’m more convinced than ever that Obama is a product of his Muslim heritage and his twenty years in Wright’s hate America, hate white people church. Since his election Obama has favored and befriended, or attempted to befriend, every despot and dictator around the world while criticizing and alienating democracies to the point of trying to subvert Honduras’s lawful, elected, government. He has supported the pouring of billions of dollars into anti-democratic, oil rich, Muslim autocracies while canceling plans to begin exploring in oil rich areas of the United States, which would have brought jobs and wealth to Americans.  Is he showing his true colors?

Congressman Matheson’s brother applied for a Federal judgeship, for which he was well qualified, a year ago, but was ignored. Congressman Matheson was one of the Democrat’s opposing the health bill. Suddenly, Obama forwarded his brother’s name for approval as a Federal judge. Just a coincidence? How many other retiring Democrats in Congress are getting promises of high paying Federal jobs in exchange for their votes? 

When questioned concerning the legality of tactics Pelosi was using to pass the “health care” bill, President Obama was quoted as responding, “Process doesn’t matter.” He has a lot of company in that belief. Every dictator has believed that. Begin with Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, if you wish, and continue to Castro, Chavez and Putin. Just as lots of Americans are supporting Obama, lots of Italians, Germans and Russians, those who weren’t executed or imprisoned, supported their masters. I’m not certain that their supporters were happy with the long term results. Obama and Pelosi’s legacy could be the destruction of democracy in our nation.

Frank Turek has an interesting article, “Deem Obama Impeached,” in which he quotes Obama as saying, when asked about Congress “Deeming” health care passed, that he doesn’t care how it is passed as long as it is passed. Then Turek lists the complaints about King George in justifying the American Revolution and compares each one with current Obama policies. As a final, he asks if Obama wouldn’t care about the processes of law given in the Constitution if Congress were to “deem” Obama impeached. 

I suppose it is a silly question, but now that ObamaCare, which will care for all, has passed why do we need Medicaid, designed to help those who can’t pay for themselves or, for that matter Medicare? If they reduce the value of Medicare to me, will they reduce the amount they subtract from my retirement income to pay for it?

Thought for the day: A conservative trusts in God not in government: a liberal trusts in government not in God.

 

Whoever reads this should stop and consider people they have known. How many were persons of whom you could say nothing but good: people who had never done or said anything of which you disapproved? Not many I bet. That is why Thurman and Nell or so special to me. In the sixteen or seventeen years since I met them I have never known either to say or do anything that I didn’t approve of or enjoy.

Nell did not make a great first impression, at least on me. I saw a middle-aged, grossly overweight woman sitting against the wall, about half way between the entrance and the podium of the community center. I didn’t notice Thurman at the time. In fact, I didn’t really notice Thurman for several weeks even though he attended, as did Nell, all meetings of the Community Center. Thurman sat in the back, as close to the exit as he could get and never said a word.

I came to appreciate Nell. At that time the Community Center had bands that came every month and played for the community for free. It was very nice of them. Then I learned that it was Nell who arranged for these musicians to donate their time and talents to our community, a community in which few of them lived. They all liked Nell and came to please her.  It seems that in her youth Nell had sung with a country music band, she knew everyone in the business and they all knew – and liked – her. One night she got up on stage, at the band’s request, to do a number. Nell could sing, she could also yodel. She was good. But I still didn’t know her personally.

Then came the fall barbecue. It was Nell who set up booths (throwing darts at balloons, fishing for prizes) for the children. Nell not only set up the booths, she paid for the prizes the children won. Working the “fish” booth at her request, I came to appreciate this woman. As poor as her health was, she was a severe diabetic which accounted for her weight problems, she was always willing to work to help someone else or the community. 

In the years I knew and worked with Nell at various events, I never heard an unkind word from her or a critical remark about anyone else. Nell was a great lady.

It was during one of the fall barbecues that I began to appreciate Thurman. I had driven my four-wheeler down to where men were building a fire to produce the hot coals necessary to roast a pig: it takes all night to cook a whole hog, and requires a lot of coals. Thurman and two other men were there. A stack of wood nearby needed to be cut into smaller pieces. As I had my chain saw with me, I began cutting. Thurman, without saying a word, came over to where I was working and began getting the pieces out of my way and setting up the planks to make it easier for me to cut them, all without saying a word. In the mean time, the other two men were busy telling each other about their hunting exploits. Thurman and I both half listened. Finally, Thurman leaned over and asked, “Do you think either one believes anything that they are saying?” I nearly doubled over, not smart when a running chain saw. Thurman had a wonderful, insightful, dry wit. 

As years passed, I enjoyed the times I sat with Thurman on the bench outside the Center. There was little conversation, just pleasant companionship mixed with occasional conversation. Thurman’s comments were always thoughtful and laced with a dry wit.   As with Nell, I never heard an unpleasant or critical word from him about anyone. 

Nell died a few years ago and since then I have rarely seen Thurman. He came to Community Center, I suppose, to be with Nell.  Sheila says he was her anchor. They were a wonderful pair. I heard that after Nell’s death he left their home and refused to return, staying with children. Recently I learned that Tamra, one of the young ladies who are so pleasant and helpful at Murphy’s grocery, is married to their grandson. She tells me that Thurman is alive and well and still walks the farm every morning, regardless of weather. She is too young to have known Nell, or for Nell to have known her, but she would fit into their family wonderfully, both Nell and Thurman would be proud of her as she would be proud of them. 

Watching Andrew work the other day I commented, “I’d be happy to help you with that, but I’m busy doing nothing and I can’t do two things at once.” Andrew said he would remember that excuse.

Sheila drove Megaera to the doctor in Nashville. While Megaera was at the doctor’s office, Sheila visited Publix, a grocery which has an excellent bakery. She came home with some fresh baked rye bread. My delayed lunch consisted of ham and cheese on rye. Excellent! Today, coming home from the hospital, my bride gave me several choices. As the rye bread remained, I asked for more ham and cheese on rye. Then the dilemma. It was thirty degrees outside, not the temperature for cold beer. But cold beer is proper with ham and cheese on rye. It was a moral conflict, a choice between comfort and proper. My strong religious background took hold. Better proper than pleasure. I had the beer.

My son oldest Chris lived in Boulder, Colorado, for several years. He had difficulty understanding why so many of the residents there were far left liberals. I discovered the answer while in my doctor’s office this morning. The October, 2009, issue of “Outside” contains an article on mountain climbing that reports studies on the effects of mountain climbing. It seems that climbing a mountain as low as 15,000 feet causes immediate, irreversible, brain damage. Boulder is nestled high in the Rocky Mountains.

During my medical visit Sheila left the office to run a brief errand and ordered me not to see the doctor until she returned.  Obediently waiting, I realized that I was suffering from a Frausheimer’s attack. I have worried about Alzheimer’s, without realizing I am in the throes of Frausheimer’s disease, a male malady accompanying marriage known to reduce independence and initiative. For those unfamiliar with German, alt means old, frau means wife. 

The morning of March 7^th provided all of the excitement we needed. At one in the morning Stephen reported severe chest problems and Sheila took him to the hospital while I sat on the porch and worried until they got home at 5:30. All, we think, has turned out well in that after thorough examination the hospital personnel thought he might be having severe acid reflux reaction. Talking about this at lunch, Andrew commented, “Just think Mom, Dad never had heart disease until you started cooking for him and now Stephen is having stomach troubles. Looks like it’s your cooking that sent Stephen to the hospital.” Sheila said the hospital staff kept mentioning that too much alcohol, soda pop and smoking could cause this. Poor Stephen, he doesn’t smoke or drink soda pop (which I don’t permit in the house) and his only alcohol intake is on Thanksgiving when I give everyone a small glass of wine for a toast. No moral revulsion on his part, he simply doesn’t like the stuff. Reminds me of the time I took my minister, friend and hunting and fishing partner Frank Chubb, to the officers’ club at the University of Alberta. He confessed that he had never had an alcoholic drink. I ordered him a small, sipping glass of Drambuie, a high class, expensive, liquor. Frank took a sip of my extravagance and asked, “Is this what they make all the fuss about?”

My birthday week is over and I discovered that Sheila sent out a photograph of my table of goodies (fortunately this did not include a copy to Dr. Blazer, my heart doctor). As a consequence I received a large number of pleasant and enjoyable comments including a long note from Frank. Frank and his bride, Shirley, are celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary soon. I can tell lots of stories about Frank, like the time he promised Shirley that he would drive her to JasperNational Park for a vacation day, but then saw a recently killed deer lying by the side of the road. He immediately stopped, bled and field dressed the deer, stuffed it in the trunk of the car and turned around for home. So much for Shirley’s trip to Jasper. Or the sermon he gave entitled “Make Love to your Wife,” with examples. In both those cases he said the marital home was a bit quiet for a while. But I won’t tell any stories on him, he knows too many about me, mostly about my competence as a fisherman and hunter.

I was going to plant string beans today, but the snow and sleet blowing in my face when I used the four-wheeler take the trash to the dumpster made me change my mind. I finished this instead.

Yesterday, the day before payday, our livestock needed to eat so I stopped at Murphy’s Cee Bee on our way home from the Cardiac Club. Sheila’s knees being what they are and as we needed only two items, she trusted me to purchase them. I hurried in, found sacks of cat and dog food which matched my cash and went to the counter. The store was virtually empty. Only one young woman, I believe Amber, was near the cash register. 

When Amber rang up the purchase, she asked, “Do those two weigh more than five pounds?” Since my most recent hospital adventures, I’m not supposed to lift anything over five pounds. She knew that and was prepared to carry them out to the car for me. I assured her that they did, adding, “I can cheat a little,” which drew a frown but acceptance.

When I was a child there was a Kroger store on the corner of our street. My mother refused to shop there, walking to a small grocery about six blocks away. She didn’t trust the quality of the food at the chain stores. She claimed small stores were best. As an adult, I ignored her advice, going to the large chains which supplied everything in one stop. That practice began to unravel when I retired. Soon after our return home Sheila was out of pain medication.  I took her prescription to Kroger in Dickson, where I routinely shopped and the pharmacy was open on Saturday night. The druggist looked at the prescription and said, “I won’t fill this.” When I asked for the prescription back so I could go elsewhere she refused to give it to me. The result was that Sheila spent the weekend in pain. 

After that experience I started shopping, including medications, at Wal-Mart in Dickson, sixteen miles from home.  I passed a small grocery in Charlotte but habits are strong: large stores supply everything. Then we had the ice storm. Roads were closed, the county was without electricity. As soon as possible, I went for groceries. Except for Murphy’s Cee Bee everything was closed. So I stopped there.

Murphy’s impressed me. Without electricity, Mr. and Mrs. Murphy and their daughter were serving customers. Customers waited in line by the door and then, when their turn came, were conducted about the store by flashlight to purchase essentials. As I recall, they refused to take time with us for non-essential items such as candy. On our way home I told Sheila that anyone who would go out of their way to help local people in a time of emergency, as the Murphy’s Cee Bee was doing, deserved our business. Consequently, we began dividing our grocery business: some in Dickson, some with Murphy’s in Charlotte. Then came my heart attacks.

When I was first permitted to leave the house begin cardiac rehabilitation, (I was on house arrest for three months after my release from the hospital) Sheila and I began stopping at Murphy’s routinely, on our way home from the hospital. I was still weak and unsteady, so I waited near the door while Sheila shopped. The young women at the cash registers spotted my problems immediately and furnished me with a chair where I could sit, wait for Sheila and watch them work. They carried all groceries out to the car for me – and still do.  Three years later, despite changes in personnel, those young women are still watching me.

During these years I grew tired of the drug counter at Wal-Mart. In the name of “efficiency” you turned in your prescription to one person, she passed it to another who discussed it with you and then passed it to another who filled it. Then you went to a cashier and paid. There was a line before every person. They were all very professional, uniformly dressed and uniformly impersonal.  The procedure took a half hour or longer.  I decided to try a small drug store which had opened in Charlotte. The procedure they preferred was different. Our physician telephoned the prescription and on the way home we stopped in to pick it up. We dealt with one person. I was amused by the worn jeans under the white coats. There was rarely a wait and they were always pleasant. On bad days I simply waited in the car for a few minutes while Sheila went in and picked up the drugs. Now they get all of our drug business.

To that extent possible, small family stores get my business. My mother was right.

Taliban’s second in command, Mullah Abul Ghani Baradah, has been captured in Pakistan. The article I read said he was talking. More importantly, was he read his Miranda rights? Has he been appointed a taxpayer paid lawyer? 

“A Short Stay at Guantanamo Bay” by Michael Gerson was printed in Townhall.com (February 12). Because of weather, Mr. Gerson’s flight was forced to land at Guantanamo Bay and his observations during his short stay (overnight) are interesting. Most interesting to me was his story of a soldier, a guard at the hostel for killers, who hid his face when talking to television reporters. A guard, a soldier on duty, concealing his face from cameras because of the possibility of terrorist reprisal! It reminded me of my first thought when President Obama decided to try terrorist leaders before American juries in New York. How on earth will the government find a jury sufficiently willing or stupid to convict these proud killers? What person is going to put himself or herself and his or her entire family in danger of reprisal by saying “guilty.”  During the days of prohibition people were afraid to testify against the gangs who only killed them, not their entire families.  Obama and Holder may say these men will be brought to justice, but it won’t happen in an open court. Obama is so conciliatory to Muslim nations, is it possible he doesn’t want these killers convicted?

Senator Bayh of Indiana, respected by both Republicans and Democrats, has announced that he will not be a candidate for the Senate in 2010. He denounced the atmosphere, the lack of cooperation and respect for differing viewpoints. His own party, the Democratic Party, has controlled both houses of Congress for the past three years, with absolute control this past year along with the Presidency. Whom was he condemning?

My bride says she is tired of hearing Democrat politicians say that people want to pay fewer taxes but receive the same benefits. Her argument is that the truth is that people are tired of paying taxes for benefits they don’t receive or are given to others who haven’t paid any taxes.

I read that the ACORN’s national organization is dissolving and that it is being reorganized at state levels. Reading it reminded me of Hydra, the monster serpent in mythology which grew two heads for every one cut off. Only ACORN isn’t mythological.

The Obama government, our government, is building a new embassy in England. The budget is one billion dollars. Tax payers should not worry about this expenditure during the current economic crisis. The project will create many new jobs. In England.

Still on the job front: Nancy Pelosi, who must know what she is talking about as Speaker of the House,  said that passage of the Obama health bill would create 4 million more jobs, 400,000 “almost immediately.” My first reaction, a normal one I believe, was to ask where she was going to find 400,000 new doctors and nurses “almost immediately.” Then I realized that she is correct. Obama Care would require offices in every city to oversee health care, an office at the state level to coordinate city offices and a federal office to establish rules and regulations to oversee the states. This bureaucracy would require at least 400,000 new bureaucrats. These would be supervisory, administrative, jobs and would be excellent. I expect the holders would receive at least as much pay as Michelle Obama’s personal assistants do, and at least three of them, if I recall correctly (it might me more) receive between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. Money for this could come from Medicare. Then the four million workers would have to be hired.  They will be difficult to find as Chicago doesn’t have this many corrupt politicians, however ACORN is always available. Still, this would take time, which is why the increase in taxes to pay for the program doesn’t begin until after the next Presidential election. Obama Care is a job creation program! All it requires is more taxes.

I had gardening plans, but it was raining outside, which meant that I should be doing all of those indoor duties I’d been putting off until a rainy day. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like doing them. As I explained to Sheila, “It takes a certain amount of guilt to make me work. Fortunately, I don’t have that amount of guilt yet. So, I’ll go back to playing solitaire.”

On the way to the Cardiac Club the other morning, I muttered “idiot” at another driver. She, who listens occasionally, asked, “Have you ever noticed how many idiots there are?” I said, “Yes, and they are all out on the road when I’m driving.”

Enjoying sun, anticipating snow, I did some of the outside work I needed to do: trimming some bushes, filling in some holes in the lawn. When I finished, the bones in my chest were crackling, even hurting a bit. Sheila saw me rubbing my chest as I finished putting away the tools and asked if I was in trouble. I said, “No. The doctors have told me that if those broken bones in my chest ever puncture one of the arteries, I’ll be dead in one minute. Since the minute is up, I’m fine.” It all depends on how you look at things. Of course, it is possible I was a bit more enthusiastic with the shears and the pick than I should have been.

When Sheila and I retired and returned to the Furnace we investigated the possibility of getting cable television. When we discovered how expensive and limited it was, we decided to use that money to purchase movies instead. Consequently, we have quite a collection – Cary Grants, Agatha Christies, war movies, etc. Recently, exploring, my bride bought a British series called “New Tricks.” We have now purchased the second season. Without doubt these are the best DVDs we have purchased in months, at least since the Hamish Macbeth series which I believe was over a year ago. We like mysteries, we like humor: these stories contain both. Still more surprising, the second season is as good as the first. We recommend them to those either sick of or simply bored by standard television.

For some reason, unfortunately unknown, I slept through last night. Awakening at six, to nudges from cats and “woofs” from dogs, I poked Sheila. “She,” I said, “Our dogs, cats, chickens and birds have not been fed yet. Neither has your husband.” “I’m glad,” she replied, “that you put them in order of importance.”

Deciding to clean up the computer, I was reviewing blogs started and left incomplete. “Dustin” was one I erased, mostly because I’ve forgotten most of what I intended to say. Dustin was one of Sheila’s pet students when she was teaching art. He was also a well known discipline problem to the administration. But he liked Sheila and worked for her. He was not the only member of her art classes considered a problem by others who liked and worked for her. I believe I am responsible for that. By providing her with numbers of self-starting, consequence ignoring, children and their friends, all known as independent spirits to teachers and administrators at the schools they attended, I provided the experiences that permitted her to control independent spirits in her classes.

Sometimes, I get the impression, faint impression, that my bride doesn’t appreciate the depth and breadth of my talents. She was complaining that her hair was hanging in front of her eyes and she needed to go to the beauty shop. Always helpful, I said, “I can cut that for you.” She said she would rather have Clara, her beautician do any cutting of her hair.

Just now, reading the morning news at the computer, my loving bride came up and kissed me on top of the head. “What did I do to earn that” I asked? “Nothing,” Sheila replied,” I just felt like doing it. It’s a good thing you weren’t one of the cats or dogs, I would have gotten hair in my mouth.” Oh well, compliments come at all levels, from the trivial and questionable up. I think She hit the bottom with that one!