Why must Tea Party followers revert to the most vile forms of expression???

This following story appears on the Washington Post's website.
And the question tat MUST be asked is "Why does it ALWAYS seem that Tea Party gatherings and/or protests involve the most vile, bigoted, racist, ugly and despicable things imaginable?"
'Tea party' protesters accused of spitting on lawmaker, using slurs

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 20, 2010; 10:25 p.m.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said that racial epithets were hurled at them Saturday by angry protesters who had gathered at the Capitol to protest health-care legislation, and one congressman said he was spit upon. The most high-profile openly gay congressman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), was heckled with anti-gay chants.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) issued a statement late Saturday saying that he was spit upon while walking to the Capitol to cast a vote, leading the Capitol Police to usher him into the building out of concern for his safety. Police detained the individual, who was then released because Cleaver declined to press charges.
"The congressman was walking into the Capitol to vote, when one protester spat on him. The congressman would like to thank the U.S. Capitol Police officer who quickly escorted the other Members and him into the Capitol, and defused the tense situation with professionalism and care," said Danny Rotert, a spokesman for Cleaver.
Protesters outside the Capitol hurled epithets at Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.) as they left the building after President Obama delivered an 11th-hour speech on behalf of the health care bill. Carson told reporters that protesters yelled "kill the bill," then used a racial epithet to describe Carson and Lewis, who is a revered figure on both sides of the aisle.
According to observers, Frank was confronted by about 100 protesters inside the Longworth House Office Building, where Democrats were huddling for another meeting about the legislation. Some targeted Frank with anti-gay epithets and urged him to vote against the bill.
Democratic leaders and their aides said they were outraged by the day's behavior.
"I have heard things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to get off the back of the bus," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking black official in Congress.
And Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement, "On the one hand, I am saddened that America's debate on health care -- which could have been a national conversation of substance and respect -- has degenerated to the point of such anger and incivility. But on the other, I know that every step toward a more just America has aroused similar hate in its own time; and I know that John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, has learned to wear the worst slurs as a badge of honor."
"This is not the first time the congressman has been called the 'n' word and certainly not the worst assault he has endured in his years fighting for equal rights for all Americans," said Rotert, Cleaver's spokesman. "That being said, he is disappointed that in the 21st century our national discourse has devolved to the point of name-calling and spitting."
The incidents followed a noontime protest on the west side of the Capitol that drew several thousand people from around the country for a "Code Red" rally against the health-care bill. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) addressed the crowd.
As that rally ended, some protesters moved around to the south side of the Capitol, near the entrance to the House chamber, and across the east front of the complex.
On the first day of spring, most lawmakers walked across the street from their office buildings to the Capitol, rather than using the underground tunnels. That brought them into contact with protesters forming a gauntlet on each side of the walkway leading into the House. At one point, when Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) wanted to walk across the street to an office building, he was ushered into a car by his security detail and driven a couple hundred feet through the screaming crowd.
Saturday evening, more than a handful of House Republicans held an impromptu rally on the Capitol steps. Using a megaphone, the lawmakers urged on the crowd. Shortly after 6 p.m., Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.) dared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to come out onto the House steps and address the more than 1,000 people who were gathered at the foot of the Capitol, prompting a loud and angry chant of "Nancy, Nancy, Nancy."
The protesters believe that the Obama administration and Congress are ignoring the public's opposition to the $940 billion legislation, which they consider it to be a government takeover of the health-care system. They carried signs saying "Remember in November"; one carried a broomstick with cardboard pasted onto it with the label "Here's Your Ride," for Pelosi.
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Why? And please STOP saying it's a tiny minority. That group is growing larger and is being egged on by stupid Republican politicians who only see their own short-term benefit, and by hatemonger commentators out fo the glory and never for the good.
Why? Someone PLEASE explain why it is happening more and more and more.
Damn ALL of them!

Finding agreement with those of whom you strongly disagree

Often times, you see something profound and marvel at how has said it and how much of it you actually agree.
If people cast aside personal feelings about the author and actually WATCHED Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Live Story,” now out on DVD, you’d be SHOCKED at the number of times you found yourself nodding your head in agreement – regardless of party affiliation.
On this topic, even conservatives will find themselves agreeing with his basic premise – Wall Street and big banks have corrupted the capitalistic system of THIS country and the 2008 Bush-led bank/Wall Street bailout was nothing more than open robbery of the American taxpayer.
Hell, Moore sounds more “Tea Party” than any Tea Party activists around! While he DOES add the ingredient SO lacking with the Tea Party members (mainly, humor; they substitute personal insults and all too often racist imagery for wit), his words are biting and direct. Wall Street robbed the public blind and has helped to severely damage this nation.
One of the highlights comes toward the movie’s conclusion when Moore displays archival film from FDR and what became known as the Second Bill of Rights. As he explains, THIS was the premise by which the United States employed to re-write new constitutions in the defeated and destroyed Japan and Germany. They prospered, they recovered and they began to out-maneuver our nation in the area of industrial manufacturing (cars, steel production, etc.) – and did so with the influence of labor unions and bettering the living standards of its citizens with FDR’s blueprint.
This is from President Roosevelt’s January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union:

“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people – whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth – is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights – among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however – as our indus-trial economy expanded –these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. ‘Necessitous men are not free men.’ People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day, these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all – regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
* The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
* The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
* The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
* The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
* The right of every family to a decent home;
* The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
* The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment;
* The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won, we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”

I would strongly suggest everyone see this film – do NOT dismiss offhand because you don’t care for Moore’s personality or his politics. As a twin feature, you should see “Sicko,” his prior work about the American health care system and the debate about the quality of life in those countries who DO offer it to their people.
Again, you’ll be surprised how often you find yourself in agreement.

Fearless Chuck's NCAA Div. 1 men's basketball selections (read 'em and weep)

Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for: my NCAA Men’s Division 1 tournament picks:


First round
EAST
Kentucky over E. Tennessee State
Texas over Wake Forest (although UT has played the worst hoops of any no. 1 team this season)
Temple over Cornell
Wisconsin over Wofford
Marquette over Washington
New Mexico over Montana
Missouri over Clemson
West Virginia over Morgan State

SOUTH
Duke over Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Louisville over California
Texas A&M over Utah State (battle of Aggies)
Siena over Purdue
Old Dominion over Notre Dame
Baylor over Sam Houston State
St. Mary’s over Richmond
Villanova over Robert Morris

MIDWEST
Kansas over Lehigh (why did Lehigh change its name from the Engineers? What tribe was upset by THAT?)
Northern Iowa over UNLV
Michigan State over New Mexico State (wrong set of Aggies)
Maryland over Houston
Tennessee over San Diego State (Aztecs might have ex-UM coach Mike Fisher, from the Miracle of 1989, but not this year)
Georgetown over Ohio
Georgia Tech over Oklahoma State
Ohio State over UC-Santa Barbara

WEST (upset central)
Syracuse over Vermont (the Catamounts, gotta love that name)
Gonzaga over Florida State
UTEP over Butler (12 beats a 5)
Murray State over Vanderbilt (13 beats a 4)
Minnesota over Xavier (11 beats a 6)
Pitt over Oakland
Brigham Young over Florida
Kansas State over North Texas (Mean Green v. Purple Wildcats – the Sherwin-Williams special)

Second round
EAST
Kentucky over Texas
Temple over Wisconsin
Marquette over New Mexico
West Virginia over Missouri

SOUTH
Duke over Louisville (once upon a time, this would have been the Finals)
Texas A&M over Siena (sorry Saints)
Baylor over Old Dominion
Villanova over St. Mary’s

MIDWEST
Kansas over Northern Iowa
Michigan State over Maryland
Georgetown over Tennessee
Ohio State over Georgia Tech

WEST
Syracuse over Gonzaga
UTEP over Murray State (shades of 1966???)
Pitt over Minnesota
Kansas State over Brigham Young

Sweet Sixteen
EAST
Kentucky over Temple
West Virginia over Marquette

SOUTH
Duke over Texas A&M
Villanova over Baylor

MIDWEST
Kansas over Michigan State
Ohio State over Georgetown

WEST
Syracuse over UTEP
Pitt over Kansas State

Elite Eight
EAST
Kentucky over West Virginia

SOUTH
Duke over Villanova

MIDWEST
Kansas over Ohio State

WEST
Pitt over Syracuse

FINAL FOUR
Kentucky over Duke
Kansas over Pitt

FINALS
Kansas 78, Kentucky 73

A brief history of St. Patrick’s Day

Chuck – Here is a history of St. Patrick’s Day from an article in Ceili Music Magazine (plus info from U.S. Census Bureau) and a few recipes courtesy of the Los Angeles Times and my own files:

By Michelle Osborne
The story of St. Patrick’s Day begins around 385 A.D. with a man named Maewyn. At age 16, Pagan Maewyn was sold into slavery, which brought him closer to God. He finally managed to escape slavery six years later and headed to a monastery in Gaul to study, where he adopted Christian name, “Patrick.”
Upon ending his studies, he moved to Ireland, where he felt his calling in life was to convert Pagans to Christianity. For next 30 years, he traveled throughout thr country, setting up monasteries and converting natives. After his death in 461 A.D. (on March 17, when else did you expect?), he was declared a saint.
So what happened from there? How did a man who spent his entire life converting Pagans to Christianity result in a day devoted to rowdy songs, parades, and drinking green beer, a day when everyone is just a wee bit Irish?
The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in America, not Ireland. It took place in New York City in 1762, and consisted of Irish soldiers in English military marching through city. This was a chance for soldiers to reconnect with their heritage. Eventually, as more Irish immigrants came to America, parades were a show of strength for Irish-Americans and political candidates had to make an appearance at them. Now a regular annual event, people of all backgrounds celebrate this day.
Ireland, on other hand, does not have such a long history of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Prior to 1970s, it was a religious occasion and, indeed, Irish law mandated that pubs be closed on March 17! Apparently, there was no green beer for those in Ireland.
This changed around 1995, when government made a push to use St. Patrick’s Day as a way to drive tourism and to showcase Ireland to the rest of world. Parades and celebrations are now common in Ireland around this day (in fact, their celebrations last several days) and some 1 million people took part in last year’s festivities in Dublin.
When people nowadays think of this day, they get an image of shamrock in their head. You see it on the sides of buildings, on hats and clothing, on balloons and decorations. Why? Its origins are rooted in Patrick himself. He used the shamrock as a way to show how the trinity works: three separate elements of same entity.
So wherever you are, whether you’re Irish or not, get out there and enjoy day!
Celtic MP3s Music Magazine writer Michelle Osborne (Irish Music Reviews), a native to central New York region, plays both high and low whistles regularly with the Syracuse Irish session. Besides being heavily involved in Irish traditional music, she is also a classical clarinetist and composer.
For more information on the holiday, The History Channel will be showing The History of St. Patrick’s Day this Wednesday, March 17 at 6 p.m.

And from the U.S Census:

The St. Patrick’s Day parade became an annual event with President Truman attending in 1948. Congress proclaimed March as Irish-American Heritage Month in 1995 and President issues a proclamation each year.
U.S. residents of Irish ancestry
The number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2008 was 36.3 million. This number was more than eight times the population of Ireland itself (4.4 million). Irish was nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German.

Irish heritage in Massachusetts
The percent of Massachusetts residents who were of Irish ancestry in 2008 was 24 percent. This compares with a rate of 12 percent for the nation as a whole.

Education
The percentage of people of Irish ancestry, 25 or older, who have a bachelor’s degree, or more, education is 32 percent. In addition, 92 percent of Irish-Americans in this age group had at least a high school diploma. For the nation as a whole, corresponding rates were 28 percent and 85 percent.

Households median
The median income for households headed by an Irish-American is $52,029 for all households. In addition, 9 percent of people of Irish ancestry were in poverty, lower than the rate of 13 percent for all Americans.

Homeowners
The percentage of householders of Irish ancestry who owned home in which they live is 71 percent, with the remainder renting. For the nation as a whole, homeownership rate was 67 percent.

U.S. cities named for the shamrock
There are several places in the United States named Shamrock, which is the floral emblem of Ireland. Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va., and Shamrock, Texas, were the most populous, with 2,623 and 1,807 residents, respectively. Shamrock Lakes, Ind., had 153 residents and Shamrock, Okla., 123.

Beef and Cabbage Production
United States beef and cabbage production in pounds in 2008 was 40.7 billion and 2.5 billion. Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dish.
The corned beef that celebrants dine on may very well have originated in Texas, which produced 6.5 billion pounds worth of beef. The largest producers of cabbage are New York, which produced 584 million pounds and California, which produced 528 million pounds.

RECIPES

Beer-Battered Rock Shrimp with Honey Mustard
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra flour for dusting
2 teaspoons cayenne
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 8-ounce bottle of beer, room temperature
1 ½ pounds rock shrimp
4 cups peanut oil for frying
Lemon wedges for garnish

Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce
6 tablespoons honey
¼ cup Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon Tabasco

To make batter, combine flour, cayenne, salt, baking powder and sugar in a medium bowl. Add beer and whisk until smooth. Set aside uncovered for at least 1 hour.
In large saucepan, heat oil to deep-fry temperature, about 350 degrees. Test oil by sprinkling in few drops of batter. If they immediately rise to surface, oil is ready.
Dry strips of rock shrimp or fish on paper towels; dust with flour, patting well to remove excess. Thoroughly coat shrimp by dipping one at time in batter; fry 5 pieces at time until crisp and golden, about 2-3 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine dipping sauce ingredients in small bowl and set aside.
Remove fish or shrimp with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Serve immediately with lemon wedges and dipping sauce. Serves 6.

Gilliland’s Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel-Whiskey Sauce
1 (2 lb.) loaf sliced white bread, crusts removed
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup raisins
1/3 cup Irish Whiskey
2 ½ cups milk
2 ½ cups whipping cream
1 vanilla bean, slit
8 eggs
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon-sugar (about ¼ cup)

Spread bread slices with some of soft butter. Toast lightly on 1 side. Cut bread in ½-inch squares. Set aside.
Plump raisins in Irish whiskey. Set aside.
Heat milk and cream with vanilla bean, scraping out seeds from bean. Cool; discard bean. Set milk aside.
Beat eggs with sugar. Add to milk mixture. Stir in bread cubes and raisin mixture. Let stand 15 minutes.
Pour bread mixture into well-buttered 13x9-inch glass baking pan. Dot with remaining butter, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar to taste. Bake at 350 degrees 45-60 minutes or until lightly golden on top.
Serve with Caramel-Whiskey Sauce. Makes 8 servings.

Caramel-Whiskey Sauce
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup water
½ cup butter
Whipping cream
¼ cup Irish whiskey
Melt sugar in water over low heat until caramelized. Add butter and 1 ½ cups whipping cream and cook to desired consistency. Cool, then add whiskey and more cream for desired consistency, if necessary.
Makes about 3 cups.

Authentic Irish soda bread
3 cups unbleached flour, plus more for kneading
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, optional
6 tablespoons butter
2 eggs, beaten, optional
1 ¼-2 cups buttermilk
1 cup raisins or mixed raisins and currants, plumped in hot water 5 minutes

Combine unbleached flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon and caraway seeds. Cut butter into dry ingredients by hand or using paddle or hook attachment on mixer at slow speed.
Add eggs and buttermilk to form soft dough; stir in raisins. Turn out onto floured work surface and gently knead 8 times or so, to firm up dough. Let rest 10 minutes.
Shape into an 8- or 9-inch round. Score top with a knife to make cross. Dust with white flour or sprinkle with bran or oatmeal. Place in 9-inch cast-iron pan and bake at 375 degrees until top is brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40-50 minutes. Remove and cool in pan on rack.

Shepherd’s Pie
1 lb. ground beef
¼ cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped green bell pepper
2 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
4 cups mashed potatoes, from scratch, using Yukon Golds
2 teaspoons paprika

Brown ground beef in large skillet with onion and green pepper. Add beef stock. In small saucepan, melt butter over low heat and whisk in flour. Add mixture to beef stock to thicken; stir in salt, thyme, and mixed vegetables; simmer for 20 minutes.
Preheat broiler. Spoon mixture into an ovenproof casserole dish. Top it with mashed potatoes, using large pastry bag if desired. Sprinkle paprika on top. Place pie under broiler to brown.

Champ (Green onion mashed potatoes)
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup whipping cream
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
1 bunch green onions, sliced (about 1 1/3 cups)

Cook potatoes in pot of boiling salted water until very tender, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring cream and butter to simmer in heavy small saucepan over me¬di¬um heat, stirring often. Mix in green onions. Remove from heat. Cover and let steep while potatoes cook.
Drain potatoes thoroughly. Return potatoes to same pot and mash. Add cream mixture and stir until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover; let stand at room temperature. Re-warm over low heat, stirring often.) Serves 4.

Ballymaloe Irish stew
2 lbs. shoulder lamb chops, about 1-inch thick
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup Guinness beer or any dark beer
1 pound new potatoes
1 pound baby carrots, peeled
1 pint pearl onions, peeled
4 cups lamb stock
2 tablespoons dark roux
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

Season lamb chops with salt and pepper. In large Dutch oven, over medium heat, add oil. When oil is hot, but not smoking, add chops. Sear for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove chops from pan and set aside. Add beer and continue to cook for 1 minute, scraping any brown particles off bottom of pan. Add lamb back to pan.
In mixing bowl, toss vegetables with salt and pepper, and to pan.
Cover with stock, bring liquid to boil, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for about 2 hours or until lamb falls off bone. Stir in roux and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Stir in parsley and spoon into serving bowls. Serves 4.

Beef and Guinness stew
2 pounds stew beef
3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tablespoons tomato puree, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
1 ¼ cups Guinness
2 cups largely diced carrots
Sprig of fresh thyme
Chopped parsley, for garnish

Trim meat of any fat or gristle, and cut into 2-inch cubes. Toss beef with 1 tablespoon of oil. In small bowl, season flour with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Toss meat with seasoned flour.
Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over high heat. Brown meat on all sides. Reduce heat, add onions, crushed garlic and tomato puree to skillet, cover, and cook gently for 5 minutes. Transfer contents to cas¬se¬role and pour half of Guinness into skillet. Bring Guinness to boil and stir to dissolve caramelized meat juices on pan. Pour over meat, along with remaining Guinness. Add carrots and thyme. Stir and adjust season¬ings. Cover casserole and simmer over low heat, or in 300-degree oven until meat is tender, 2-3 hours.
Garnish beef with parsley and serve. Serves 6.

Irish beef stew
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 ¼-pounds stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 large garlic cloves, minced
8 cups canned beef broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons (¼-stick) butter
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into ½-inch pieces (about 7 cups)
1 large onion, chopped

2 cups ½-inch pieces peeled carrots

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add beef and sauté until brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute.

Add beef stock, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, melt butter in another large pot over medium heat. Add potatoes, onion and carrots. Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes. Add vegetables to beef stew. Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes. Discard bay leaves; tilt pan and spoon off fat. (Can be prepared up to two days ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving).

Transfer stew to serving bowl. Makes 4-6 servings.

Sliante!

Why not vote for 'none of the above?'

Author's Note: This was published in today's (March 6, 2010) edition of the Dallas Morning News on its Viewpoints page.
There is a plotline to an old Richard Pryor movie, the seventh remake version of the 1902 novel, "Brewster’s Millions." In the 1985 version, Pryor is an old minor league pitcher (Montgomery Brewster) who must spend $30 million in 30 days and have no tangible assets when the clock strikes 12. For his efforts, he will inherit $300 million from a long-lost eccentric millionaire relative.

Along with such ingenious moves (such as buying a priceless stamp worth millions and then using it to actually mail a letter), Brewster decides to run a campaign to be mayor of New York City. He urges all voters to simply vote for “none of the above” in protest over the other two seemingly corrupt challengers.
As the contrived plot weaves its way through, one of the threads finds none of the human candidates winning; instead “none of the above” emerges in the top spot, sending a powerful message.
As a registered voter, I wish most campaigns would be half as entertaining as a Richard Pryor movie. Instead, as the primary races that came to a head this week show, voters are often saddled with inane commercials, the same tired rhetoric filled with the code words and acerbic barbs, and a complete lack of cogent ideas about how to govern.
While there are some minor party representatives on the November ballots, this state and country is - for better and far worse — a two-party political system. Actually, in many places, it’s a one-party system (especially when one of the major parties refuses, or is unable, to field a suitable slate of candidates).
In Texas, voters never have full participation in choosing its representatives because the primary system forces an automatic political division. Often, as is the case for state representative race in Collin County, only Republicans will choose a voice in Austin for the rest of us. In November, only one name (a Republican’s) will appear, and the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
But it wouldn’t be so if there was an alternate choice on the ballot. Why not be able to vote for “none of the above”?
That might express, in a more accurate sense, the will of the people. If voters want someone other than what is shown them, maybe they should have the final word. If you don’t want an octogenarian going to Congress for the umpteenth time, but find the other choices to be completely unsatisfactory, why shouldn’t you tell the political establishment “none of the above”? If no one represents your viewpoints, why can’t you push back with “none of the above”?
It might force the parties to field better candidates and allow for better representation in the various legislatures, city halls, school boards and courthouses. Critics might claim that such a voter option would result in stymied government and a less-than-effective means to exercise democracy. I would counter with one question: Is it really working that well right now?
With the overriding influence of Montgomery Brewster-like money in the most meager of contests (and with the poisoning potential for even more monetary participation from corporations), we don’t always seem to get the “best” and the “brightest” to be our advocates. The average person needs someone, or in this case, something to grasp in this democratic process of ours.
“None of the above” would be a start, and it would add a new level of accountability to the system.
Now, that would be a welcome storyline.

Texas primary results - take 1

LOST was much more interesting tonight but ... a few things are being made clear with the results of the Texas primary elections (more take later).
1) Tea Party does NOT deliver votes, only complaints. Otherwise, Perry would be out (the biggest incumbent of them all is moving on to gold medal round against a MUCH better campaigner). If people like Cong. Ralph Hall (our version of the 1,000-year-old man) also win, all that "throw the bums out" talk is just that - cheap talk without a shred of direct action. To be feared, you gotta deliver in the clutch. As it is said here, the Tea Party is "all hat, no cattle."
2) This SHOULD be the end for Kay Bailey Hutchison. She wants to leave D.C., come home and promised to resign - win or lose - after tonight's results. Let's see if she follows through. And this was not only a loss, it was a rebuke of her.
She can't win in 4 years after tonight because the blueprint to beat her has been written. And this loss gives Perry the chance to appoint someone HE wants there (I don't know who or how after all he's said about how BAD people in DC are).
3) If you run, don't be a clown ... like Farouk Shami. And if you endorse someone, know that person FIRST (statewide Hispanic Dems groups) before getting embarassed.
4) Ask this: would turnout have been greater if the primary were held on a Saturday???????????? Still hard for many people to vote on a weekday workday.
More later when I actually get some damn sleep.

New name, same old face and temper

Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning, who shall forever be knwon as ...

Senator Mean Mister Mustard

Spring is here and baseball is about to start ... and this looks strange

Johnny Damon in a Detroit Tiger uniform ... gotta admit, it looks kinda strange ...

Define an act of terrorism

In the case of the guy who flew his private plane today into the building in Austin which housed the IRS, and did it to get BACK at the IRS (after burning down his house down ...which doesn't make sense but that's another story), the government (or the White House and Homeland Security) has declared it is NOT an act of terrorism.
But not end of story. I ask this in all due respect: if someone targets the government or a particular agency with an act of destruction, resulting in death/injury, and did it willfully (premeditated) ,,, isn't THAT an act of ... terrorism?
... OR can terrorism ONLY be perpetrated by a foreign national?
My answer? Yes, it IS an act of terrorism, regardless of that person's address or homeland. Angry white guys are just as capable of such heinous acts as Arabic-speaking people.
And when you do it in such a calculated way, meaning to do harm, THAT IS TERRORISM!

Hey Toyota, it COULD happen

There could come a time when EVERY car Toyota has made in the past 5-7 YEARS is subject to a recall - either voluntary (won't happen because Toyota and Chairman Toyoda are TOO fucking stubborn and proud) or by government dictate.

Right now, no Toyotas are being sold OR made; plants are closed and no one knows when they are reopening, including Ricky Perry's "private" investment in the San Antonio site.
And the term "Toyota quality" will soon become a David Letterman joke.
I'm waiting for YouTube video of a Toyota that finds its wheels coming off on the highway.
Never say never. It could happen.

Supremacy Clause trumps Tea Partiers

Hate to break it to all those faithful Tea Party followers (can you be a member to a non-organized group?), but no one seems to know a damn thing about "states’ nullification," which is a delusionary figment of the right-wing’s imagination.

There is a Supremacy Clause in the Constitution, written by the same "founding fathers" these wingnuts love to quote (but a document they obviously have NEVER read), which simply states that federal law trumps all … and I don't mean Donald Trump. In fact, it was written BEFORE the vaunted (but misunderstood) 10th amendment.
Here it is:

Article VI, Clause 2

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Damn ... seems clear as a bell unless you are blind like Medina and the "others." (A little LOST reference). THAT is what the founding fathers had in mind and to keep attacking it with a contrarian viewpoint is wrong.
But being factually wrong has never been an impediment to attacking the truth.

There's got to be a morning after ...

More photos of the Great DFW Snowfallicane of 2010:

Is it too late for Santa to come back?

The beauty of snow

What most Texans do NOT understand is that snow ... is beautiful. Not just to build snowmen, snow fortresses or for sledding (no skiing except near Mount Pleasant, I guess), but it has a calming effect when things go right.

For 24 hours, it has been perfect in Dallas and Plano. The snow fell straight down, not with the thrust of a blue nothern (or Dairy Queen) blizzard, but as if Mother Nature decided to lay a blanket upon North Texas, as if she was making a bed for a guest.

The light from the moon shines off the snow, illuminating everything and covering UP the darkness. And it instills a sense of quiet - a hush has fallen across the landscape.

When I was in college at the University of Michigan, and when such evenings brought this kind of winter wonderland, it was the very best place to be - to walk along State Street and hear the crunching of the snow beneath your boots or golashes (Texans know zilch about them). As flakes fell, the street lights would make each flake appear to be a summertime firefly.

As I peer out my front door onto my street, it looks just like that - all lawns, roofs, houses and cars are under that blanket.

And it feels just fine to me.

The great blizzard of 2010

It's been snowing here in suburban Dallas (Plano), TEXAS, since around midnight and is forecast to snow until midnight tonight/early Friday AM. Expected to see 8-9 inches of white stuff, although it hasn't started to freeze ... YET. That will take place later when the sun and temperatures go down.
The morning commute could be dicey but I imagine much of the icy roads willclear by afternoon when the sun comes back out and it gets above freezing. It will melt in 48 hours and that's OK by me.
HOWEVER, the place is going nutso. One TV station has been on the air with a constant news report about ... SNOW since noon.
Still, I gotta admit, it's quite a sight watching REAL snow fall here (not enough in VANCOUVER, though). Steady, big flakes, and hard. It's a sight for these poor old Michigander eyes!

Funny thing, up North (where I originated), there would have already been an army of snow shovelers for hire (I was among them at 12 years of age), but no one - not one young male-type person - is that enterprising here in Plano. I guess parents pay better than actual WORK!
And for you climate change doubters who think making "how's this for global warming? Ha! Ha!" jokes is really funny, it's BECAUSE of climate change that El Nino is the cause of these wicked storms all over the place. You dial up the temperature of the oceans, and stir up MORE moisture into the atmosphere and alter the flow of El Nino and ... bing! bang! boom! ... you get these freakish snow storms on the East Coast and in TEXAS, and mudslides in Southern California due to torrential, unending downpours.
Trust me, to many people, it ain't funny!

Not only is she stupid, she's dangerous

Not only is Sarah Palin a stupid "hairhead," strictly in politics for the money, honey, but she borders on dangerous. In her Sunday "interview" with Fox News Sunday, this dolt actually advocated attacking Iran and sending troops to defend Israel (all part of her uber-fundamentalist religious mindspeak that endangers the very fabric of the nation), saying it would be in President Obama's FAVOR to proceed along those lines.

Really? Is she THAT ignorant? Perhaps, but she IS that dense.

Anyone who has to give a speech with "cheat sheet" notes written on her palm, and then has the audacity to attack someone for delivering a complex speech with a teleprompter deserves nothing but spite hurled at her.

Sadly, she has a following of like-minded dolts, simpletons who want to regress this nation to its former days of ignorance (including the destruction of actual science in favor of dogmatic nonsense) and segregation (out with all the non-white people).

She reflects the absolute worse in all of us and why so many people cannot stand politics anymore. It's all about her instead of being all about us.

If you honestly support Sarah Palin, you seriously need to sit down and examine your inner beliefs as to why.

She's a boob with boobs and neither are all that goddamn impressive!

Quick Super Bowl analysis - DAT WHO!

My analysis of Super Bowl 45 is simple: fate deemed that New Orleans would win. Why? Because every break went the way of the Saints.

While most people would write that the Tracy Porter interception was THE play of the game, I will disagree. That sealed the win but it wasn’t the turnaround play of the night.
There were two – the second-half onside kick (a gutsy call from Sean Payton, the man who SHOULD have been the Cowboys’ coach) and a challenge flag with less than six minutes to play.
New Orleans did not do a great job in the first half stopping Indianapolis’ offense so getting the first possession of the second half, after making adjustments, would have proven crucial to the Colts, leading 10-6.
But the successful deception turned that momentum around instantly. The Colts did methodically march right down the field to score and take the lead, but they did so while trailing instead of leading. It then became a game that appeared to be one decided by final possession.
Perhaps MORE important was the challenge call on the Saints’ final go-ahead score late in the fourth quarter. Had the ruling on the field NOT been overturned, it would have been a five-point game which meant Indy could have settled for two field goals (requiring LESS yardage to gain) for a one-point win. Making Indy score a touchdown offered a more difficult challenge, which proved too much for the Colts to overcome.
So once again, a Colts team, favored to win in Miami, lost a Super Bowl to an underdog, beloved by much of the nation … ala 1969 against the Joe Namath Jets.
Who dat? The upstart Saints are already etching a pose for Sports Illustrated Sportsmen of the Year. Dat who!

Run, Sarah, run ... PLEASE!

The most rock solid prediction that can be made in advance is this: President Obama will be guaranteed (repeat, lead pipe lock) a second term if the Republicans nominate Sarah Palin as its candidate for president in 2012. In fact, it should be the Democrats funding her campaign war chest to see such an occurence happens.
She is the single most dunderheaded dolt EVER to emerge on the national political stage. She tries to substitute the folksy "You betcha" attitude for knowledge, of which she possesses nothing between her ears.
If a single person, with an iota of intelligence, believes her Saturday speech to the so-called Tea Party (is that Lipton or Tetley?) will launch her star, they are either blind or stupid. Sorry, but es la verdad (it's the truth) as they say closer to Brownsville, Texas.
She knows nothing, talks about nothing except to toss a few poorly worded barbs in front of right-wing, white-wing meateaters who think it's cute to incorrectly use words like "socialism," "communism" and "dictator" when speaking about the Obama administration.
Her most quoted portion of the speech came concerning the arrest of the Detroit underwear bomber (was that Jcokey or Fruit of the Loom ... er.... LOON), who has been made to be THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN WHO EVER LIVED instead of a screwed-up student who couldn't thread a needle if he tried. Sarah wanted him flogged and tortured (that could have been accomplished by forcing the guy to listen to hear for 36 hours straight). However, the Justice Department, following the EXACT legal procedure used by the previous administration when Richard Reed, the shoebomber, was stopped trying to do the same damn thing.
In fact, the Republican indignation is laughable. Not a WORD, not one fucking syllable, was uttered back then when he was caught, read his rights and tried in court.
But short memories and politics seem to wipe away congent thoughts.
As for her "hotness???" Puh-lese, Betty White looked better in the Snickers commercial last night. Sarah Palin is a media whore - she takes money to be seen and perform. She should be introduced to the sea chanty, "Pay Me My Money Now."
And how WAS that tanning bed installed in the Alaska capital for her use? She's as white trash as it comes and is attracting the same, drooling crowd where men judge her on their own MILF factor instead of actual leadership.
She's a dollar sniffer and does ANYTHING she can to get it, including selling out her home state by quitting the governership in order to cash in on her 15-minutes of fame.
Only the Republicans will stretch that until 2012. Good luck. Democrats are smiling at the prospect.

Choke of this

You know who is really choking on Toyota today? All them damn ass GOP Southern Senators, like Shelby and Sessions and John Cornyn, states with major Toyota plants, who voted AGAINST the US automaker bailout because of parochial self-interests. They WANTED Detroit to fail miserably in order to improve the status of their non-union plants in the South .... the same ones NOW shut down because of Toyota's horrid PR problem.
Ford MIGHT pass GM and Toyota for no. 1, which would be stunning since it did not take the money, did not cut away brand names and did not fire its executive leadership. Yet another reason to buy American and restore some semblance of order in this world.

While the Prius problem seems systematic to hybrids (the delay between energy conversion and the damn brakes working), Toyota did its level best to HIDE that from customers. This is a well-worn plot to many a TV show and movies. It's cheaper to keep silent and settle lawsuits than to replace and fix the problem. The fact that Toyota doesn't know HOW to fix the problem is astonishing, yet KNEW there was a problem for some time.
It's all about Japanese corporate mentality v. U.S. openness society. We want to know when and why things fuck up; Japan doesn't.

Bye, bye Toyota????

You might well be seeing the crumbling and potential death of a major automaker ... and it's NOT an American firm.
It would NOT shock me to hear of the suicide of the Toyota chairman in Japan. Apparently, the company didn't want to cooperate, knowing what it would mean in the end.

And now the vaunted Prius is under investigation... and yet ... Toyota doesn't KNOW how the fix the problem (it's guessing) but swears it's not the electrical system. When you toss that ball SO high, you are actually pointing to the problem. Toyota seems to be TOO eager to point out what it ISN'T.
Apparently Ford sees the opening and is seizing the time (as we used to say back in the day).

The day the dog stood still

Author's Note: The following was published in the Collin County Opinions section of the Jan. 31, 2010 edition of the Dallas Morning News.
In the classic movie comedy, “Ghostbusters,” the main characters explain, in terms of Biblical apocalyptic terms, the dangers of unleashing all their captured “material” upon New York City.
Mayor: What do you mean, “Biblical”?
Dr. Raymond Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes ...
Winston Zeddmore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!
For the past 10 months, the mass hysteria has finally played itself out at my Plano household. The human sacrifice has been various body parts (used as scratching polls) because our dog and cat have finally managed to live together. So to speak.
The dog, Seamus, was a rescue animal, liberated during the annual North Texas Irish Festival, but the cat, BeeGee, entered our home through the alley and then the garage, inching her way from stray to “stay.” And for a period of about 10 months, it was her castle to rule; we just lived in it at her whim. Then entered this four-legged creature which she treated like a mother-in-law or dead fish; after three days, he had outlived his welcome. It’s almost been a year and she remained perturbed that her kingdom had been invaded.
The dog is never hard to find; we just have to follow the trail of torn pillows, with stuffing strewn everywhere, chewed-up rawhide bones, and mangled slippers. It always leads to a prone animal snoozing on my wife’s bed … which is also half-eaten. Sad-eyed Seamus will glance up from the chewed wreckage of a former Cole Hahn moccasin; while my wife and I just stand there, shaking our heads. As once mentioned here before, the dog tries to eat everything (the latest example being a new plastic yo-yo when he failed to get it to “walk the cat”).
At first, the cat v. dog situation was not good; it more resembled Wrestlemania or NHRA drag racing. The dog would try to play and fetch the cat (in his mouth); the cat would reverse field and smack him against the snout with a solid Muhammed Ali-like left cross (who knew the cat was left-pawed like the rest of us in the household?). It’s better entertainment than any mixed martial arts pay-for-view showdown you can buy on cable TV.
Emergency air or ambulance sirens make no impression upon Seamus, but if just one of us is caught by him, rubbing or petting his affection competition, he launches into his best Lassie “Help, Timmy is in trouble again” barking at the top of his considerable lungs. I swear his black and white coat turns Celtic Kelly green in a pique of envy and jealousy. I thought that was reserved for jilted ex-girlfriends.
We didn’t know if this battle would become “Alien v. Predator” or “The Simpsons,” but like good animal Marines, we (and they) adapted. They’ve learned to “respect” one another’s food and territory, although the cat is still flashing her best M-G-M growl at times, the dust – and pillow stuffing – has settled for the time being.
I don’t know what the scene was like at your household on Christmas Day… but it might have been mine.
The spouse and I were in our living room, wishing we had cleaned the chimney to use our fireplace. We sat respectively in our easy chairs, watching “Law and Order” reruns, and marveling at the snow that covered our Texas-based lawn.
We simultaneously looked over to the dog and cat – just mere inches from each other, oblivious to one another, sleeping the night away. Their harmonious snoring mixed well with the smell of one of my sugar-free apple pies, baking in the oven.
My wife and I turned to each other and smile, satisfied that species détente had been reached; that all shoes would remain safe.
For at least one more night.

More on McGwire

Regardless of what people "think" or "believe," amking comparisons between Pete Rose, banned for life from baseball, and Mark McGwire,who some think should also be banned, are two completely different cases.

First, Rose broke THE unbreakable rule in baseball - no betting on games, especially your own team. It is the idelible stain upon baseball dating back to 1919. Steroids don't go back that far. H also went to prison for it.
Second, McGwire was never convicted of a crime nor charged by anyone - police OR baseball. In fact, MUCH of what McGwire took THEN was never banned by MLB because it needed players, like McGwire, to maintain popularity in the sport. Hell, you can STILL buy Andro on the self of any GNC. You cannot preach to youth about abstinence from PEDs and not advocate for its abolition to the general public.
Third, cheating has been part of the game for ages. Weren't greenies or bennies or whatever they took in the 50s, 60s and 70s ALSO performance enhancing drugs ... by the very definition of PED?
And records were set in eras where ballparks were SO small that mere pop-ups flew for home runs. Bobby Thompson's legendary "The Giants win the pennat" HR was hit over the LF fence at the Polo Grounds just 285 feet from home plate.
Everything, from equipment to medicine to the stadiums, have played into records from all eras. If you scrub one decade worth of records, you've got to go back and examine ... everything! And it can't be done.
Forget the asterisks, etc. And if you do it with baseball, shouldn't it be done for all sports? Think baseball is the lone olf here? Football has been nothing but steroid-aided, including the decade of the Cowboys' Super Bowls (and forget about the home town factor; players on ALL teams were juicing and there was NO excuse for it).
Everything has changed and nothing in this world has stayed the same. So live with it!

Fair and balanced? Yeah, right (wing)!

Second most stunning headline, and LEAST shocking, of the day:
Palin signs on with Fox News
By Howard Kurtz
The Washington Post

Sarah Palin, who regularly rips the media, is becoming a television pundit at a place where she's likely to feel at home.
A Fox News executive says the network will shortly announce that the former vice-presidential nominee is signing on as a contributor.
Palin, who resigned as governor of Alaska last summer, will appear as a commentator on various Fox shows. She will also host an occasional program that will examine inspirational tales involving ordinary Americans.
Palin will join Mike Huckabee as a Fox contributor who was also involved in the 2008 campaign. The exposure can only help Palin if she decides to pursue a 2012 presidential bid.
At the moment, Palin makes pronouncements mainly through her Facebook page. The Fox connection would give her a platform on the nation's top-rated cable news channel.
Palin is extremely popular with her conservative base, which has fueled the sales of her best-selling memoir. But she is a divisive political figure who not only draws the ire of liberals but some Republicans, including staffers who deal with her during her run as John McCain's running mate. Steve Schmidt, a top McCain strategist, said on "60 Minutes" last night that "there were numerous instances that she said things that were -- that were not accurate that ultimately, the campaign had to deal with."
Hiring Palin could further boost the popularity of Rupert Murdoch's network among conservative viewers. The network already employs former Bush White House aide Karl Rove and former House speaker Newt Gingrich as highly visible commentators.

Perhaps she can interview Mark McGwire about things like ... honesty and values. :-)

I, Mark McGwire, confess

The most anticipated, and LEAST shocking, confession in recent times:

Text of the statement Mark McGwire issued Monday to the Associated Press, admitting he used steroids during his career:
"Now that I have become the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do five years ago.
I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize. I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, including during the 1998 season.
I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.
During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too.
I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry.
Baseball is really different now - it's been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players' association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did.
I'm grateful to the Cardinals for bringing me back to baseball. I want to say thank you to Cardinals owner Mr. DeWitt, to my GM, John Mozeliak, and to my manager, Tony LaRussa. I can't wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in Saint Louis. I've always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I'm going to pour myself into this job and do everything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come.
After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."

Goodbye, friend

Blogger's Note: Upon the passing of a friend, Jerry Fleming of Plano, Texas, I sent a communication to the wife of the obituary writer seen here. She also works for the Morning News as I had established a relationship via the email. The result is here - a fitting tribute to a good man.

By JOE SIMNACHER / The Dallas Morning News

jsimnacher@dallasnews.com
Jerry M. Fleming continued helping people long after his 1989 retirement as an Army social worker and lieutenant colonel.
He settled in Dallas, where he assisted both civilians and veterans. He was especially known for helping fellow Vietnam veterans receive benefits related to cancers linked to military exposure to Agent Orange.
Mr. Fleming, 69, died Saturday (Jan. 9, 2010) at Medical Center of Plano of complications of a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the fourth cancer he had battled.
Graveside services with military honors for Mr. Fleming will be at noon Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. A celebration of life will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Community Unitarian Universalist Church, 2875 E. Parker Road in Plano.
Mr. Fleming's social work in Dallas covered everything from counseling employees after robberies and other tragedies to working with veterans, said his wife, Beverly Fleming of Plano.
"He was very caring, very much into our church; he was head of the ushers," Mrs. Fleming said. At Community Unitarian Universalist Church, Mr. Fleming and his wife worked to help AIDS patients.
For 20 years in Dallas, Mr. Fleming provided outsourced marriage and substance abuse counseling.
He was a social worker with several companies that subcontracted counseling services. He also volunteered his social-working expertise to veterans.
In 2002, doctors diagnosed Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia, a rare type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"If anybody told Jerry he had something, he started researching it," Mrs. Fleming said.
"The military acknowledged that Agent Orange had caused several things, one of them is non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which WM is one."
Mr. Fleming created a Web site and soon received calls from veterans across the nation wanting to know how to get compensation.
"If they got it – wonderful – if they didn't, he told them how to contest it," his wife said. "He helped a lot of vets get money that was due to them."
Mr. Fleming's research led him to the Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation. He attended the group's annual meeting and later agreed to start a support chapter in Dallas.
Mr. Fleming was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, where he attended the University of Dayton, before receiving his bachelor's degree from Ohio University.
"We were married a week later." Mrs. Fleming said.
A college ROTC cadet, Mr. Fleming was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army. He served in Germany and Vietnam, where he was company commander for an ambulance unit.
He later served at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he was selected to go to graduate school at Ohio State to earn a master's degree in social work. He finished his 26-year Army career as a social worker. In his career, he was stationed at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio and Fort Sill, Okla. He was chief of social work at Fort Knox, Ky., when he retired.
"He loved the military, we both did; moving and meeting new people," Mrs. Fleming said.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Fleming is survived by a son, Steven Fleming of Gilmore, Texas; a daughter, Suzanne Fleming of McKinney; and three grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to the research fund at the International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation, http://www.iwmf.com/.

Finding my inner curmudgeon

I was recently surfing through several news websites and discovered just how out of touch I must be with the rest of the world. While I keep searching for meaningful analysis and news, the rest of YOU are dwelling upon stuff of which I have NO clue.
Headlines, from local sites to international press, told of the absolute shocking death of Stephen Gately, a member of the band, Boyzone, in Majorca.
Sorry, but who?
And then several sites proclaimed the good news that Kourtney Kardashian is having a baby – and it’s gonna be a boy!!!!
Sorry again, but who?
Surely, the results of the People’s Choice Awards is the most discussed matter at every water cooler.
Uh, pardon me, but … what’s that? I didn’t choose a thing.
And here is the death of Tia Tequila's "wifey," as if I give a shit...except she was a very hot lipstick lesbian.
I don’t know a fucking thing about these people and the social circles in which they travel. And frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn (a line NOT borrowed from a Tina Fey skit on “Saturday Night Live”). It’s not that I’m sympathetic; I just don’t give a shit. Lately, the number of items being compiled on my “what not to do” list is increasing by the nanosecond.
So if that makes me a curmudgeon ... whatever.
I couldn’t tell anyone a thing ever sung by Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift or Hannah Montana or Billings, Montana. I don’t watch reality shows other than the news and baseball. I don’t want to see who is the lesser loser on “The Biggest Loser,” or why I should ever care about dysfunctional families like “Jon and Kate Plus 8” (my former in-laws provided enough of that for 10 lifetimes). I don’t want to ever watch anything about a guy who unleashed a flying mushroom across Colorado and got his kid (named after a bird) to help scam the nation.
I don’t care who’s on “Oprah” or “The View” and I don’t watch shows like “Gossip Girl” or “The Hills.” Of course, I never saw “Friends,” “Seinfeld” or even a single chapter of “Roots.” I still have the original episodes from “Lonesome Dove” I taped (as in VCR) from 1989 and just haven’t gotten around to watching THAT in 20 years’ time.
I don’t watch anything (and anyone embarrassing themselves or others) on YouTube because it rhymes with “boob tube” and demonstrates how that phrase has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I don’t eat seaweed because … well, just because sewage. I don’t eat sushi since I like my meal, more or less, dead. And Pad Thai sounds like a bundle of paper encircled by twine.
I liked reading newspapers until the Internet made it unfashionable to get your fingers stained with printer’s ink (which I always took a sign of actual, nor artificial, intelligence). If I would read a book, I like the kind with paper and hard covers instead of coming on a palm-size device.
And I prefer to have had this written on a manual typewriter rather than a computer keyboard because I actually enjoy prying apart jammed keys against a carbon ribbon. It, too, was a sign (and unmistaken sound) of man’s brain cells participating in the lost art of clever reasoning and engagement.
If all this makes me a curmudgeon, then I wear it proudly like my favorite baseball team’s cap on my bald-ass head. There’s no law that mandates automatic acceptance of modern culture, technology, morals or standards. As far as I cal tell, the answer of “…well, just because” is sufficient to almost anyone’s contrarian point of view.
The dictionary describes a curmudgeon as “a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man,” which is actually sexist because why can’t a female be just as curmudgeony? Why can’t men act differently during certain times of the month (like payday, or tee-time, or kickoff)?
I’d rather be a curmudgeon than the modern version of hip. After looking closely in the mirror, believe me, I AM hip! Nice and wide hips … and stomach, too. I am who I am, and I’m not changing to reflect, or keep up with, the times. All that matters is being accepted by the people who matters – the ones who love me … for me.
Now excuse me, but I’ve got to go catch up on missing episodes of “I Love Lucy.” Is she still married to Ricky?

When the c-c-chips are down …

As a former small business owner, I admit I know very little about business principles. I never attended Princeton, Harvard or the Wharton School at Carnegie-Mellon. I was a graduate of the seat-of-your-pants system taught at the Keep-The Doors-Open University.

I foolishly believed that you could make as much money by selling your product for a lower price, moving more units – newspapers, in my case – than you could at a higher price but selling fewer of them. I remained true to that principle, even as the ship was sinking; I played the captain’s role to the hilt and went down with the company. Heck, I didn’t know any goddamn better.

So you can understand how I was stunned one recent day when my wife brought home a bag of potato chips from a company whose headquartered are down the Legacy road here in Plano (who is nameless but initials are Frito-Lay). It was a well-known brand, including its r-r-ridges and rolled “Rs” to properly pronounce but my jaw dropped at the price on the 10-ounce bag … $3.99. I got downright …. R-r-Ruffled.

How r-r-revolting! Four bucks for some shit that was half-empty to start. It seemed like only yesterday that the same crappy item cost under $2.50 or even two dollars. At that cost, the chips seemed like a reasonable purchase but four dollars?!?!

Hey, hasn’t anyone at that company heard that there’s a recession happening taking place?

I’m sure the company spokesperson would counter by noting the quality of the product, the change in oil used to manufacture those chips and the increased cost of the air used to inflate that 10-ounce bag.

And economic experts would tell you that when you increase your price for service or items just 10 percent, you reap 33 percent more income, or when you lower your price just 10 percent, it takes twice as many sales to recoup the difference. I just know that the local major metro daily has lost beaucoup of sales because MANY people (moi included) have cancelled subscriptions because it is priced OUT of our budgets.

Four bucks for a bag of chips is fine and dandy, but times are tough, pennies are being pinched, nerves are being r-r-ruffled and households everywhere are discovering the true words penned by the Kinks two decades ago (1979), entitled “Low Budget.”

“Circumstance has forced my hand


To be a cut-price person in a low budget land.


Times are hard, but we’ll all survive;


I just got to learn to economize.


At least my hair is all mine, my teeth are my own,


But everything else is on permanent loan.”

There’s no doubt that Americans will flock to anything cheap. There is no other explanation for the sight of people standing in long lines in the dark of Thanksgiving night, often in near-freezing temperatures, simply to buy a second-rate flat screen TV because … it’s priced ridiculously cheap. Consumers have tossed aside quality American-made products in favor of low-priced junk made in foreign lands by the lowest salaried labor corporations can find. Damn, we’ve made Wal-Mart, king of cheap shit, the largest retail business around FOR THE VERY REASON – shit is cheap.

But … you Do get what you pay for. Cheap shit is … cheap-ass SHIT!

Such an attitude has all but eliminated the American manufacturing sector and turned our society into robotic shoppers, jumping like lemurs at the newest gadget or electronic toy, usually made with our dollars but not by our neighbors. We borrow up to our eyeballs to pay the credit cards used for these purchases and it’s all a vicious treadmill and we’ve become the trapped hamsters.

It reminds me of the 1983 movie, “Mr. Mom,” written by the late John Hughes and starring a much funnier Michael Keaton. Its “story” centered around the difficult recession of the early 1980s and an unemployed auto engineer who reverses household roles with his wife.

As the contrived finale came to a head, in the background plays the finished commercial that the wife had spent her time creating. It showed the president of a canned tuna maker explaining that his product, normally the most expensive on the market, would roll back its price until economic conditions improved.

It was because his all-American product – Schooner Tuna – was the “tuna with a heart.” He subscribed to the theory that if you sell more units at a cheaper price, you might just make as much money.

The chip company CEO needs to stand before the public and say the same thing. Lower the prices on those bags until our economy recovers enough to justify charging the higher prices.

I hope the folks on Legacy Drive are listening above the din of all that chip munching. Someone needs to find some goddamn “heart.”

Cream is at the BCS top

All you bashers of the current BCS national championship system: bite it!
After this round of action (a less-than-stellar TCU loss, in the worst uniforms ever seen, to the worst undefeated college team in the USA - Boise State AND a total embarassment by Cincinnati against Florida), it should be clear that THE two best teams are playing Thursday for the national title, In fact, the top 4 teams REALLY are Texas, Alabama, Florida and Ohio State.
And there ain't no argument 'bout that.
Period.

How to earn my vote: ‘Tis the season (sadly) for politics

Author's Note: This is the original (pre-edited) version of the column that appears in the Jan. 2, 2010 edition of the Dallas Morning News.
By a quirk of fate, known only to God and the Texas political parties, the holiday season always intersects with the campaign season as filings begins for a horde of offices (county, state and federal). And in between commercials for overbearing perfumes or colognes represented by fading stars or the next “perfect holiday treat” are the initial forays into that minefield that IS the Texas electorate.
While the primary season should not be held so darn early, and it ought to be against the laws of decency to air political ads before Jan. 1, (So, in the spirit of the season, I propose) a few grounds rules should be put into play for any candidate earning the peoples’ votes … at least from this potential supporter.
Be “for” something; not against everything – At some point, the weight of total negativity crushes the voters’ spirit. Do a mental lap-band procedure and speak to the positives you wish to achieve. Stop being such a downer!
Cut the labels – People come in all sizes and shapes, as do their political viewpoints. Simplistic labels do grave injustices to how (and what) people believe. Please stash them deep in the sock drawer and stop using them!
No demagogue with the egg nog – Too many politicians seem more interested in being part of a perpetual rugby scrum than getting things done for the betterment of all (not just a particular political party). If more offices changed to non-partisan status (all county offices and judicial positions for example), the better we’d all be served. Stop being so partisan!
If you’re against it, why run for it? – It’s hard to take someone seriously if he/she (merely) rants against the very governmental institution of which they seek to become part. If you hate government, why in the world should anyone elect you? Stop trying to fool people! To quote Marx (Groucho), “I’d never join a club that would have me as a member.”
Add some crumpets with that “tea” – This past summer’s phenomenon (the tea party movement) introduced genuine, substantive issues to the debate … when a select few “members” weren’t parading around making less-than-gracious comments about a certain person’s heritage, ethnicity, religion or birthright. Missing in some of the undue paranoia was substance. Loud debate without concrete suggestions is simply yelling. Please no more yelling!
Only directors yell “cut!” – One person cannot reduce the size of government or spending; both parties have been, and still are, guilty to bloating the budget, including so-called staunch budget-cutters. Anyone who promises drastic turnabout of this runaway train is … lying. Please stop the lying!
Be specifically specific – For once, I’d like to hear actual proposals. Not “I’m still studying the issue.” Study time should have happened before (you filed for the election) the filing; the campaign is the exam and the results are posted on Election Day. And if you tell me, “I’ll get back to you on that one,” don’t bother. You flunk! Stop flunking this simple test!
Kill the robo-calls – One surefire way to destroy any chance of garnering my vote is to bombard my house with those annoying automated, auto-generated pre-recorded solicitations … because that’s exactly what they are! Thousands of Texans have placed their homes on the “No Call” list to avoid such pandering. And no one quite panders like a politician. So stop calling!
If you follow these simple steps, you might, I repeat MIGHT, get my vote. Or not…depends on what arrives for Christmas … hopefully not any of that cologne.

Welcome to the winter wonderland

Welcome to Dallas, Texas area (I'm nestled in the northern 'burbs).
It was 75 degrees a mere 24 hours ago. Now ... it's freaking snowing outside.
People can poo-poo the "myth" of climate change all they wish. I just know that shit like this ain't suppose to happen so quickly.
You gotta love it.
Merry Christmas, even if it's white where it's really shouldn't be.

Why all the smiling about Tiger's downfall?

I'm sorry but I sense a tinge of racial dishonesty when it comes to the public reaction to the destroyed persona of golfer Tiger Woods. I truly believe that if he WASN'T black, and having achieved what he has accomplished on the links by the age of 33, and that persona carefully crafted by his late father, the public's reaction wouldn't be so ... intense.
I sense a certain snickering by folks out there, especially by white conversatives to see how the mighty has fallen. This daily update on the contracs/endorsements being lost is NOT news - I mean who REALLY cares if Tag Heuer drops him as a sponsor. How many of YOU are wearing $5,000 watches????
And the admitted infidelity doesn't change the talent he possesses on the golf course. When he plays his best, NO ONE beats him. Period. Yet all these women are being paraded by agents/lawyers for 10-15 seconds/minutes of momentary fame and then ... to borrow the final line from "The Usual Suspects," "Poof, and then they're gone!"
Tiger Woods isn't the only superstar to have been unfaithful and many of them are stil prospering. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant to name two. Hell, Wade Boggs carried on a road trp affair with a woman - not his wife - and watzed into the Hall of Fame.
So why is THIS different?
Because he IS Tiger Woods (or WAS). That "Tiger" was a creation; Eldrick Woods is the real person and he needs to find out how he wishes to live his life with his family.