Michael Vick and His Dogs

Long in the minority, I am a white guy who likes Michael Vick and hates what happened to him. What he did was unkind to dumb animals. I want animals treated better than that.

The real problem is that Michael should have kept up with social mores. They changed years ago to the point where staging dog fights is no longer acceptable. In his area of the country, dog fighting probably had no change in standards. So Michael Vick continued to promote them and got caught. It just shows the value of keeping up with changing standards. “Everybody does it” is an excuse that only politicians can use successfully.

If Michael were in Vermont and had raped a girl, he might have gotten only 90 days in the slammer. But he treated dogs badly and will probably get a year. Afterwards he may be facing a career of football in Canada or Germany at much lower hourly rates that he is used to getting.

You gotta watch those mores.


football Michael Vick Vermont Social Mores

Alberto Gonzales Bites the Political Dust

In an amazing “mine is bigger than yours” battle, the Bush administration lost its Justice Department’s leader, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He seemed like a decent man if a bit confused. I would prefer him to Janet Reno. But he had two problems.

One of Alberto’s problems was that he was Hispanic. Hispanics in prominent positions must be Liberals or they must disappear. Conservative Hispanics must not be seen as successful. If Liberal Hispanics saw successful Hispanics who owed nothing to the “minority establishment,” they might begin to question the “minority establishment.”

The second of Alberto’s problems is that he seems naïve. He seems to think that if he treats people fairly, they will treat him fairly. Harry Truman said something like, “In Washington, if you want a friend, get a dog.”

Thirdly and least important, Alberto seems confused and unable to stand up to the windbags in the Senate. Normally, confusion is no hindrance to keeping a high level position in Government. Nor is incompetence. But when combined with situations one and two (above), one can easily lose his job.

politics Alberto Gonzales Attorney General Janet Reno Liberals Conservatives Senate

Loyalty or Daintiness in Time of War?

At the time of our Revolutionary War, historians say, there was a sizeable segment of the American population that was loyal to King George, III. That is, they did not want to separate themselves from England, and didn’t care that England was dealing harshly with its American colonies. Liberty was not for them.

No doubt some folks were loyal to the Crown. But if today is any index, many of the “loyalists” were just too dainty for war. Liberty was not all that important—certainly not worth dying for. Of course, they found that they had chosen the wrong side and faced hanging or imprisonment under the new American government.

My wife’s ancestors were in that group who were on the losing side. They were given land in Ontario, Canada that was due west of Rhode Island, their former home. I prefer to think they were loyalists and not faint-hearted. Over the next 100 years they worked themselves down the north side of Lake Ontario and crossed over the US boundary near Chicago (best guess) and wound up in Iowa, no doubt semi-illegal aliens. Others stayed in Ontario and are Canadians to this day. They are still subjects of the Crown.

The moral of the story is that one should choose the right side before refusing to fight for one’s liberty. The wrong side will not take their decision lightly.

Revolutionary+War King+George+III American+History

Congress at 2.9% Favorable?

Is it true that the latest Zogby poll shows the Congress has a 2.9% approval rating on the Iraq War? With a + or – 1.1 % margin of error that suggest a broad number of respondents, the actual approval rating on Congress could be 1.8% favorable on Iraq. Too bad that Zogby is a Democrat pollster.

To my way of thinking Congress polled a bit high on this poll. Not many Americans are ready to surrender to the fanatical Arabs, yet. But a lot of Congressmen and women are ready to throw in the towel (or begin wearing one on their heads).

No wonder Will Rogers said something like, “It’s easy being a comedian when the entire U. S. Congress is supplying material for you.”

Congress Iraq+War Radical+Muslims Zogby Politics

Secret Scientist

What’s amazing to me is that even today no one knows. NASA actually had a scientist in and out of Russia from 1962 to 1971 during the space race and the Cold War. Yes, Mr. Krushchev actually allowed a space medical scientist from the US to help keep alive the Russian cosmonauts.

My research on the subject showed that after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Krushchev softened his stand against America. But I had no idea that he was so soft he would allow an American scientist to observe the take-offs and landings of Yuriy Gagarin.

Yet, the scientist and Yuriy were pals. In fact most people on the Russian space team from Chief Manager Korolev to the first woman cosmonaut, knew this man and liked him.

He was a big friendly Irishman, but he was also a consummate professional and what he said, you could make book on. Not long after the scientist’s first trip to Baikonur, the secret launch site (that wasn’t a secret after all), a US government memo went to NASA, saying in effect, “I want you to make plans to cooperate with the USSR on outer space projects.” It seems like the result of personal diplomacy to me, from the scientist who was fast becoming a fixture in Russia.

Does the CIA have a thick file on the scientist? They sure do but will not give it up. So does another intelligence agency. So does NASA, of course.

Why is it such a big secret about our space medicine scientist who helped the Russians? I don’t know. But it does appear that those clever Russian engineers who beat us in the early stages of the space race were weak in knowledge about keeping their cosmonauts alive. Maybe the bosses in Russia just do not want to let the Russian people know that they needed help. Maybe there was a quid pro quo I haven’t found yet.

But one thing I do know is that the scientist was a good friend. Also he was an American hero for taking the chances he did by flying secretly into the far reaches behind the Iron Curtain. I am writing about him now and hope to have a book about him finished this year.

I only wish I could use his name.

Korolev Space+Race Cold+War Yuriy+Gagarin CIA NASA Krushchev Baikonur

Politics and Religion

It is only human. Whenever a religious person gets mixed up in politics, his religion goes out the window. He soon warps his religious ideas so that they support his politics. It never seems to work the other way, that a man’s politics change to accommodate his religion. I can imagine that is why our Constitution separates one from the other—so that there is no state supported religion.

It is a bad combination, politics and religion. When I taught school and the subject was pertinent, I always told the kids that when they grew up to vote or to run cities, states or even the country (we had that quality of kids), they must keep their religious leaders from being their political leaders. “Or else,” I told them, “you will have politicians who would try to convince them that if they would give up their lives for one political cause or another, they would win a place in heaven.” I told them that political leaders are usually the last to know about heaven.

Don’t tell me it can’t happen. It happens all the time. What about Japanese Kamikaze pilots in WWII and Suicide Murderers (bombers) in the Middle East? And then there is always Jim Jones and his Kool Aid fan club.

Politics Religion Kamikaze Suicide+Bombers Kool+Aid

Great Time to Be Alive

A friend called me today and asked if I wanted to go for a cup of coffee. I did, because I have been researching the Soviet space program all day for the Cold War period. It is background for a book I am writing.

Always unpredictable, I had an iced tea instead of coffee. While we were consuming our beverages, we got to talking about modern technology. I recalled the rapid changes we humans have been going through.

In our ancient human history, mankind was said to have doubled its knowledge every thousand years. That knowledge was stored in people’s heads, for the most part. Some was on the walls of caves. Then books were invented and mankind’s knowledge doubled every hundred years. That knowledge, good and bad, was stored in libraries. The computer was invented and soon mankind’s knowledge doubled every ten years. That knowledge was stored in libraries and on tapes and CDs. Next, the Internet was created and mankind’s knowledge is said to double every year. That knowledge is stored on CDs, DVDs and on hard drives all over the world. No libraries or collection of libraries could hold it all, if it were written in books.

Then we talked about the future. I think that the really big events of the future will concern themselves with health and energy. I wrote about these things in book about time travel called Time Out of Joint. In it I emphasized the role of energy. I have the notion that when energy is more equally distributed, international tensions will ease. No, religious differences will still be important. But many “religious” differences are spurred on by economics, the battle between the haves and the have nots.

Whatever the case, some ass will first have to write a book about how awful everything is—stagflation and the disappearance of the quality of life as we know it. Several books of this type were published around 1970, just as the computer age appeared. I am waiting for the next such book, because the timing of the doom-sayers is almost universally 180 degrees out of phase.

And I will have an iced tea in the writer’s honor because something good is about to happen.


future Space+Race Energy health computer+age knowledge Knowledge+storage time+travel

Jefferson and Adams Day

Sacred to both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, July 4th is also special to many Americans. Both former presidents stretched out their lives so that they would die on this day in 1826. When Jefferson woke for the last time in 1826, he asked if it were the fourth yet. When told that it was, he allowed himself to die. Former presidents Jefferson and Adams had faith in men’s ability to rule themselves and knew of the importance of the date.

Alexander Hamilton did not have the confidence in man’s ability to rule his own life. While still a great man and an important contributor to the founding of this country, Hamilton looked toward Europe and a king to rule America.

Even today we have a few Hamiltons in government who look toward Europe’s form of government and whatever else of Europe they can adopt in order to “reform” Americans and put us on the right track. They are the elites who have little faith in our ability to rule ourselves.

Does anyone remember a day sacred to Alexander Hamilton?


Independence+Day Thomas+Jefferson Alexander+Hamilton John+Adams Politics freedom liberty

Death of a Senate Bill and the Ruling Class

Now that the Illegal Emigration bill has died a second natural death, a second post mortem would be in order.

First, it should be noted that the American People did not want the bill to be passed. They spoke in new ways, through emails and other electronic devices and made their wishes known. The ruling class heard the American People and enough of that class decided not to risk the inevitable result of defying the People. But, some of the ruling class still thinks, in its elitist way, that it knows what is best for us. They may flunk out of the ruling class, soon.

Second, it should be observed that American Unions did not want the bill to be passed. Thus, there were Democrat leaders who worked for the bill as they worked against it. This way they could be seen as pro-illegal emigrant and anti-cheap labor at the same time. Union bosses speak loudly.

Third, those of us who are against the bill will be called all sorts of names. We will be reviled as many kinds of –phobes. Tough! It is hard to get into a struggle without being called names. That is the way of Washington, DC. They will say that radio talk shows were responsible for the failure of the bill. Nevertheless, it was the People who made the decision based on the information they had. It has been a long time since we have had two sides presented on any issue. It was a refreshing experience.

Fourth, Washington Insiders are already saying that we can’t control the problem because the new law wasn’t passed. But we have plenty immigration laws on the books right now that we are not enforcing. Why not try them? It would be a novel adventure. After all, we were told some 21 years ago by Senator Teddy Kennedy what a good law the last one was. Let us try it out and see if it needs improving. So far no one has tried it.

What really bothers the Ruling Class is that the People may decide to stop some other legislation, such as raises for the inept in their class. I, for one, can hardly wait.


Senate Immigration Talk+Radio Teddy+Kennedy

Illegal Immigration & the Next Prez

What concerns me about the proposed Illegal Alien situation has nothing to do with President Bush. He is totally unimportant in the entire equation, because he will not be president for very long. What he says or does cannot tie the hands of another president. If Mr. Bush’s successor chooses not to enforce part or all of the proposed law, all that Mr. Bush and the Congress says is pure baloney. American citizens need to focus on the next president, not the present one. What will he or she actually do? If the next president wants to pander to people who came into this country illegally, just to buy votes, we citizens are royally screwed!

Illegal+immigration President+Bush Congress

Adding Something New

The best way to get over the agony of writing a book is to begin anther book. I just sent to a publisher my book General Morgan’s Legacy. It is a novel about a modern man who stumbled across information about the Confederate General John Hunt Morgan as he escaped from a Yankee prison in 1863. The book consists of two stories intertwined, but separated by about 140 years.

What sparked the book is information about General Morgan that suddenly emerged from an exchange of letters between me and a well-known poet/novelist. It seems this writer’s great-grandfather and my great-grandfather worked together to help Morgan get back to Tennessee so he could once more attack the Union Army.

With this book I will be presenting new information about the Civil War and one of its Generals in the South. Adding to the existing literature on a topic is always fun. Every book I have written (except the one on time travel—Time Out of Joint) has done just that.

I interrupted the writing of another book to finish the Morgan book. I was getting bogged down into too much detail in my newest book, Ploughshares into Swords. That book tells what civilians did to assist the WWII war effort, and in particular what the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) did both with artillery rockets and the atom bomb. In that book I will be adding to the literature about the Bomb and about rocketry. Perhaps Caltech as well.

In between chapters of Ploughshares I am writing about a curious turn of events that occurred during the Cold War. Armed with grudging information obtained from US intelligence agencies under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), I will be able to put together a story that will upset several writers of CIA expose’ books of the past decades. What they said in part was not true, either because they did not know, or because they did know but were not allowed to tell.

It is always fun to add new facts to old, established history.

Caltech CIA Confederacy General+John+Hunt+Morgan Civil+War FOIA Wendell+Berry WWII Rockets

Moral Superiority

When I was a boy I was brought up in an Episcopal church in the South. I loved that church, its members and the priest. Many years later I still think of him. He was a successful minister of a rapidly growing church. He was rewarded by being made the evangelistic bishop of Wyoming—a place where there were few people and where he could do no damage, preaching to sheep and cattle. One thing about him—he was not political. Neither were the cattle he was left to minister to.

Now look at the Episcopal Church in America. Highly political, very politically correct, full of leaders with huge egos, and congregations that are diminishing in size. It seems its impending failure is unimportant as long as the egos get all the attention they need and as long as politics are the Church’s message to the world. I feel like weeping for the Episcopal Church which has become a testimony to the things that are temporal.

Episcopal leaders aren’t the only ones to seek what they understand—the political—and avoid the religious, which remains a mystery. I suspect the ministers of such churches are not confident in their calling or they wouldn’t have scrambled after each popular cause that came down the pike.

I recall the story of the leader of a Methodist church who was given a Viet Cong flag in the early 1970’s and conducted a march through the streets of his conservative town bravely flying the flag of Communists. A large portion of his membership fled to other churches in the area and never returned. So the minister wrecked his own church and no doubt feels morally superior to those who left, even thirty years later. After all, the “right thinking” people stayed, didn’t they? That feeling of moral superiority must be important to some.

One thing the Judeo-Christian ethic teaches us about moral superiority is that no one has a monopoly on it. The insignificant widow in the Bible who gave two small coins, gave all she had, which was far more than the significant wealthy people gave. And the widow wasn’t giving out of a desire moral superiority, she was giving out of a sense of love. I, for one, am not sure how love fits into the moral superiority scheme of things.


Moral+Superiority Episcopal Methodist Religion Politics

Bishops Lobby for Illegals

There is an interesting article in my local newspaper today by Norberto Santana, Jr. It is an opinion piece presented as news that tells how Catholic bishops are lobbying to keep families together. That is, to force the U.S. Government to keep Catholic kids with their parents in the U.S. In other words, to open the borders. It is the Moral thing to do.

Even though I have tremendous respect for the Catholic Church, I can see two things are wrong with this approach. One is the bishops’ moral high ground. They forget it is immoral to invade the borders of another country, break its laws, steal people’s identities and divide one’s own family. The bishops need to be talking to citizens of other countries in those countries, not in the U.S. Americans are hard-working, law-abiding, egalitarian and respectful, and they do not invade the borders of Latin-American countries.

The second thing I see wrong with this approach by bishops is that it focuses on Catholic families. There are other families that become divided. What happens to the families of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants? Don’t they also leave families behind? Surely those families need to be kept together as well. Their Moral issues are just as strong.

Perhaps the morality of keeping families together is the wrong method of attack. It is highly emotional but can’t stand scrutiny.

Having been a factory manager in North Hollywood, CA, Toronto, Canada and Albany, New York, I have some experience. All these sites had their share of Hispanic workers. Hispanic people were terrific but they had no monopoly on working hard or of leaving families behind.

Illegal+Immigration Catholic+Bishops U.S.+Borders Identity+Theft Morality

Illegals and all that Jazz

Some people in the media are trying to make me apologize to the illegals who broke our laws and sneaked across the border. I am sorry, I just don’t feel guilty about their lawlessness.

And now President Bush has decided I am un-American if I question the Senate bill on immigration. I am getting it from all sides and still I am not feeling guilty. I know I should look ashamed, but I just cannot bring myself to that point.

I have read the arguments in favor of the Senate bill and do not understand what is going on. Every point in the argument that assures me about how great the future will be with the new law, is invalid because we already have laws about the same topics that we do not enforce. And now I am expected to believe Big Brother will enforce a new set of laws?

I am especially concerned when I see laws that say illegals will not be hounded by the IRS for back taxes, but I, a law-abiding citizen of many years will be hounded day in and day out by the tax collectors.

President Bush may suddenly be very concerned about the illegal immigrant question, but he does not tie the hands of future presidents. If the next president belongs to a political party that is soft on crime and coddles criminals in order to get votes, we will be far worse off with the proposed Senate bill.

There are people who believe a new law, some act by a bunch of loud, opinionated fat people in Washington, DC, will fix what a previous law, enacted by a bunch of loud, opinionated fat people in Washington, DC, failed to fix. Laws don’t cut it—actions cut it. We have enough laws and not enough enforcers.


Immigration Illegal+Immigration Senate President+Bush Border+Security

Congress Shall Make No Law

The First amendment to the Constitution is a beautiful thing. It says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Nothing wrong with the First Amendment, except that it does not go far enough. The Founding Fathers did not seem to think the Judicial Branch would make laws, but it does. So the First Amendment should read: Congress and the Supreme Court shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Surely this small change could easily get enough states to ratify it so that it would become the law of the land. And not a minute too soon.

Congress Politics First+Amendment Constitution Supreme+Court

Back to School

A few days ago I was invited to the retirement party of a principal of a highly successful middle school. I had not seen him for three years, or the school or the teachers. But there was a time when I knew them all quite well, because I had worked at the school as a substitute teacher.

Substitute teaching was a fluke for me, a time filler after I retired from industry as a manager of people who ran factories. Teaching is quite a different undertaking, but my wife was a very good teacher in public schools and I felt I learned enough from her to try it, myself. I’ve always had a very high opinion of teachers, and of my wife’s professionalism, so I could not think of any calling more useful.

It took a while to learn how to deal with kids in the school environment. I found it was an honor to work with most of the students. And it was a privilege to work with the other teachers. The school district was one of the best in California and the school one of the best in its district. But I didn’t know it when I was so busy figuring out math and science lessons on the spur of the moment.

When I was invited to the retirement party, I went, honored to be remembered. It was a big party with officials and teachers from all over. I knew many of them somewhat and a few of them very well. I had forgotten how well. There were hugs and handshakes all around. Some tears on my part, too.

That chapter in my life was finally over last Friday afternoon. I had spent most of my life in industry, but the last eight years I spent in the classroom have a special glory. As a teacher, I learned that there is hope for tomorrow because of the bright, idealistic boys and girls we are training today. I wish more retired people would make the effort to see what really goes on in our public school classrooms, and who the heroes in our cities really are.

Congratulations, Dr. Joe Fox of Dana Middle School in Arcadia, California.


Arcadia+California Teaching education

FDR Lied and People Died!

While doing research for my new book, Swords into Ploughshares (which is about the contribution of Caltech during WWII), I came across the history of the beginnings of WWII. Isolationists tried very hard to keep us out of the war. So did some Communists, for their own reasons. But then Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor and other places, and then Germany also declared war, so we had no choice but to stand and fight. Very few isolationists in Congress held out for peace.

We had not been in the war very long before unhappy people began circulating rumors that Franklin D. Roosevelt knew the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor, and just let it happen so he could get us into the war. They dreamed up worse theories that that, but the one that stuck was the one about knowing what the Japanese were up to. As soon as the war was over and Roosevelt was dead, the rumors arose again.

Books were published about Roosevelt’s supposed evil plan. Those were the days when, if something were put into print, it was supposed to be true, so many people believed it. Nowadays, we are used to seeing all kind of junk in print and on the Internet, but in 1946, such books had more credence.

I was young at the beginning of WWII and not a Roosevelt fan, but intuitively I knew the rumors were baseless. They proved to be so; or at least no one was able, in the past sixty years, to prove the rumors were true. Roosevelt had plenty of enemies in his Democrat party and in the Republican party, so there was no end to the efforts of many people to try to convict Roosevelt of some kind of perfidy.

If all this sounds familiar, so be it. You can hardly find a period in which the same rumors have not been resurrected and applied. Tongues will always wag, and some people will believe anything.

But if you have lived a while, such accusations become tiresome.

Franklin+Roosevelt George+Bush Politics WWII Pearl+Harbor Leftists

We Are Still Guilty

Over the years, I have come to expect one or more people to say after a huge tragedy, “In a sense we are all guilty.” It never fails that some ass decides to try this banal tack and in so doing, attempt to sound wise.

Recently, in the wake of the Virginia Tech killings of thirty-two students, I believe it was Barack Hussein Obama, the presidential candidate, who was the first to make such a pronouncement. It was indirect, but it was really what he said.

I have never connected the “In a sense” words to any political group. There are plenty of asses to go around in most political parties. But this morning I saw in a column by Dr. Thomas Sowell a statement that made me wonder. He wrote, “A reader writes: ‘Liberals hold us individually responsible for nothing but collectively responsible for everything.’”

Now I am beginning to wonder . . . “Collectively responsible for everything?” Could it be that Liberals have been leaders in the large field of saying, “In a sense we are all guilty”?

A Liberal gentleman once told me very affirmatively about his theology as he stated “We are all God.” I took that to be a collective personal conclusion and told him not to hang that awesome responsibility on me.

But I wonder. It has been so many years since I was a Liberal that I have forgotten all the tenets of Liberalism.

In a sense, we are all guilty of forgetting.

Barack Obama Politics Liberals Thomas Sowell Virginia Tech

AAUW Strikes Again

There was a Reuters story in my local newspaper recently entitled “Pay Gap Between Sexes Proves Persistent”. It was amusing because it was researched by the AAUW, the American Association of University Women. What would you expect them to find? That women had made progress? No, and I seem to recall that the NAACP found that there are not enough Black men in baseball, too (since black Hispanic men were considered Hispanic and not black).

In my experience with several accomplished AAUW women, I have noted one important thing: they were highly political--Liberal Left Wingers, and their local AAUW chapter appeared to be a wing of the Liberal Democrat Party. Liberals love to find victims and they have attempted to portray women as victims in this story.

The implied political moral of this AAUW study is, “Under the present administration, women have suffered. Vote the straight Democrat ticket.” In other words, this carefully constructed study is a political statement.

Having spent a career in various industries including three years on General Electric’s corporate staff, I can say that many companies are dedicated to hiring and promoting women and to making very sure that women get paid just as much as men for the same or similar types of work. There are governmental penalties for doing otherwise, but there are benefits also. Women have proven to be valuable, committed, achieving employees.


There are other studies showing women have made great progress in the past thirty years. I would hope to see an article about one of these by Reuters, but I will not hold my breath.


AAUW Reuters Media Politics Liberal

Sobering Wisdom about Don Imus

Every once in a while I learn something good about good people. While listening to a talk radio show yesterday, I heard a black woman talk to the host about the ugly thing Don Imus said about most likely fine, achieving young women Imus did not even know. It was demeaning both to the women and their race. Imus was no doubt quoting rappers he had heard many times, but there is no useful purpose in repeating such talk, no matter who says it.

The mother who called, said that Imus' remarks did not affect her one way or the other, except to show that Imus may be an idiot. In other words, Imus’ words reflected on him, not anyone else.

When asked how the woman’s daughter might feel, she said something the wisdom of which struck me like a hammer. She said, and I wrote it down, “Imus does not carry her joy in his mouth.” She said more in a few words than all the “tut-tutters” put together in the days following.

I am sorry that in 2007 people are still saying the things that Imus repeated. But I am glad that it brings out the innate wisdom of people and that they can share it with a large audience.

Don Imus can be fired, but he will only go to another network and re-establish himself. He is that popular. But maybe some people will wake up and decide that derogatory talk diminishes those who say it.

Imus Race+baiting Al+Sharpton Jesse+Jackson