Although it took place a couple of weeks ago, I still have some very strong feelings about this event. As you probably know, a Texas girls high school basketball game in Dallas ended with a 100-0 score. Covenant, a private Christian school, was the lopsided winner and Dallas Academy, a private school for kids with learning disabilites (LD), was the scoreless victim.
When Micah Grimes, the Covenant coach, was criticized for letting his girls run up the score, he fired back with an e-mail to the Dallas Morning News. Some Covenant administrators had called the score "shameful," but Grimes wrote that he would not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity." That got coach Grimes fired.
Despite the 100 zip score, Jeremy Civello, the Academy coach, saw the game as a win. "My girls never quit," he said. "They played as hard as they could to the very end. They played with all their hearts at 70-nothing, 80-nothing and 100-nothing. I was really proud of them. That's what I told them after the game."
Did Grimes deserve to be fired? You bet he did! While the Academy girls played "with all their hearts," the Covenant coach and his girls were heartless. Because their opponents were players with disabilities, Grimes and his girls dishonored themselves, as well as their school.
It did not matter that they represented a Christian school. The Christian thing would have been to hold down the score once victory was assured. The Christian thing would have been to let the Academy girls score a few goals. But coach Grimes was merciless and very un-Christian-like by letting his girls run up the socre against some girls with LD. And the Covenant girls are not blameless either. To hell with the coach! Those girls could have practiced some good sportsmanship by slowing the game down on their own.
We reap what we sow. We are too sports crazy. UCLA football coach Red Sanders first said it and legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi immortalized it - "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." In the athletic departments of our colleges and universities, winning trumps learning. That's why many college football players fail to graduate and that's why most college basketball players are borderline illiterates.
Back in 1950, my college football team beat a team from California by more than 70 points. After the game, the other coach rushed over and, livid with rage, screamed at our coach, "You God damn son of a bitch, you just cost me my job!" Unfortunately, that "win at any cost" concept is bound to trickle down to the high school level. Thus we end up with some asshole coach letting his team slaughter a group of kids with LD.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
A SUPPLIER TELLS OFF GENERAL MOTORS
When Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, called on all GM employees and suppliers to contact their legislators and urge them to support a federal bailout for the Big Three automakers, the president of Knox Machinery in Franklin, Ohio responded with an angry letter. Here is an abridged copy of that supplier's letter:
From Gregory Knox,
In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America.
Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah", Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream" Believe me folks, The dream is over!
This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities this dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever.
Don't even think about telling me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's throughout the Midwest during the past 30 years and what I've seen over those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.
Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: "There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not."
You're right Mr. Clarke, it's not JUST management ….how about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass, so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week. How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive (We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we??!)
Do you folks really not know about this stuff? How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: "over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?! Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What a joke!
We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit.
I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research , surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". "Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems," but despite what people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and the following very important thing would happen….where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work, if we would only let it work"
But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and "save us" Save us my ass, Hell - we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation's citizens don' t even have a clue that this is what is really happening. But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams….yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it…!
Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country?... How can that be??? Let's see… Fuel efficient… Listening to customers…. Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul….
Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr. W. Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning. Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy" Efficient front and back offices…. Non union environment….!
Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know down deep in their hearts.
I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their act ions and work through it. Radical concept, huh..? Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.
I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins. Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or not. The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away." I laughed a s I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the final vote count was tallied. "we really might not do it in a year or in four" Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office?
Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks…! That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000.. People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits..! That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year…. We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe..! ;
That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home..! Let the market correct itself folks - it will. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna' be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics….and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God. Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news". I hope you take it to heart.
Gregory J. Knox
President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005
From Gregory Knox,
In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America.
Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah", Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream" Believe me folks, The dream is over!
This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities this dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever.
Don't even think about telling me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's throughout the Midwest during the past 30 years and what I've seen over those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.
Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: "There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not."
You're right Mr. Clarke, it's not JUST management ….how about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass, so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week. How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive (We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we??!)
Do you folks really not know about this stuff? How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: "over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?! Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What a joke!
We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit.
I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research , surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". "Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems," but despite what people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and the following very important thing would happen….where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work, if we would only let it work"
But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and "save us" Save us my ass, Hell - we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation's citizens don' t even have a clue that this is what is really happening. But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams….yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it…!
Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country?... How can that be??? Let's see… Fuel efficient… Listening to customers…. Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul….
Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr. W. Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning. Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy" Efficient front and back offices…. Non union environment….!
Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know down deep in their hearts.
I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their act ions and work through it. Radical concept, huh..? Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.
I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins. Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or not. The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away." I laughed a s I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the final vote count was tallied. "we really might not do it in a year or in four" Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office?
Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks…! That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000.. People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits..! That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year…. We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe..! ;
That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home..! Let the market correct itself folks - it will. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna' be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics….and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God. Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news". I hope you take it to heart.
Gregory J. Knox
President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005
WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?
I could not resist reproducing this jewel from Australia:
You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is. So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)
"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish , Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan..The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of Septembe r 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, temp EST tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11 , 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom.. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American."
You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is. So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)
"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish , Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan..The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of Septembe r 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, temp EST tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11 , 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom.. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American."
JUDAS ASPARAGUS
This funny parody was forwarded to me by a friend. If it offends you, then I'm sorry that you can't take a joke. What would Jesus do if he read this? He would have a good laugh like most of us.
THE CHILDREN'S BIBLE IN A NUTSHELL
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that.
Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.
Then God made the world.
He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.....Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.
Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.
God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff.
Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.
After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.
After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore.
There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.
But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
THE CHILDREN'S BIBLE IN A NUTSHELL
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that.
Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.
Then God made the world.
He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.....Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.
Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.
God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff.
Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.
After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.
After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore.
There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.
But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
FRIEDMAN OUGHT TO KNOW BETTER
For years, Thomas L. Friedman, the all knowing, all seeing Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist has advocated a "two state" solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one that would eventually lead to the extinction of the Jewish State. But I thought he had finally come to his senses when he told the round table panel on ABC This Week (1-11-09) that when people on the other side of its borders have homemade rockets, the chances of Israel accepting an independent Palestinian state are zero. Instead of a Palestinian state, Friedman called for a radical new approach to the conflict - a "NATO Trusteeship" for the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Alas, that didn't las long. Now he is back advocating that Israel take suicidal steps to achieve a "lasting" peace. In his January 26 Times column Friedman wrote: 'We’re getting perilously close to closing the window on a two-state solution, because the two chief window-closers — Hamas in Gaza and the fanatical Jewish settlers in the West Bank — have been in the driver’s seats. Hamas is busy making a two-state solution inconceivable, while the settlers have steadily worked to make it impossible.
And if the Jewish settlers continue with their "natural growth" to devour the West Bank, it will also be effectively off the table. No Israeli government has mustered the will to take down even the "illegal," unauthorized settlements, despite promises to the U.S. to do so, so it’s getting hard to see how the "legal" settlements will ever be removed. What is needed from Israel’s Feb. 10 elections is a centrist, national unity government that can resist the blackmail of the settlers, and the rightist parties that protect them, to still implement a two-state solution.
Because without a stable two-state solution, what you will have is an Israel hiding behind a high wall, defending itself from a Hamas-run failed state in Gaza, a Hezbollah-run failed state in south Lebanon and a Fatah-run failed state in Ramallah.'
In his January 27 Times column Friedman suggested that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia revise his 2002 peace proposal in favor of a "five state solution." Abdullah's original peace proposal called for:
(1) a full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.
(2) Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
(3) The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
In return, all the Arab states would sign a peace agreement with Israel and establish normal diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Friedman suggested that Abdullah send President Obama a letter outlining a revised peace proposal. Here is part of what the all knowing, all seeing columnist said the king's letter should contain.
'I am proposing what I would call a five-state solution:
1. Israel agrees in principle to withdraw from every inch of the West Bank and Arab districts of East Jerusalem, as it has from Gaza. Any territories Israel might retain in the West Bank for its settlers would have to be swapped — inch for inch — with land from Israel proper.
2. The Palestinians — Hamas and Fatah — agree to form a national unity government. This government then agrees to accept a limited number of Egyptian troops and police to help Palestinians secure Gaza and monitor its borders, as well as Jordanian troops and police to do the same in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority would agree to five-year "security assistance programs" with Egypt in Gaza and with Jordan in the West Bank.
With Egypt and Jordan helping to maintain order, Palestinians could focus on building their own credible security and political institutions to support their full independence at the end of five years.
3. Israel would engage in a phased withdrawal over these five years from all of its settlements in the West Bank and Arab Jerusalem — except those agreed to be granted to Israel as part of land swaps — at the same pace that the Palestinians meet the security and governance metrics agreed to in advance by all the parties. The U.S. would be the sole arbiter of whether the metrics have been met by both sides.
4. Saudi Arabia would pay all the costs of the Egyptian and Jordanian trustees, plus a $1 billion a year service fee to each country — as well as all the budgetary needs of the Palestinian Authority. The entire plan would be based on U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 and blessed by the U.N. Security Council.'
Of course, those are not Abdullah's proposals, they are Friedman's. For security reasons alone, Israel cannot afford to withdraw from "every inch" of the West Bank and from Arab East Jerusalem. And most certainly, that very tiny state cannot afford to swap any "inch for inch" land from Israel proper for the West Bank settlements it has to retain. Where does Friedman think that land can come from? In one part of the state, Israel proper is less than nine miles wide.
Friedman ought to know better. Surely he must know that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas speaks with a forked tongue. When speaking in English to American and European audiences, Abbas says he wants two states, Palestine and Israel, existing peacefully side by side. But whenever he speaks in Arabic to the Palestinians and other Jew-hating Arabs, that is a far cry from what he says. Time after time Abbas has made it clear in Arabic that there can be only one state, and that state is Palestine. And Friedman surely knows that other "moderate" Palestinian leaders continually declare that their ultimate goal is for Palestine to be liberated "from the river to the sea," a one-state solution that would extinguish the Jewish state.
And surely Friedman must know how deeply the Palestinians hate Jews. He doesn't even have to go to the Middle East to experience that hatred. He can hear that hatred loudly expressed by Palestinians right here in the good old U.S.A.
In San Francisco, Palestinians demonstrating against Israel's conflict with Hamas carried Arabic signs which read: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews).
In Columbus, Ohio, led by an Ohio State University professor, about 300 Palestinians and their supporters protested Israel's attacks on Gaza by chanting, "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea" and "Long live the intifada." The views expressed at the rally were that Israelis are colonialists, illegally there, murderers, and genocidal maniacs.
And in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Palestinians demonstrating against the Gaza attacks extolled the Nazi extermination camps of the Holocaust by shouting, "Gas the Jews!" and "Go back to the ovens!"
The Palestinians have celebrated every terrorist attack against innocent Jewish men, women and children, whether carried out inside Israel or elsewheres in the world. Time after time, the Palestinians have called for "Death to the Jews." Does the all knowing, all seeing Friedman really believe that Israel can make peace with a people determined to destroy the Jewish state?
Friedman says that without a two-state solution, Israel will be "hiding behind a high wall, defending itself from a Hamas-run failed state in Gaza, a Hezbollah-run failed state in south Lebanon and a Fatah-run failed state in Ramallah." Well, Mr. Friedman, let me tell you something - hiding behind that high wall will be a lot better than no Jewish state at all to hide in!
Alas, that didn't las long. Now he is back advocating that Israel take suicidal steps to achieve a "lasting" peace. In his January 26 Times column Friedman wrote: 'We’re getting perilously close to closing the window on a two-state solution, because the two chief window-closers — Hamas in Gaza and the fanatical Jewish settlers in the West Bank — have been in the driver’s seats. Hamas is busy making a two-state solution inconceivable, while the settlers have steadily worked to make it impossible.
And if the Jewish settlers continue with their "natural growth" to devour the West Bank, it will also be effectively off the table. No Israeli government has mustered the will to take down even the "illegal," unauthorized settlements, despite promises to the U.S. to do so, so it’s getting hard to see how the "legal" settlements will ever be removed. What is needed from Israel’s Feb. 10 elections is a centrist, national unity government that can resist the blackmail of the settlers, and the rightist parties that protect them, to still implement a two-state solution.
Because without a stable two-state solution, what you will have is an Israel hiding behind a high wall, defending itself from a Hamas-run failed state in Gaza, a Hezbollah-run failed state in south Lebanon and a Fatah-run failed state in Ramallah.'
In his January 27 Times column Friedman suggested that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia revise his 2002 peace proposal in favor of a "five state solution." Abdullah's original peace proposal called for:
(1) a full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.
(2) Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
(3) The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
In return, all the Arab states would sign a peace agreement with Israel and establish normal diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Friedman suggested that Abdullah send President Obama a letter outlining a revised peace proposal. Here is part of what the all knowing, all seeing columnist said the king's letter should contain.
'I am proposing what I would call a five-state solution:
1. Israel agrees in principle to withdraw from every inch of the West Bank and Arab districts of East Jerusalem, as it has from Gaza. Any territories Israel might retain in the West Bank for its settlers would have to be swapped — inch for inch — with land from Israel proper.
2. The Palestinians — Hamas and Fatah — agree to form a national unity government. This government then agrees to accept a limited number of Egyptian troops and police to help Palestinians secure Gaza and monitor its borders, as well as Jordanian troops and police to do the same in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority would agree to five-year "security assistance programs" with Egypt in Gaza and with Jordan in the West Bank.
With Egypt and Jordan helping to maintain order, Palestinians could focus on building their own credible security and political institutions to support their full independence at the end of five years.
3. Israel would engage in a phased withdrawal over these five years from all of its settlements in the West Bank and Arab Jerusalem — except those agreed to be granted to Israel as part of land swaps — at the same pace that the Palestinians meet the security and governance metrics agreed to in advance by all the parties. The U.S. would be the sole arbiter of whether the metrics have been met by both sides.
4. Saudi Arabia would pay all the costs of the Egyptian and Jordanian trustees, plus a $1 billion a year service fee to each country — as well as all the budgetary needs of the Palestinian Authority. The entire plan would be based on U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 and blessed by the U.N. Security Council.'
Of course, those are not Abdullah's proposals, they are Friedman's. For security reasons alone, Israel cannot afford to withdraw from "every inch" of the West Bank and from Arab East Jerusalem. And most certainly, that very tiny state cannot afford to swap any "inch for inch" land from Israel proper for the West Bank settlements it has to retain. Where does Friedman think that land can come from? In one part of the state, Israel proper is less than nine miles wide.
Friedman ought to know better. Surely he must know that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas speaks with a forked tongue. When speaking in English to American and European audiences, Abbas says he wants two states, Palestine and Israel, existing peacefully side by side. But whenever he speaks in Arabic to the Palestinians and other Jew-hating Arabs, that is a far cry from what he says. Time after time Abbas has made it clear in Arabic that there can be only one state, and that state is Palestine. And Friedman surely knows that other "moderate" Palestinian leaders continually declare that their ultimate goal is for Palestine to be liberated "from the river to the sea," a one-state solution that would extinguish the Jewish state.
And surely Friedman must know how deeply the Palestinians hate Jews. He doesn't even have to go to the Middle East to experience that hatred. He can hear that hatred loudly expressed by Palestinians right here in the good old U.S.A.
In San Francisco, Palestinians demonstrating against Israel's conflict with Hamas carried Arabic signs which read: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews).
In Columbus, Ohio, led by an Ohio State University professor, about 300 Palestinians and their supporters protested Israel's attacks on Gaza by chanting, "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea" and "Long live the intifada." The views expressed at the rally were that Israelis are colonialists, illegally there, murderers, and genocidal maniacs.
And in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Palestinians demonstrating against the Gaza attacks extolled the Nazi extermination camps of the Holocaust by shouting, "Gas the Jews!" and "Go back to the ovens!"
The Palestinians have celebrated every terrorist attack against innocent Jewish men, women and children, whether carried out inside Israel or elsewheres in the world. Time after time, the Palestinians have called for "Death to the Jews." Does the all knowing, all seeing Friedman really believe that Israel can make peace with a people determined to destroy the Jewish state?
Friedman says that without a two-state solution, Israel will be "hiding behind a high wall, defending itself from a Hamas-run failed state in Gaza, a Hezbollah-run failed state in south Lebanon and a Fatah-run failed state in Ramallah." Well, Mr. Friedman, let me tell you something - hiding behind that high wall will be a lot better than no Jewish state at all to hide in!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
OBAMA TELLS AL ARABIYA PEACE TALKS SHOULD RESUME
In an obvious attempt to court the Muslim world, President Obama's first interview (1-26-09) since taking office was granted to Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, and not to an American television network. The following is a partial transcript of Hisham Melhem's interview with President Obama on Al Arabiya, the portion that deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
MELHEM: Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity, we really appreciate it.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much.
MELHEM: Sir, you just met with your personal envoy to the Middle East, Senator Mitchell. Obviously, his first task is to consolidate the cease-fire. But beyond that you've been saying that you want to pursue actively and aggressively peacemaking between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Tell us a little bit about how do you see your personal role, because, you know, if the President of the United States is not involved, nothing happens – as the history of peace making shows. Will you be proposing ideas, pitching proposals, parameters, as one of your predecessors did? Or just urging the parties to come up with their own resolutions, as your immediate predecessor did?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the most important thing is for the United States to get engaged right away. And George Mitchell is somebody of enormous stature. He is one of the few people who have international experience brokering peace deals.
And so what I told him is start by listening, because all too often theUnited States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues --and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen. He's going to be speaking to all the major parties involved. And he will then report back to me. From there we will formulate a specific response.
Ultimately, we cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what's best for them. They're going to have to make some decisions. But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people. And that instead, it's time to return to the negotiating table.
And it's going to be difficult, it's going to take time. I don't want to prejudge many of these issues, and I want to make sure that expectations are not raised so that we think that this is going to be resolved in a few months. But if we start the steady progress on these issues, I'm absolutely confident that the United States -- working in tandem with the European Union, with Russia, with all the Arab states in the region -- I'm absolutely certain that we can make significant progress.
MELHEM: You've been saying essentially that we should not look at these issues -- like the Palestinian-Israeli track and separation from the border region -- you've been talking about a kind of holistic approach to the region. Are we expecting a different paradigm in the sense that in the past one of the critiques -- at least from the Arab side, the Muslim side -- is that everything the Americans always tested with the Israelis, if it works. Now there is an Arab peace plan, there is a regional aspect to it. And you've indicated that. Would there be any shift, a paradigm shift?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, here's what I think is important. Look at the proposal that was put forth by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia --
MELHEM: Right.
THE PRESIDENT: I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal, but it took great courage --
MELHEM: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: -- to put forward something that is as significant as that.I think that there are ideas across the region of how we might pursue peace.
I do think that it is impossible for us to think only in terms of thePalestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan.
These things are interrelated. And what I've said, and I think Hillary Clinton has expressed this in her confirmation, is that if we are looking at the region as a whole and communicating a message to the Arab world and the Muslim world, that we are ready to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest, then I think that we can make significant progress.
Now, Israel is a strong ally of the United States. They will not stop being a strong ally of the United States. And I will continue to believe that Israel's security is paramount. But I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side.
And so what we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs.
MELHEM: I want to ask you about the broader Muslim world, but let me – one final thing about the Palestinian-Israeli theater. There are many Palestinians and Israelis who are very frustrated now with the current conditions and they are losing hope, they are disillusioned, and they believe that time is running out on the two-state solution because – mainly because of the settlement activities in Palestinian-occupied territories.
Will it still be possible to see a Palestinian state -- and you know the contours of it -- within the first Obama administration?
THE PRESIDENT: I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state -- I'm not going to put a time frame on it -- that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life.
And, look, I think anybody who has studied the region recognizes that the situation for the ordinary Palestinian in many cases has not improved. And the bottom line in all these talks and all these conversations is, is a child in the Palestinian Territories going to be better off? Do they have a future for themselves? And is the child in Israel going to feel confident about his or her safety and security? And if we can keep our focus on making their lives better and look forward, and not simply think about all the conflicts and tragedies of the past, then I think that we have an opportunity to make real progress.
But it is not going to be easy, and that's why we've got George Mitchell going there. This is somebody with extraordinary patience as well as extraordinary skill, and that's what's going to be necessary.
MELHEM: Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity, we really appreciate it.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much.
MELHEM: Sir, you just met with your personal envoy to the Middle East, Senator Mitchell. Obviously, his first task is to consolidate the cease-fire. But beyond that you've been saying that you want to pursue actively and aggressively peacemaking between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Tell us a little bit about how do you see your personal role, because, you know, if the President of the United States is not involved, nothing happens – as the history of peace making shows. Will you be proposing ideas, pitching proposals, parameters, as one of your predecessors did? Or just urging the parties to come up with their own resolutions, as your immediate predecessor did?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the most important thing is for the United States to get engaged right away. And George Mitchell is somebody of enormous stature. He is one of the few people who have international experience brokering peace deals.
And so what I told him is start by listening, because all too often theUnited States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues --and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen. He's going to be speaking to all the major parties involved. And he will then report back to me. From there we will formulate a specific response.
Ultimately, we cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what's best for them. They're going to have to make some decisions. But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people. And that instead, it's time to return to the negotiating table.
And it's going to be difficult, it's going to take time. I don't want to prejudge many of these issues, and I want to make sure that expectations are not raised so that we think that this is going to be resolved in a few months. But if we start the steady progress on these issues, I'm absolutely confident that the United States -- working in tandem with the European Union, with Russia, with all the Arab states in the region -- I'm absolutely certain that we can make significant progress.
MELHEM: You've been saying essentially that we should not look at these issues -- like the Palestinian-Israeli track and separation from the border region -- you've been talking about a kind of holistic approach to the region. Are we expecting a different paradigm in the sense that in the past one of the critiques -- at least from the Arab side, the Muslim side -- is that everything the Americans always tested with the Israelis, if it works. Now there is an Arab peace plan, there is a regional aspect to it. And you've indicated that. Would there be any shift, a paradigm shift?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, here's what I think is important. Look at the proposal that was put forth by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia --
MELHEM: Right.
THE PRESIDENT: I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal, but it took great courage --
MELHEM: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: -- to put forward something that is as significant as that.I think that there are ideas across the region of how we might pursue peace.
I do think that it is impossible for us to think only in terms of thePalestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan.
These things are interrelated. And what I've said, and I think Hillary Clinton has expressed this in her confirmation, is that if we are looking at the region as a whole and communicating a message to the Arab world and the Muslim world, that we are ready to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest, then I think that we can make significant progress.
Now, Israel is a strong ally of the United States. They will not stop being a strong ally of the United States. And I will continue to believe that Israel's security is paramount. But I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side.
And so what we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs.
MELHEM: I want to ask you about the broader Muslim world, but let me – one final thing about the Palestinian-Israeli theater. There are many Palestinians and Israelis who are very frustrated now with the current conditions and they are losing hope, they are disillusioned, and they believe that time is running out on the two-state solution because – mainly because of the settlement activities in Palestinian-occupied territories.
Will it still be possible to see a Palestinian state -- and you know the contours of it -- within the first Obama administration?
THE PRESIDENT: I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state -- I'm not going to put a time frame on it -- that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life.
And, look, I think anybody who has studied the region recognizes that the situation for the ordinary Palestinian in many cases has not improved. And the bottom line in all these talks and all these conversations is, is a child in the Palestinian Territories going to be better off? Do they have a future for themselves? And is the child in Israel going to feel confident about his or her safety and security? And if we can keep our focus on making their lives better and look forward, and not simply think about all the conflicts and tragedies of the past, then I think that we have an opportunity to make real progress.
But it is not going to be easy, and that's why we've got George Mitchell going there. This is somebody with extraordinary patience as well as extraordinary skill, and that's what's going to be necessary.
Monday, January 26, 2009
HATRED - MICHAEL MOORE, YOU EARNED IT!
I received "a note from Michael Moore" that is being circulated on the internet by the far-left. Moore, the producer of documentaries slamming American capitalism, is jumping up and down with glee over the election of Barack Obama. His note was so sickening that it made me want to puke. That is why I sent him the following e-mail message:
Mr. Moore
While I wish President Barack Obama well, your "note" of January 20 is nothing more than a very bad case of vomit-inducing radical left-wing claptrap.
It is obvious that, as you see it, everything the republicans have done has been evil, going back all the way to the Reagan presidency.
I am neither a republican nor a democrat, and I have no use for those on the far-right and those, like you, on the far-left. I am no admirer of George W. Bush, but the things you accuse him of are outrageous. I wonder how your hero Obama would have reacted had 9/11 occurred on his watch?
You complained about being subjected to a lot of hate. Well, I can understand why - you earned it! You admire Marxists like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and you hate republicans and capitalism. So what do you expect but to be the object of hatred yourself. I suspect you actually thrive on being hated.
I hope all that far-left hatred you have espoused over the years has cost you a helluva lot more than what you plan to tell your followers some day.
/signed/, Retired
Professor of Criminal Justice
(Unfortunately, after numerous attempts, I gave up trying to get this message through to Moore. Each time I tried, I received a failure notice advising me his mailbox was full.)
And here is Michael Moore's vomit-inducing note:
Just Hours Away ...a note from Michael Moore
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Friends,
This happy, happy day!
We have made it through the Dark Ages and here we are, in one of the most redemptive moments history has ever witnessed. Barack Obama is our best hope to get it right, to heal our national soul, to reach out to the rest of the world with an olive branch instead of shocking brutality.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has worked to make this day happen. For many, the madness goes back, not eight years but twenty-eight years, to the tragic day Reagan was sworn in to dismantle our precious "government of the people" and our beloved way of life.
To all of you who have spoken up and spoken out, who have written letters and marched for peace, for all of you who never gave up, you are the true heroes today. Many of you have suffered great economic losses. Some of you have endured a loved one being shipped overseas to senseless and shameful wars, and thousands of you have seen those loved ones returned home, no longer alive. It has been a heartbreaking time.
But the sun comes out at noon today. The disgraced outgoing president will slide out the side door and head to Crawford to sell the Hollywood set known as the Bush "ranch" before he settles down in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. I would encourage Mr. Bush to issue one final pardon before noon today -- his own. He had better issue a blanket pardon for all crimes that may have been committed since 2001 by himself, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole gang. Serious laws were broken, a war was concocted on a lie, and now, please, justice must be carried out.
So let us move forward and fix the horrible mess we are in. We are fortunate to have a new president who is smart and kind and committed to serving his country. Take a moment today and think about what you can do to join him in helping him do his job. We're all in this together. Our country has been so profoundly wrecked by an administration who decided to mug our constitution and then steal what they can for their Wall Street cronies on the way out the door.
Here is my plea: Let's not leave Barack Obama alone to clean up the mess. As he takes his oath today, please take one yourself -- to work harder than ever to end these wars, create universal health care, save our planet, end poverty, increase knowledge and establish a true government "of, by and for the people" (instead of "of, by and for the lobbyists, the bankers, and the war profiteers").
On a personal note, it's no secret that I have had to suffer an avalanche of hate and attack as I stuck my neck out to simply do my job. Some day I will tell you what the true cost of this has been for me, but not today. Today is a time for celebration and optimism and hope. I'm glad we all lived to see this incredible moment. And I thank each of you for your support of my work and your dedication to our democracy.
12:01pm can't come soon enough! Happy Inauguration Day!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Mr. Moore
While I wish President Barack Obama well, your "note" of January 20 is nothing more than a very bad case of vomit-inducing radical left-wing claptrap.
It is obvious that, as you see it, everything the republicans have done has been evil, going back all the way to the Reagan presidency.
I am neither a republican nor a democrat, and I have no use for those on the far-right and those, like you, on the far-left. I am no admirer of George W. Bush, but the things you accuse him of are outrageous. I wonder how your hero Obama would have reacted had 9/11 occurred on his watch?
You complained about being subjected to a lot of hate. Well, I can understand why - you earned it! You admire Marxists like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and you hate republicans and capitalism. So what do you expect but to be the object of hatred yourself. I suspect you actually thrive on being hated.
I hope all that far-left hatred you have espoused over the years has cost you a helluva lot more than what you plan to tell your followers some day.
/signed/, Retired
Professor of Criminal Justice
(Unfortunately, after numerous attempts, I gave up trying to get this message through to Moore. Each time I tried, I received a failure notice advising me his mailbox was full.)
And here is Michael Moore's vomit-inducing note:
Just Hours Away ...a note from Michael Moore
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Friends,
This happy, happy day!
We have made it through the Dark Ages and here we are, in one of the most redemptive moments history has ever witnessed. Barack Obama is our best hope to get it right, to heal our national soul, to reach out to the rest of the world with an olive branch instead of shocking brutality.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has worked to make this day happen. For many, the madness goes back, not eight years but twenty-eight years, to the tragic day Reagan was sworn in to dismantle our precious "government of the people" and our beloved way of life.
To all of you who have spoken up and spoken out, who have written letters and marched for peace, for all of you who never gave up, you are the true heroes today. Many of you have suffered great economic losses. Some of you have endured a loved one being shipped overseas to senseless and shameful wars, and thousands of you have seen those loved ones returned home, no longer alive. It has been a heartbreaking time.
But the sun comes out at noon today. The disgraced outgoing president will slide out the side door and head to Crawford to sell the Hollywood set known as the Bush "ranch" before he settles down in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. I would encourage Mr. Bush to issue one final pardon before noon today -- his own. He had better issue a blanket pardon for all crimes that may have been committed since 2001 by himself, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole gang. Serious laws were broken, a war was concocted on a lie, and now, please, justice must be carried out.
So let us move forward and fix the horrible mess we are in. We are fortunate to have a new president who is smart and kind and committed to serving his country. Take a moment today and think about what you can do to join him in helping him do his job. We're all in this together. Our country has been so profoundly wrecked by an administration who decided to mug our constitution and then steal what they can for their Wall Street cronies on the way out the door.
Here is my plea: Let's not leave Barack Obama alone to clean up the mess. As he takes his oath today, please take one yourself -- to work harder than ever to end these wars, create universal health care, save our planet, end poverty, increase knowledge and establish a true government "of, by and for the people" (instead of "of, by and for the lobbyists, the bankers, and the war profiteers").
On a personal note, it's no secret that I have had to suffer an avalanche of hate and attack as I stuck my neck out to simply do my job. Some day I will tell you what the true cost of this has been for me, but not today. Today is a time for celebration and optimism and hope. I'm glad we all lived to see this incredible moment. And I thank each of you for your support of my work and your dedication to our democracy.
12:01pm can't come soon enough! Happy Inauguration Day!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Friday, January 23, 2009
SHALOM
President Barack Obama has appointed former Senator George Mitchell as his special Middle East envoy. Mitchell, who brokered a peace in Northern Ireland and led the investigation into steroid use by Major League Baseball players, has been given the task to jump-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and see them through to fruition.
Speaking of his new role during a welcome for Secretary Hillary Clinton at the State Department, Mitchell said he believed there was "no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended." Obama told the same gathering that Israel must re-open the border crossings into the Gaza Strip "to allow the flow of aid and commerce." His call for the border crossings to be opened for the flow of "commerce" indicates a definite shift toward the Palestinians, something I predicted would happen if Obama won the presidency.
A good friend has just sent me a joke which is not only very funny, but which also speaks to Mitchell's appointment. Here is that joke:
While on assignment in Jerusalem, a CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for a long, long time.
She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane and moving very slowly, she approached him for an interview.
'Pardon me, sir, I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. What's your name?'
'Morris Fishbein,' he replied.
'Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?'
'For about 60 years.'
'60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?'
'I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray for all the wars and all the hatred to stop. I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults, and to love their fellow man.'
'How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?'
'Like I'm talking to a fucking wall.'
Shalom
Speaking of his new role during a welcome for Secretary Hillary Clinton at the State Department, Mitchell said he believed there was "no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended." Obama told the same gathering that Israel must re-open the border crossings into the Gaza Strip "to allow the flow of aid and commerce." His call for the border crossings to be opened for the flow of "commerce" indicates a definite shift toward the Palestinians, something I predicted would happen if Obama won the presidency.
A good friend has just sent me a joke which is not only very funny, but which also speaks to Mitchell's appointment. Here is that joke:
While on assignment in Jerusalem, a CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for a long, long time.
She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane and moving very slowly, she approached him for an interview.
'Pardon me, sir, I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. What's your name?'
'Morris Fishbein,' he replied.
'Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?'
'For about 60 years.'
'60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?'
'I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray for all the wars and all the hatred to stop. I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults, and to love their fellow man.'
'How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?'
'Like I'm talking to a fucking wall.'
Shalom
ONE BATTLE IN ISLAM'S GLOBAL INSURGENCY
In today's Townhall.com, Cliff May has a column which analyzes Israel's war against Hamas as just one battle in Islam's global insurgency. Here is his thought provoking column:
THE BATTLE OF GAZA
by Cliff May
What took place in Gaza and Israel over the past three weeks was not a war - it was one battle in a war. Or, to be more precise, it was one battle in what the soldier/scholar John Nagl has described as a "global insurgency" aimed at overthrowing the existing order, what we used to call - in a more confident era - the Free World.
"Yes, Allah is greater than America." Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal said on al-Jazeera television a few years ago. "Allah is greater than the superpowers. We say to this West: By Allah you will be defeated."
Too many people refuse to understand: Hamas is not fighting for a Palestinian state. Hamas is fighting for the annihilation of Israel which it would replace with an Islamic emirate. Not the same thing at all.
Hamas takes inspiration, funding and instructions from the ruling mullahs of Iran, heirs to the Iranian Revolution that erupted 30 years ago next month when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in France and established his theocratic regime. In the years since, Syria has become Iran's client; Hezbollah, based in Lebanon but with terrorist branches as far flung as South America, its proxy.
Israel's latest battle against Hamas began just after Christmas and ended just before the inauguration of Barack Obama. Israel's leaders apparently felt it prudent to announce a cease-fire before Obama sat down in the Oval Office and wrote "Stop the fighting!" at the top of his presidential to-do list.
In Arab and Muslim capitals, it did not go unnoticed that, as Hamas was being pounded by Israel, Iran did nothing to help. Nor was Hezbollah willing to open a second front on Israel's northern border. But as soon as a cease-fire was declared, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spun into action -- by spinning: According to official Iranian press reports, he called Mashaal -- who resides in Damascus rather than Gaza -- and told him: "Today is the beginning of victory!"
There are those who will believe him. But if Israel has succeeded in destroying most Hamas weapons caches and factories, as well as most of the tunnels through which Hamas imported thousands of missiles - even as it claimed Israel was blocking supplies of food, fuel and medicines through its "siege" - Israel achieved important, if short-term military goals.
Hamas spokesmen are saying they lost fewer soldiers than did the Israelis, and that they destroyed 47 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles. The carcasses of those machines have yet to be displayed for the cameras. And, by most accounts, Hamas fighters were short on both skills and fervor, despite Iranian and Hezbollah training. Many Hamas military commanders removed their uniforms and hid among women and children. "They turned houses and mosques into battlegrounds so that the people would protect them and those who trusted them now regret it," wrote Abd al-Fattah Shehadeh in the on-line Arabic newspaper ELAPH.
The European Union has warned that while humanitarian aid will be forthcoming, Gazans should not expect reconstruction assistance if Hamas continues to provoke new battles. "We don't want to go on to reconstruct Gaza every I-don't-know-how-many-years," said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. "We have been at the side of the Palestinian population always and we will be at their side, but at the same time it's also for the Palestinian population on both sides to say, ‘We want this peace.'"
That's a taller order than she probably understands. Prior to this battle it was not clear that most Palestinians wanted peace more than they wanted Israel's extinction. It's too soon to say whether their minds have been changed by the suffering they have endured. Even if that is the case, it would be unsafe for Gazans to say out loud that they'd prefer compromise in pursuit of coexistence to martyrdom in pursuit of victory.
There are those who will argue that Hamas wins merely by having survived. But Israel would have lost had it not fought -- had it continued to passively accept an endless rain of Hamas missiles on its citizens. Israelis knew that President Bush, during his final weeks in office, would not object if they tried to stop that rain. They don't yet know what President Obama will do in a similar circumstance.
Over the days ahead, Hamas may resume its attacks on Israel, or dig new tunnels to smuggle in new missiles to prepare for future attacks. If so, Israel may feel the need to respond strongly -- to re-establish deterrence and demonstrate that it can withstand pressure from those in the "international community" all too eager to try to appease radical Islam.
Iran will continue its drive to acquire nuclear weapons, a potential game-changer. But this is no game. It's a series of battles in a war that is likely to be as consequential as any in history.
THE BATTLE OF GAZA
by Cliff May
What took place in Gaza and Israel over the past three weeks was not a war - it was one battle in a war. Or, to be more precise, it was one battle in what the soldier/scholar John Nagl has described as a "global insurgency" aimed at overthrowing the existing order, what we used to call - in a more confident era - the Free World.
"Yes, Allah is greater than America." Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal said on al-Jazeera television a few years ago. "Allah is greater than the superpowers. We say to this West: By Allah you will be defeated."
Too many people refuse to understand: Hamas is not fighting for a Palestinian state. Hamas is fighting for the annihilation of Israel which it would replace with an Islamic emirate. Not the same thing at all.
Hamas takes inspiration, funding and instructions from the ruling mullahs of Iran, heirs to the Iranian Revolution that erupted 30 years ago next month when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in France and established his theocratic regime. In the years since, Syria has become Iran's client; Hezbollah, based in Lebanon but with terrorist branches as far flung as South America, its proxy.
Israel's latest battle against Hamas began just after Christmas and ended just before the inauguration of Barack Obama. Israel's leaders apparently felt it prudent to announce a cease-fire before Obama sat down in the Oval Office and wrote "Stop the fighting!" at the top of his presidential to-do list.
In Arab and Muslim capitals, it did not go unnoticed that, as Hamas was being pounded by Israel, Iran did nothing to help. Nor was Hezbollah willing to open a second front on Israel's northern border. But as soon as a cease-fire was declared, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spun into action -- by spinning: According to official Iranian press reports, he called Mashaal -- who resides in Damascus rather than Gaza -- and told him: "Today is the beginning of victory!"
There are those who will believe him. But if Israel has succeeded in destroying most Hamas weapons caches and factories, as well as most of the tunnels through which Hamas imported thousands of missiles - even as it claimed Israel was blocking supplies of food, fuel and medicines through its "siege" - Israel achieved important, if short-term military goals.
Hamas spokesmen are saying they lost fewer soldiers than did the Israelis, and that they destroyed 47 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles. The carcasses of those machines have yet to be displayed for the cameras. And, by most accounts, Hamas fighters were short on both skills and fervor, despite Iranian and Hezbollah training. Many Hamas military commanders removed their uniforms and hid among women and children. "They turned houses and mosques into battlegrounds so that the people would protect them and those who trusted them now regret it," wrote Abd al-Fattah Shehadeh in the on-line Arabic newspaper ELAPH.
The European Union has warned that while humanitarian aid will be forthcoming, Gazans should not expect reconstruction assistance if Hamas continues to provoke new battles. "We don't want to go on to reconstruct Gaza every I-don't-know-how-many-years," said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. "We have been at the side of the Palestinian population always and we will be at their side, but at the same time it's also for the Palestinian population on both sides to say, ‘We want this peace.'"
That's a taller order than she probably understands. Prior to this battle it was not clear that most Palestinians wanted peace more than they wanted Israel's extinction. It's too soon to say whether their minds have been changed by the suffering they have endured. Even if that is the case, it would be unsafe for Gazans to say out loud that they'd prefer compromise in pursuit of coexistence to martyrdom in pursuit of victory.
There are those who will argue that Hamas wins merely by having survived. But Israel would have lost had it not fought -- had it continued to passively accept an endless rain of Hamas missiles on its citizens. Israelis knew that President Bush, during his final weeks in office, would not object if they tried to stop that rain. They don't yet know what President Obama will do in a similar circumstance.
Over the days ahead, Hamas may resume its attacks on Israel, or dig new tunnels to smuggle in new missiles to prepare for future attacks. If so, Israel may feel the need to respond strongly -- to re-establish deterrence and demonstrate that it can withstand pressure from those in the "international community" all too eager to try to appease radical Islam.
Iran will continue its drive to acquire nuclear weapons, a potential game-changer. But this is no game. It's a series of battles in a war that is likely to be as consequential as any in history.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
JUSTICE SERVED AND JUSTICE DENIED
Sometimes news about justice is good, at other times it's bad. Here are a couple of the most recent examples of justice served and justice denied.
(1) Presidential Pardons: Former President George W. Bush issued fewer pardons than most of his predecessors. He issued only 189 pardons and 11 commutations. On his last full day in office, Bush commuted the prison sentences of former Border Patrol officers Jose Compean (12 years) and Ignacio Ramos (11 Years) to time served (about 2 years).
The commutations for Compean and Ramos served the interests of justice. In 2005, they had intercepted a Mexican drug smuggler near El Paso and shot him in the ass as he fled back toward Mexico. After it appeared he had been unarmed, the officers tried to cover up the shooting by removing evidence from the scene, failing to report the incident to their superiors and falsifying their written reports. While waiting to testify aganst Compean and Ramos, their "victim" was arrested for sumggling in a large amount of marijuana.
Compean and Ramos were tried and convicted by a jury. The problem with this case is that the officers received those 12 and 11-year sentences because of a federal sentence enhancement (enacted by Congress in 1986) which mandates an additonal 10 years of prison time for a federal crime committed with a firearm.
As Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, has noted, the federal firearms sentence enhancement was "designed to deal with criminals who carry firearms in the commisssion of felonies and crimes of violence," but was applied to law enforcement officers who "came to work with no criminal intent, no mind set to commit any crime."
Law enforcement and anti-immigration groups were pleased with the commutation, although they had preferred that Compean and Ramos be granted a full pardon. Pro-immigration and civil rights groups were up in arms over the commutations, claiming they would send a message to officers that they had a green light to shoot unarmed illegal immigrants.
Former President Bush should be commended for issuing the commutations. Compean and Ramos remain convicted for their unlawful cover-ups but will not have to serve unreasonably excessive sentences for the use of firearms in the performance of their duties. JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED.
(2) In 1993, 18-year-old Gaylon Walbey, Jr. murdered Marionette Beyah, a college instructor, during the commission of a burglary at her Galveston, Texas home. He confessed to stabbing her 12 times in the neck and back, hitting her nine times in the head with a fire extinguisher and strangling her with an electrical cord. Walbey, now 34, was sentenced to death and has been on death row since 1994.
Now a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a new punishment hearing for Walbey because his defense attorney at the time failed to properly investigate that killer's troubled childhood. The three judges held that had the jury been presented with facts about Walbey's mistreatment during childhood, he might not have been sentenced to death.
Come on, give me a break. Why should anyone give a rat's ass about the troubled childhood of this merciless and vicious killer? This decision comes on the heels of another ruling by the same appellate court that a WHITE death row inmate must receive a new trial after 30 years because the prosecution excluded blacks from serving on his jury. (Refer to my blog, "Justice Gone Beserk," 1-16-09.) JUSTICE HAS BEEN DENIED.
In a case where JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED and served well, the International Court of Justice (World Court) has now ruled that the United States violated the court's order when Texas went ahead with the execution of Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin Rojas for the brutal rape and murders of two teenaged Houston girls. (Refer to my blog, "Hallelujah, Justice Has Finally Been Served," 8-6-08.)
The World Court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, had ordered last year that 51 Mexican citizens, Medellin among them, who had been sentenced to death in the United States must have their sentences stayed. The World Court ruled they had been denied the assistance of the Mexican consulate as required by the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (a treaty signed by the U.S.) because police officers had failed to advise them of that right. The court ruled that the cases had to be reviewd before any of the 51 Mexicans could be executed.
As I have said in previous blogs, the World Court should stop meddling in our internal affairs and confine itself to international border disputes, war crimes, genocide and other good stuff like that. So, once again I say to the World Court, butt out of America's criminal justice system and, above all, don't mess with Texas!
PLEASE NOTE: Blogger El Pato commented: "It appears you have given some sort of consent to the (Border Patrol) shooting incident and failure to report the incident." Let me assure El Pato, and any other readers who may think likewise, that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES will I ever condone the improper removal of evidence, the failure to report a shooting incident and the falsifying of reports. As for the shooting itself, I am not about to condemn Compean and Ramos for shooting a drug smuggler fleeing back to Mexico.
(1) Presidential Pardons: Former President George W. Bush issued fewer pardons than most of his predecessors. He issued only 189 pardons and 11 commutations. On his last full day in office, Bush commuted the prison sentences of former Border Patrol officers Jose Compean (12 years) and Ignacio Ramos (11 Years) to time served (about 2 years).
The commutations for Compean and Ramos served the interests of justice. In 2005, they had intercepted a Mexican drug smuggler near El Paso and shot him in the ass as he fled back toward Mexico. After it appeared he had been unarmed, the officers tried to cover up the shooting by removing evidence from the scene, failing to report the incident to their superiors and falsifying their written reports. While waiting to testify aganst Compean and Ramos, their "victim" was arrested for sumggling in a large amount of marijuana.
Compean and Ramos were tried and convicted by a jury. The problem with this case is that the officers received those 12 and 11-year sentences because of a federal sentence enhancement (enacted by Congress in 1986) which mandates an additonal 10 years of prison time for a federal crime committed with a firearm.
As Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, has noted, the federal firearms sentence enhancement was "designed to deal with criminals who carry firearms in the commisssion of felonies and crimes of violence," but was applied to law enforcement officers who "came to work with no criminal intent, no mind set to commit any crime."
Law enforcement and anti-immigration groups were pleased with the commutation, although they had preferred that Compean and Ramos be granted a full pardon. Pro-immigration and civil rights groups were up in arms over the commutations, claiming they would send a message to officers that they had a green light to shoot unarmed illegal immigrants.
Former President Bush should be commended for issuing the commutations. Compean and Ramos remain convicted for their unlawful cover-ups but will not have to serve unreasonably excessive sentences for the use of firearms in the performance of their duties. JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED.
(2) In 1993, 18-year-old Gaylon Walbey, Jr. murdered Marionette Beyah, a college instructor, during the commission of a burglary at her Galveston, Texas home. He confessed to stabbing her 12 times in the neck and back, hitting her nine times in the head with a fire extinguisher and strangling her with an electrical cord. Walbey, now 34, was sentenced to death and has been on death row since 1994.
Now a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a new punishment hearing for Walbey because his defense attorney at the time failed to properly investigate that killer's troubled childhood. The three judges held that had the jury been presented with facts about Walbey's mistreatment during childhood, he might not have been sentenced to death.
Come on, give me a break. Why should anyone give a rat's ass about the troubled childhood of this merciless and vicious killer? This decision comes on the heels of another ruling by the same appellate court that a WHITE death row inmate must receive a new trial after 30 years because the prosecution excluded blacks from serving on his jury. (Refer to my blog, "Justice Gone Beserk," 1-16-09.) JUSTICE HAS BEEN DENIED.
In a case where JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED and served well, the International Court of Justice (World Court) has now ruled that the United States violated the court's order when Texas went ahead with the execution of Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin Rojas for the brutal rape and murders of two teenaged Houston girls. (Refer to my blog, "Hallelujah, Justice Has Finally Been Served," 8-6-08.)
The World Court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, had ordered last year that 51 Mexican citizens, Medellin among them, who had been sentenced to death in the United States must have their sentences stayed. The World Court ruled they had been denied the assistance of the Mexican consulate as required by the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (a treaty signed by the U.S.) because police officers had failed to advise them of that right. The court ruled that the cases had to be reviewd before any of the 51 Mexicans could be executed.
As I have said in previous blogs, the World Court should stop meddling in our internal affairs and confine itself to international border disputes, war crimes, genocide and other good stuff like that. So, once again I say to the World Court, butt out of America's criminal justice system and, above all, don't mess with Texas!
PLEASE NOTE: Blogger El Pato commented: "It appears you have given some sort of consent to the (Border Patrol) shooting incident and failure to report the incident." Let me assure El Pato, and any other readers who may think likewise, that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES will I ever condone the improper removal of evidence, the failure to report a shooting incident and the falsifying of reports. As for the shooting itself, I am not about to condemn Compean and Ramos for shooting a drug smuggler fleeing back to Mexico.
TIME OUT FOR A LITTLE LEVITY
In these troubling economic times, a little humor might help to relieve, at least for a moment or two, some of the anxieties we are feeling over the possible loss of our jobs and our savings. So here's a few blonde jokes to lighten your day:
CAR TROUBLE
A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it died.
After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly.
She says, 'What's the story?'
He replies, 'Just crap in the carburetor'
She asks, 'How often do I have to do that?'
SPEEDING TICKET
A police officer stops a blonde for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license.
She replied in a huff, 'I wish you guys would get your act together. Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you!'
RIVER WALK
There's this blonde out for a walk. She comes to a river and sees another blonde on the opposite bank. 'Yoo-hoo!' she shouts, 'How can I get to the other side?'
The second blonde looks up the river then down the river and shouts back, 'You ARE on the other side.'
AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE
A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it.
'Impossible!' says the doctor. 'Show me.'
The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left shoulder and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream.
The doctor said, 'You're not really a redhead, are you?
'Well, no' she said, 'I'm actually a blonde.'
'I thought so,' the doctor said. 'Your finger is broken.'
KNITTING
A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!
Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, 'PULL OVER!'
'NO!' the blonde yelled back, 'IT'S A SCARF!'
BLONDE ON THE SUN
A Russian, an American, and a Blonde were talking one day.
The Russian said, 'We were the first in space!'
The American said, 'We were the first on the moon!'
The Blonde said, 'So what? We're going to be the first on the sun!'
The Russian and the American looked at each other and shook their heads. 'You can't land on the sun, you idiot! You'll burn up!' said the Russian.
To which the Blonde replied, 'We're not stupid, you know. We're going at night!'
IN A VACUUM
A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night. It was her turn. She rolled the dice and she landed on Science & Nature.
Her question was, 'If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?'
She thought for a time and then asked, 'Is it on or off?'
DOG NAMES
A girl was visiting her blonde friend, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were.
The blonde responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex.
Her friend said, 'Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?'
'HELLLOOOOOOO......,' answered the blond. 'They're watch dogs!'
CAR TROUBLE
A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it died.
After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly.
She says, 'What's the story?'
He replies, 'Just crap in the carburetor'
She asks, 'How often do I have to do that?'
SPEEDING TICKET
A police officer stops a blonde for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license.
She replied in a huff, 'I wish you guys would get your act together. Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you!'
RIVER WALK
There's this blonde out for a walk. She comes to a river and sees another blonde on the opposite bank. 'Yoo-hoo!' she shouts, 'How can I get to the other side?'
The second blonde looks up the river then down the river and shouts back, 'You ARE on the other side.'
AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE
A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it.
'Impossible!' says the doctor. 'Show me.'
The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left shoulder and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream.
The doctor said, 'You're not really a redhead, are you?
'Well, no' she said, 'I'm actually a blonde.'
'I thought so,' the doctor said. 'Your finger is broken.'
KNITTING
A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!
Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, 'PULL OVER!'
'NO!' the blonde yelled back, 'IT'S A SCARF!'
BLONDE ON THE SUN
A Russian, an American, and a Blonde were talking one day.
The Russian said, 'We were the first in space!'
The American said, 'We were the first on the moon!'
The Blonde said, 'So what? We're going to be the first on the sun!'
The Russian and the American looked at each other and shook their heads. 'You can't land on the sun, you idiot! You'll burn up!' said the Russian.
To which the Blonde replied, 'We're not stupid, you know. We're going at night!'
IN A VACUUM
A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night. It was her turn. She rolled the dice and she landed on Science & Nature.
Her question was, 'If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?'
She thought for a time and then asked, 'Is it on or off?'
DOG NAMES
A girl was visiting her blonde friend, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were.
The blonde responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex.
Her friend said, 'Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?'
'HELLLOOOOOOO......,' answered the blond. 'They're watch dogs!'
Monday, January 19, 2009
USELESS DEGREES
As a retired academic, it never fails to amaze me that so many institutions of higher (???) education offer cultural diversity degree programs wich can best be described as "useless." These degree programs, the brain children of the academic left, were established to serve specific students who were perceived to be members of oppressed minorities.
Many of our leading colleges and universities offer degrees in African-American Studies, Women's (Feminist Male Bashing) Studies, Gay and Lesbian Studies and Transgender Studies. These cultural diversity degrees are useless to their holders except for those who plan to teach African-American Studies, Women's Studies, Gay and Lesbian Studies or Transgender Studies.
If we are going to offer a bunch of special degree programs for certain racial, ethnic and gender groups, then we should also design such useless programs for all identifiable racial, ethnic, gender and other culturally diverse groups. I am sure that our esteemed left-wing academics would be quick to agree that restricting degree programs to only a few identifiable groups, whether oppressed or not, would be discriminatory and should not be tolerated. So, to all you leftie professors out there, here is a partial list of additional cultural diversity degree programs for your consideration:
Short People Studies
Bald Men Studies
Impotent Men Studies
Frigid Women (Headache) Studies
Cheating Husbands and Wives Studies (due to popularity of program, enrollment limited to 1,000 students per semester)
Child Molester Studies
Native-American Studies
Irish-American (Drunkard) Studies
Italian-American (Mafia) Studies
German-American Studies (students required to bring and drink Beck's beer during all lectures)
Anglo-American Studies (no students of color allowed)
Polish-American Studies (several courses same as courses in Texas Aggies Studies)
French-American (Snobbery) Studies
Nigerian-American (Scam Artist) Studies
Mexican-American Studies (bilingual classes)
Anti-American-American Studies (Oliver Stone is guest lecturer; due to popularity of program, enrollment limited to 500 students per semester)
Asian-American Studies
Cuban-American (Castro Bashing) Studies
Guatemalan/Honduran/Salvadoran-American Studies
Jamaican-American (Drug Posse) Studies
Dominican/Haitian-American (Voodoo) Studies
Palestinian-American (Death to the Jews)) Studies
Muslim-American (Death to the Infidels) Studies
Hindu-American (Snake Charming) Studies
Buddhist-American (Ohhmmmm) Studies
Jewish-American Studies (bilingual classes - English and Yiddish)
Protestant-American (Catholic Bashing) Studies
Catholic-American (Protestant Bashing) Studies
Mormon-American (Protestant and Catholic Bashing) Studies
Atheist-American (God Bashing) Studies
Texas Aggies Studies (classes taught at fifth-grade reading level and coloring books used instead of traditional texts; several courses same as courses in Polish-American Studies)
EDITOR'S NOTE: My deepest apologies to any groups who may feel slighted by my failure to include them in this list of degree programs.
Many of our leading colleges and universities offer degrees in African-American Studies, Women's (Feminist Male Bashing) Studies, Gay and Lesbian Studies and Transgender Studies. These cultural diversity degrees are useless to their holders except for those who plan to teach African-American Studies, Women's Studies, Gay and Lesbian Studies or Transgender Studies.
If we are going to offer a bunch of special degree programs for certain racial, ethnic and gender groups, then we should also design such useless programs for all identifiable racial, ethnic, gender and other culturally diverse groups. I am sure that our esteemed left-wing academics would be quick to agree that restricting degree programs to only a few identifiable groups, whether oppressed or not, would be discriminatory and should not be tolerated. So, to all you leftie professors out there, here is a partial list of additional cultural diversity degree programs for your consideration:
Short People Studies
Bald Men Studies
Impotent Men Studies
Frigid Women (Headache) Studies
Cheating Husbands and Wives Studies (due to popularity of program, enrollment limited to 1,000 students per semester)
Child Molester Studies
Native-American Studies
Irish-American (Drunkard) Studies
Italian-American (Mafia) Studies
German-American Studies (students required to bring and drink Beck's beer during all lectures)
Anglo-American Studies (no students of color allowed)
Polish-American Studies (several courses same as courses in Texas Aggies Studies)
French-American (Snobbery) Studies
Nigerian-American (Scam Artist) Studies
Mexican-American Studies (bilingual classes)
Anti-American-American Studies (Oliver Stone is guest lecturer; due to popularity of program, enrollment limited to 500 students per semester)
Asian-American Studies
Cuban-American (Castro Bashing) Studies
Guatemalan/Honduran/Salvadoran-American Studies
Jamaican-American (Drug Posse) Studies
Dominican/Haitian-American (Voodoo) Studies
Palestinian-American (Death to the Jews)) Studies
Muslim-American (Death to the Infidels) Studies
Hindu-American (Snake Charming) Studies
Buddhist-American (Ohhmmmm) Studies
Jewish-American Studies (bilingual classes - English and Yiddish)
Protestant-American (Catholic Bashing) Studies
Catholic-American (Protestant Bashing) Studies
Mormon-American (Protestant and Catholic Bashing) Studies
Atheist-American (God Bashing) Studies
Texas Aggies Studies (classes taught at fifth-grade reading level and coloring books used instead of traditional texts; several courses same as courses in Polish-American Studies)
EDITOR'S NOTE: My deepest apologies to any groups who may feel slighted by my failure to include them in this list of degree programs.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
EHUD THE BONEHEAD
I have often referred to Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, as "Ehud the Idiot." Olmert's inept leadership during the armed conflict in Lebanon weakened Israel and strengthened Hezbollah. Then he freed Samir Kantar, a Palestinian terrorist who was serving a 542-year sentence for the 1979 brutal murders of two men and a four-year-old girl, in exchange for the return of two dead Isaeli soldiers.
The cardinal rule in international diplomacy is that you never ever show your hand before you sit down to negotiate with your adversary. Ehud the Idiot has broken that rule at least twice.
(1) Israel has long maintained that it has a right to construct new settlement housing to account for normal population growth. Such construction is explicitly prohibited by the "Road Map to Peace" as laid out by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. Israel tentatively agreed to "The Quartet's" plan.
One year ago, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Olmert admitted that Israel is violating the peace plan by continuing to construct new homes in the existing settlements. In the interview, Olmert stated: "There is a certain contradiction in this between what we're actually seeing and what we ourselves promised. Obligations are not only to be demanded of others, but they must also be honored by ourselves. So there is a certain problem here."
That idiotic statement did nothing more than weaken Israel's bargaining position and strengthen that of its adversary in any upcoming negotiations with the Palestinians. But the idiot didn't stop there.
(2) Olmert publicly stated that he wants Israel to give up "almost all" of the occupied West Bank and to give part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Last September the idiot told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot: "The decision we are going to have to make is a decision we have been refusing for 40 years to look at open-eyed. Israel must withdraw from the lion's share of the territories. The time has come to say these things. The time has come to put them (the withdrawal from the West Bank and the division of Jerusalem) on the table."
Here the idiot showed his hand, albeit a suicidal one for Israel, before any serious negotiations have taken place. When the Palestinians heard this, they must have jumped up and down with overwhelming joy. Once again, Olmert has strengthened their position at the bargaining table.
Olmert has been thoroughy discredited by his conduct of the war with Hezbollah and by the corruption charges brought against him. Now he has committed the worst boner of all. As Israel began the third week of its war with Hamas, Olmert embarrassed the President of the United States and the American Secretary of State in a speech he gave in Hebrew to a crowd in Ashkelon, an Israeli town near the Gaza border.
Olmert, trying to overturn his reputation for ineptness, bragged to the crowd about his influence over President Bush. In yesterday's Townhall.com, Pat Buchanan devoted a whole column to what the idiot told that crowd in Ashkelon. Here are some excerpts from Buchanan's description of Olmert's speech:
He had, said Olmert, whistled up George Bush, interrupted him in the middle of a speech and told him to instruct Condi Rice not to vote for a U.N. resolution Condi herself had written. Bush did as told, said Olmert.
"In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a cease-fire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favor.
"I said, 'Get me President Bush on the phone.' They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care. 'I need to talk to him now.' He got off the podium and spoke to me.
According to Olmert, Bush was clueless.
"He said: 'Listen. I don't know about it. I didn't see it. I'm not familiar with the phrasing."
"I told him the United States could not vote in favor. It cannot vote in favor of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favor. ...
"She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favor."
According toBuchanan, Olmert is happily describing the egg on Rice's face: "He (Bush) gave an order to the secretary of state, and she did not vote in favor of it -- a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organized and maneuvered for. She was left pretty shamed. ..."
It must be noted that Buchanan, the late President Nixon's speech writer, is hardly a neutral observer in any controversy about Israel. From the very beginning, he has strongly opposed America's support of Israel. Buchanan insists that our support of the Jewish state does not serve the interests of the United States because it has turned the oil rich Middle East against us. Buchanan has also written a number of books and columns which contained anti-Semitic overtones.
Because Olmert's speech was poorly translated from Hebrew into English, Buchanan's description may not be very accurate. For instance, Olmert could not have interrupted Bush because the idiot's phone call was made quite a while before the President gave his speech. But if only half of Buchanan's description is true, and it probably is, a shameless Olmert has stuck his thumb right in America's eye. If he had any sense at all, he would not have given a public speech which was insulting and embarrassing to the president and secretary of stae of the only real friend Israel has had.
Calling him Ehud the Idiot is a monumental insult to idiots. "Ehud the Bonehead" is what I am going to call that bonehead from now on.
The cardinal rule in international diplomacy is that you never ever show your hand before you sit down to negotiate with your adversary. Ehud the Idiot has broken that rule at least twice.
(1) Israel has long maintained that it has a right to construct new settlement housing to account for normal population growth. Such construction is explicitly prohibited by the "Road Map to Peace" as laid out by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. Israel tentatively agreed to "The Quartet's" plan.
One year ago, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Olmert admitted that Israel is violating the peace plan by continuing to construct new homes in the existing settlements. In the interview, Olmert stated: "There is a certain contradiction in this between what we're actually seeing and what we ourselves promised. Obligations are not only to be demanded of others, but they must also be honored by ourselves. So there is a certain problem here."
That idiotic statement did nothing more than weaken Israel's bargaining position and strengthen that of its adversary in any upcoming negotiations with the Palestinians. But the idiot didn't stop there.
(2) Olmert publicly stated that he wants Israel to give up "almost all" of the occupied West Bank and to give part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Last September the idiot told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot: "The decision we are going to have to make is a decision we have been refusing for 40 years to look at open-eyed. Israel must withdraw from the lion's share of the territories. The time has come to say these things. The time has come to put them (the withdrawal from the West Bank and the division of Jerusalem) on the table."
Here the idiot showed his hand, albeit a suicidal one for Israel, before any serious negotiations have taken place. When the Palestinians heard this, they must have jumped up and down with overwhelming joy. Once again, Olmert has strengthened their position at the bargaining table.
Olmert has been thoroughy discredited by his conduct of the war with Hezbollah and by the corruption charges brought against him. Now he has committed the worst boner of all. As Israel began the third week of its war with Hamas, Olmert embarrassed the President of the United States and the American Secretary of State in a speech he gave in Hebrew to a crowd in Ashkelon, an Israeli town near the Gaza border.
Olmert, trying to overturn his reputation for ineptness, bragged to the crowd about his influence over President Bush. In yesterday's Townhall.com, Pat Buchanan devoted a whole column to what the idiot told that crowd in Ashkelon. Here are some excerpts from Buchanan's description of Olmert's speech:
He had, said Olmert, whistled up George Bush, interrupted him in the middle of a speech and told him to instruct Condi Rice not to vote for a U.N. resolution Condi herself had written. Bush did as told, said Olmert.
"In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a cease-fire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favor.
"I said, 'Get me President Bush on the phone.' They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care. 'I need to talk to him now.' He got off the podium and spoke to me.
According to Olmert, Bush was clueless.
"He said: 'Listen. I don't know about it. I didn't see it. I'm not familiar with the phrasing."
"I told him the United States could not vote in favor. It cannot vote in favor of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favor. ...
"She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favor."
According toBuchanan, Olmert is happily describing the egg on Rice's face: "He (Bush) gave an order to the secretary of state, and she did not vote in favor of it -- a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organized and maneuvered for. She was left pretty shamed. ..."
It must be noted that Buchanan, the late President Nixon's speech writer, is hardly a neutral observer in any controversy about Israel. From the very beginning, he has strongly opposed America's support of Israel. Buchanan insists that our support of the Jewish state does not serve the interests of the United States because it has turned the oil rich Middle East against us. Buchanan has also written a number of books and columns which contained anti-Semitic overtones.
Because Olmert's speech was poorly translated from Hebrew into English, Buchanan's description may not be very accurate. For instance, Olmert could not have interrupted Bush because the idiot's phone call was made quite a while before the President gave his speech. But if only half of Buchanan's description is true, and it probably is, a shameless Olmert has stuck his thumb right in America's eye. If he had any sense at all, he would not have given a public speech which was insulting and embarrassing to the president and secretary of stae of the only real friend Israel has had.
Calling him Ehud the Idiot is a monumental insult to idiots. "Ehud the Bonehead" is what I am going to call that bonehead from now on.
Friday, January 16, 2009
JUSTICE GONE BESERK
Three court cases in the news leave me with the impression that justice has gone beserk. One case involves the death penalty, another involves street gangs and the third concerns Hooters restaurants.
(1) On November 1, 1978, Jonathan Reed, posing as a maintenance man, gained entry into the Dallas apartment of two young women. Once inside, he attacked both women, raping and strangling one to death. Her roomate survived only because she feigned death as he was trying to strangle her. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape-murder. Reed, now 57, has been on death row nearly 30 years.
Now the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Reed was deprived of a fair trial because the Dallas County prosecutors had improperly excluded blacks from serving on the jury. The prosecutors had followed a guidance manual which advised them to exclude blacks from juries because "they almost always empathize with the accused." The three-judge panel in New Orleans ordered Reed to be released unless prosecutors intend to retry him quickly.
How can they retry him after 30 years? What's happened to the evidence? What about the witnesses? Where are they now or are they even still alive? There has never been a question about Reed's gluilt, only questions about the trial procedures. Have these judges lost their minds? It is really frightening to realize that these judges sit on what has long been considered the most conservative of all federal appellate courts.
OH, DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT JONATHAN REED IS WHITE?
(2) Two days ago, a judge granted a permanent injunction sought by the Los Angeles city attorney against six gangs in South Los Angeles - All for Crime, Barrio Mojados, Blood Stone Villains, Florencia 13, Oriental Boyz and Pueblo Bishops - which limits gang members' activity in a 13.7-square-mile area stretching from downtown to South Los Angeles.
In an unrelated gang injunction case brought by the Los Angeles district attorney's office against Florencia 13, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a "friend of the court" brief arguing that the proposed order violates gang members' basic liberty in their daily lives by putting them under a curfew and banning them entirely from Roosevelt Park.
What has gone wrong with our courts? Thank God for the American Civil Liberties Union! Those young street gang members are only trying to have a little fun by stomping, stabbing and shooting each other to death. Why would the courts want to infringe on the rights of these young men to engage in their favorite pastimes? Isn't that what America is supposed to be all about?
(3) And so we come to the most serious case of all. In its early days, it was a real pleasure to fly Southwest Airlines because that carrier hired only leggy young women as flight attendants and outfitted them in hot pants. I am sure the only reason for the hotpants was to allow these young women to move about more freely within the cramped confines of the cabin. Then, 30 years ago, some commie, no doubt, sued Southwest demanding they hire male flight attendants. After a federal judge agreed, the airline took off the hotpants. Flying with Southwest has become less pleasant ever since they dropped their hotpants.
Hooters restaurants are known for their comely waitresses in orange shorts and skin-tight shirts who occasioally stop to twirl hula hoops. Now this great American institution is under attack by what must obviously be another commie. A Houston employment lawyer is representing a 22-year-old male college student who was denied an application to become a Hooters waiter. He claims that by employing only "Hooters Girls" as servers, the rstaurants are practicing illegal sex discrimination and depriving him and other men of the right to obtain gainful employment as waiters.
As of now, one can only guess whether or not the court will agree. But if it does, all red-blooded American men will be deprived of a most enjoyable meal. No longer will they be able to drool over the luscious tantalizing boobs, I mean luscious tantalizing meals pictured on the menu. Mixing male waiters in with the Hooters Girls is just plain downright un-American!
(1) On November 1, 1978, Jonathan Reed, posing as a maintenance man, gained entry into the Dallas apartment of two young women. Once inside, he attacked both women, raping and strangling one to death. Her roomate survived only because she feigned death as he was trying to strangle her. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape-murder. Reed, now 57, has been on death row nearly 30 years.
Now the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Reed was deprived of a fair trial because the Dallas County prosecutors had improperly excluded blacks from serving on the jury. The prosecutors had followed a guidance manual which advised them to exclude blacks from juries because "they almost always empathize with the accused." The three-judge panel in New Orleans ordered Reed to be released unless prosecutors intend to retry him quickly.
How can they retry him after 30 years? What's happened to the evidence? What about the witnesses? Where are they now or are they even still alive? There has never been a question about Reed's gluilt, only questions about the trial procedures. Have these judges lost their minds? It is really frightening to realize that these judges sit on what has long been considered the most conservative of all federal appellate courts.
OH, DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT JONATHAN REED IS WHITE?
(2) Two days ago, a judge granted a permanent injunction sought by the Los Angeles city attorney against six gangs in South Los Angeles - All for Crime, Barrio Mojados, Blood Stone Villains, Florencia 13, Oriental Boyz and Pueblo Bishops - which limits gang members' activity in a 13.7-square-mile area stretching from downtown to South Los Angeles.
In an unrelated gang injunction case brought by the Los Angeles district attorney's office against Florencia 13, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a "friend of the court" brief arguing that the proposed order violates gang members' basic liberty in their daily lives by putting them under a curfew and banning them entirely from Roosevelt Park.
What has gone wrong with our courts? Thank God for the American Civil Liberties Union! Those young street gang members are only trying to have a little fun by stomping, stabbing and shooting each other to death. Why would the courts want to infringe on the rights of these young men to engage in their favorite pastimes? Isn't that what America is supposed to be all about?
(3) And so we come to the most serious case of all. In its early days, it was a real pleasure to fly Southwest Airlines because that carrier hired only leggy young women as flight attendants and outfitted them in hot pants. I am sure the only reason for the hotpants was to allow these young women to move about more freely within the cramped confines of the cabin. Then, 30 years ago, some commie, no doubt, sued Southwest demanding they hire male flight attendants. After a federal judge agreed, the airline took off the hotpants. Flying with Southwest has become less pleasant ever since they dropped their hotpants.
Hooters restaurants are known for their comely waitresses in orange shorts and skin-tight shirts who occasioally stop to twirl hula hoops. Now this great American institution is under attack by what must obviously be another commie. A Houston employment lawyer is representing a 22-year-old male college student who was denied an application to become a Hooters waiter. He claims that by employing only "Hooters Girls" as servers, the rstaurants are practicing illegal sex discrimination and depriving him and other men of the right to obtain gainful employment as waiters.
As of now, one can only guess whether or not the court will agree. But if it does, all red-blooded American men will be deprived of a most enjoyable meal. No longer will they be able to drool over the luscious tantalizing boobs, I mean luscious tantalizing meals pictured on the menu. Mixing male waiters in with the Hooters Girls is just plain downright un-American!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
WHY THE BIG THREE MAY BECOME THE BIG ZERO
Despite the bailout, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler may yet go under. They can't compete pricewise with the Japanese auto makers because of a huge pay and benefit differential.
Now I don't blame the United Auto Workers for trying to get the best possible pay and benefits for their members from the big three, but if the union does not make some substantial concessions, the auto workers may end up watching their employers go out of business. Then they will find themselves without any pay or benefits at all. According to Forbes:
Labor cost per hour, wages and benefits for hourly workers. Ford: $70.51 ($141,020 per year) GM: $73.26 ($146,520 per year) Chrysler: $75.86 ($151,720 per year)
Toyota, Honda, Nissan (in U.S. ): $48.00 ($96,000 per year)
According to AAUP and IES, the average annual compensation for a college professor in 2006 was $92,973 (average salary nationally of $73,207 + 27% benefits).
Bottom Line: The average UAW worker with a high school degree earns 57.6% more compensation than the average university professor with a Ph.D., and 52.6% more than the average worker at Toyota , Honda or Nissan. Many industry analysts say the Detroit Three, must be on par with Toyota and Honda to survive. This year's contract, they say, must be "transformational" in reducing pension and health care costs.
What would "transformational" mean? One way to think about "transformational" would mean that UAW workers, with a high school diploma, would have to accept compensation equal to that of the average university professor with a PhD.
Then there's the "Job Bank"
When a D3 ( Detroit 3 carmaker) lays an employee off, that employee CONTINUES TO RECEIVE all benefits - medical, retirement, etc., etc., PLUS an hourly wage of $31/hour.
Here's a typical story.... Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne , signs in, and then starts working -- on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits. "We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," he says. "Otherwise, I just sit."
Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers as demanded by the United Auto Workers Union - UAW - as part of an extraordinary job security agreement.
Now the D3 wants Joe Taxpayer to pick up this tab in a $25 Billion bailout package - soon to be increased to $45 Billion if Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have their way. The "Big 3" want this money - not to build better autos. No. They want it to pay the tab for Medical and Retirement benefits for RETIRED auto workers. Not ONE PENNY would be used to make them more competitive, or to improve the quality of their cars.
We ALL have problems paying for our Medical Insurance - but the Democrat leaders in Congress now want us to pay the Medical Insurance premiums of folks who have RETIRED from Ford, GM and Chrysler.
In Canada , the Conservative minority government must use taxpayers’ money to help out the auto industry. This is because the Liberals and the NDP have threatened to bring down the minority government if the auto workers don’t receive an "economic stimulus". The auto workers union bargained for high wages when the car industry was profitable, because the workers wanted their share. Now that the industry is losing money, the union insists that the workers can’t have their wages or benefits reduced.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Personally, I'm in no postition to complain about the retired autoworkers getting free medical insurance AS LONG AS they have to pay the premiums for their dependents. As a retired state employee, the state continues to pay for my medical insurance, but I have to pay the premiums for my wife.
Now I don't blame the United Auto Workers for trying to get the best possible pay and benefits for their members from the big three, but if the union does not make some substantial concessions, the auto workers may end up watching their employers go out of business. Then they will find themselves without any pay or benefits at all. According to Forbes:
Labor cost per hour, wages and benefits for hourly workers. Ford: $70.51 ($141,020 per year) GM: $73.26 ($146,520 per year) Chrysler: $75.86 ($151,720 per year)
Toyota, Honda, Nissan (in U.S. ): $48.00 ($96,000 per year)
According to AAUP and IES, the average annual compensation for a college professor in 2006 was $92,973 (average salary nationally of $73,207 + 27% benefits).
Bottom Line: The average UAW worker with a high school degree earns 57.6% more compensation than the average university professor with a Ph.D., and 52.6% more than the average worker at Toyota , Honda or Nissan. Many industry analysts say the Detroit Three, must be on par with Toyota and Honda to survive. This year's contract, they say, must be "transformational" in reducing pension and health care costs.
What would "transformational" mean? One way to think about "transformational" would mean that UAW workers, with a high school diploma, would have to accept compensation equal to that of the average university professor with a PhD.
Then there's the "Job Bank"
When a D3 ( Detroit 3 carmaker) lays an employee off, that employee CONTINUES TO RECEIVE all benefits - medical, retirement, etc., etc., PLUS an hourly wage of $31/hour.
Here's a typical story.... Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne , signs in, and then starts working -- on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits. "We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," he says. "Otherwise, I just sit."
Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers as demanded by the United Auto Workers Union - UAW - as part of an extraordinary job security agreement.
Now the D3 wants Joe Taxpayer to pick up this tab in a $25 Billion bailout package - soon to be increased to $45 Billion if Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have their way. The "Big 3" want this money - not to build better autos. No. They want it to pay the tab for Medical and Retirement benefits for RETIRED auto workers. Not ONE PENNY would be used to make them more competitive, or to improve the quality of their cars.
We ALL have problems paying for our Medical Insurance - but the Democrat leaders in Congress now want us to pay the Medical Insurance premiums of folks who have RETIRED from Ford, GM and Chrysler.
In Canada , the Conservative minority government must use taxpayers’ money to help out the auto industry. This is because the Liberals and the NDP have threatened to bring down the minority government if the auto workers don’t receive an "economic stimulus". The auto workers union bargained for high wages when the car industry was profitable, because the workers wanted their share. Now that the industry is losing money, the union insists that the workers can’t have their wages or benefits reduced.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Personally, I'm in no postition to complain about the retired autoworkers getting free medical insurance AS LONG AS they have to pay the premiums for their dependents. As a retired state employee, the state continues to pay for my medical insurance, but I have to pay the premiums for my wife.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
PARTNERS IN PEACE, MY ASS!
The international community has long been calling for the Israelis and the Palestinians to be partners in peace. All along, Israel has been pressured to cede "land for peace," and that pressure has also come from its only friend, the United States. The international community completely ignores the fact that the final goal of the Palestinians is to "liberate Palestine from the river to the sea," clearly meaning that there is to be no Jewish state.
Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columinst, says that when people on the other side of its borders have homemade rockets, the chances of Israel accepting an independent Palestinian state are zero. Friedman calls for a radical new approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict - a "NATO Trusteeship" for the West Bank and the Gaza strip (ABC This Week, 1-11-09).
About the long-running conflict, columnist George Will says, "Israel is not being provocative. Israel's being is provocative" to a bunch of people who want the Jewish state to go away (ABC This Week, 1-11-09).
If you recall, the Palestinians jumped up and down with joy and danced in the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon. They have celebrated every terrorist attack against innocent Jewish men, women and children, whether carried out inside Israel or elsewheres in the world. Time after time, the Palestinians have called for "Death to the Jews." In a recent (1-13-09) Townhall.com column, Dennis Prager described the Palestinians' support for terrorism against the Jews like this:
"It would be quite difficult to find many Palestinians who do not celebrate the deaths of Israeli Jews or non-Israeli Jews. This is not only reflected in Palestinian polls that show majority support for terrorism -- and terrorism means killing innocent Jews -- it is also reflected in Palestinian media, Palestinian schools, and Palestinian mosques that routinely glorify murderers of Jews, and refer to all Jews as monkeys and the like.
Take for example, Palestinian reaction to the 2001 Palestinian terror bombing of a Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria in which 15 Jews, five of whom were two sets of parents and their children, were murdered and an additional 130 people were injured, some permanently maimed.
As reported by the Associated Press, a month later, Palestinian university students opened an exhibition that included a grisly re-enactment of that mass murder. The students built a replica of the Sbarro pizzeria, with fake blood, splattered pizza, a plastic hand dangling from the ceiling, and a fake severed leg wearing jeans and a bloody black sneaker.
The exhibit also includes a large rock in front of a mannequin wearing the black hat, black jacket and black trousers typically worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews. A recording from inside the rock calls out: O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him, paraphrasing a verse in the Koran. It became a popular tourist attraction for Palestinians, to which Palestinian parents took their little children."
Palestinian-Americans, by and large, express the same hatred of Jews. This is especially true of Palestinian students enrolled in our colleges and universities.
In San Francisco, Palestinians demonstrating against Israel's conflict with Hamas carried Arabic signs which read: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews).
In Columbus, Ohio, led by an Ohio State University professor, about 300 Palestinians and their supporters protested Israel's attacks on Gaza by chanting, "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea" and "Long live the intifada." The views expressed at the rally were that Israelis are colonialists, illegally there, murderers, and genocidal maniacs.
The international community and peacenicks count on "moderate" Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a peaceful settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. But Abbas speaks with a forked tongue. When speaking in English to American and European audiences, Abbas says he wants two states, Palestine and Israel, existing peacefully side by side. But whenever he speaks in Arabic to the Palestinians and other Jew-hating Arabs, that is a far cry from what he says. Time after time Abbas has made it clear in Arabic that there can be only one state, and that state is Palestine.
In view of all this, my question is, can Israel rely on the Palestinians as partners in peace? The answer is obvious. Hell no! Partners in peace, my ass! While I often disagree with Tom Friedman's views, I think his proposal of a NATO trusteeship for the West Bank and the Gaza strip is an excellent one. It is the most pragmatic proposal I've heard for resloving this long-running conflict.
Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columinst, says that when people on the other side of its borders have homemade rockets, the chances of Israel accepting an independent Palestinian state are zero. Friedman calls for a radical new approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict - a "NATO Trusteeship" for the West Bank and the Gaza strip (ABC This Week, 1-11-09).
About the long-running conflict, columnist George Will says, "Israel is not being provocative. Israel's being is provocative" to a bunch of people who want the Jewish state to go away (ABC This Week, 1-11-09).
If you recall, the Palestinians jumped up and down with joy and danced in the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon. They have celebrated every terrorist attack against innocent Jewish men, women and children, whether carried out inside Israel or elsewheres in the world. Time after time, the Palestinians have called for "Death to the Jews." In a recent (1-13-09) Townhall.com column, Dennis Prager described the Palestinians' support for terrorism against the Jews like this:
"It would be quite difficult to find many Palestinians who do not celebrate the deaths of Israeli Jews or non-Israeli Jews. This is not only reflected in Palestinian polls that show majority support for terrorism -- and terrorism means killing innocent Jews -- it is also reflected in Palestinian media, Palestinian schools, and Palestinian mosques that routinely glorify murderers of Jews, and refer to all Jews as monkeys and the like.
Take for example, Palestinian reaction to the 2001 Palestinian terror bombing of a Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria in which 15 Jews, five of whom were two sets of parents and their children, were murdered and an additional 130 people were injured, some permanently maimed.
As reported by the Associated Press, a month later, Palestinian university students opened an exhibition that included a grisly re-enactment of that mass murder. The students built a replica of the Sbarro pizzeria, with fake blood, splattered pizza, a plastic hand dangling from the ceiling, and a fake severed leg wearing jeans and a bloody black sneaker.
The exhibit also includes a large rock in front of a mannequin wearing the black hat, black jacket and black trousers typically worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews. A recording from inside the rock calls out: O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him, paraphrasing a verse in the Koran. It became a popular tourist attraction for Palestinians, to which Palestinian parents took their little children."
Palestinian-Americans, by and large, express the same hatred of Jews. This is especially true of Palestinian students enrolled in our colleges and universities.
In San Francisco, Palestinians demonstrating against Israel's conflict with Hamas carried Arabic signs which read: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews).
In Columbus, Ohio, led by an Ohio State University professor, about 300 Palestinians and their supporters protested Israel's attacks on Gaza by chanting, "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea" and "Long live the intifada." The views expressed at the rally were that Israelis are colonialists, illegally there, murderers, and genocidal maniacs.
The international community and peacenicks count on "moderate" Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a peaceful settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. But Abbas speaks with a forked tongue. When speaking in English to American and European audiences, Abbas says he wants two states, Palestine and Israel, existing peacefully side by side. But whenever he speaks in Arabic to the Palestinians and other Jew-hating Arabs, that is a far cry from what he says. Time after time Abbas has made it clear in Arabic that there can be only one state, and that state is Palestine.
In view of all this, my question is, can Israel rely on the Palestinians as partners in peace? The answer is obvious. Hell no! Partners in peace, my ass! While I often disagree with Tom Friedman's views, I think his proposal of a NATO trusteeship for the West Bank and the Gaza strip is an excellent one. It is the most pragmatic proposal I've heard for resloving this long-running conflict.
Monday, January 12, 2009
SHOOT THE BASTARD!
The other day, another innocent driver died when a young car thief sped through a stop sign while being chased by the police and crashed into the victim's car. Now the victim's family is considering a law suit against the City of Houston and its police department. With respect to car chases, the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Nationwide, there have been numerous deaths and injuries of innocents that have resulted from police car chases.
Call me "Attila the Hun" if you like, but I have a simple solution to this problem - shoot the drivers who flee from the police!
Then what about the lawsuits that are sure to ensue? Oh well, the cities will just have to chalk them up as the cost of doing business.
The courts have ruled that a police officer cannot shoot at a fleeing suspect unless that person offers an immediate threat of serious bodily injury or death to the officer or another citizen, or that by allowing him to get away, the public will be placed in serious jeopardy.
According to those court rulings, if a fleeing suspect has a dangerous weapon in his possession and presents an imminent threat to the life of a citizen, an officer would be justified in shooting the bastard.
There is not a more dangerous weapon than a car that is being driven at a reckless high speed by a driver fleeing from the police who weaves in and out of traffic and disregards intersection stop signs and traffic control lights. So, shoot the bastard before he kills some innocent driver and/or his passenger(s) with that dangerous weapon.
Now right away someone is going to ask, what about some poor teenager that is fleeing from the police. Tough shit! If he gets killed, that is sure a lot better than some innocent citizen. The driver who was killed in Houston the other day, left behind a wife and two children. A passenger in his SUV was seriously injured.
I realize that if a fleeing driver were to be shot to death by the police, he would leave behind a grieving family, and his loss would be especially hard when it is the family of a teenager.
This brings up the question of whether or not the police should chase a fleeing car in the first place when they do not know for sure if the driver has committed a felony. If an officer has good reason to believe that the driver is not intoxicated and is only trying to escape from getting a traffic ticket, then don't chase him. Otherwise, shoot the bastard - he has a very dangerous weapon in his hands.
Call me "Attila the Hun" if you like, but I have a simple solution to this problem - shoot the drivers who flee from the police!
Then what about the lawsuits that are sure to ensue? Oh well, the cities will just have to chalk them up as the cost of doing business.
The courts have ruled that a police officer cannot shoot at a fleeing suspect unless that person offers an immediate threat of serious bodily injury or death to the officer or another citizen, or that by allowing him to get away, the public will be placed in serious jeopardy.
According to those court rulings, if a fleeing suspect has a dangerous weapon in his possession and presents an imminent threat to the life of a citizen, an officer would be justified in shooting the bastard.
There is not a more dangerous weapon than a car that is being driven at a reckless high speed by a driver fleeing from the police who weaves in and out of traffic and disregards intersection stop signs and traffic control lights. So, shoot the bastard before he kills some innocent driver and/or his passenger(s) with that dangerous weapon.
Now right away someone is going to ask, what about some poor teenager that is fleeing from the police. Tough shit! If he gets killed, that is sure a lot better than some innocent citizen. The driver who was killed in Houston the other day, left behind a wife and two children. A passenger in his SUV was seriously injured.
I realize that if a fleeing driver were to be shot to death by the police, he would leave behind a grieving family, and his loss would be especially hard when it is the family of a teenager.
This brings up the question of whether or not the police should chase a fleeing car in the first place when they do not know for sure if the driver has committed a felony. If an officer has good reason to believe that the driver is not intoxicated and is only trying to escape from getting a traffic ticket, then don't chase him. Otherwise, shoot the bastard - he has a very dangerous weapon in his hands.
EX-CONS AS PAROLE OFFICERS?
Another blogger, "doc," made some comments on my latest blog, "Parole Officer Types." He concluded with, "I'd be interested in your thoughts on how you would match up the criminals and the POs." I tried to respond directly, but doc has not yet elected to publicly share his Profile. So, I will respond to him with this blog.
I do not believe matching up criminals with parole officers is the answer to effective supervision. There are too many logistical barriers. Because there are so many different types of criminals, each with their own qjuirks, it would almost take one parole officer for each parolee, and that would be an impossibility. By and large, parolees are assigned to parole officers based on where they live, so that they will be in a managable geographic area. Unfortunately, that's just the way it has to be.
It is of the upmost importance that the parole officer be both street-wise and con-wise, as well as brave. Unfortunately, college doesn't prepare you for that. Idealism is fine, but it matters little because case loads are too large for the parole officer to put that idealism to work. Protection of society from criminals has to be the primary consideration in the supervision of parolees. That is why I believe well educated ex-cops and former correctional officers make the best parole officers. Conversely, that is also why many MSWs are among the worst parole officers.
Managable case loads are extremely important. When I started out as a California parole agent, I had a "regular" case load. It was supposed to have no more than 70 parolees in it. However, I started out with 85 parolees, about 20 of whom were in jail, and they had to be seen at least once a week.
Because of my background as a narcotics officer, I was eventually assigned to the state's civil addict rehabilitation program. Case loads in this specialized program were not to exceed 30 parolees (I started out with more than 40) because it required frequent visits to the parolee's home and place of work. I was also required to conduct weekly group therapy sessions and surprise drug tests. Furthermore, you cannot properly supervise a bunch of drug addicts without conducting a certain amount of surveillance on them.
"doc" believes in specialization, but in California's civil addict program, the parole failure rate exceeded 60 percent. As an ex-cop, I had a lower failure rate, but it was still close to 50 percent. California also had special case loads for "high interest" cases with parolees whose crimes made major news headlines - child predators, gangsters, serial rapists, celebreties who committed violent crimes, etc.. These case loads were extremely small because the parole agent had to see each of his parolees in the field at least once a week.
In order for parole to succeed in protecting society, parole officers must not only be street-wise and con-wise, but they must also provide the kind of supervision that will be effective in preventing and detecting criminal behavior. That requires SURPRISE field visits to the parolees' homes and work sites. No parolee "reporting to his parole officer" crap, unless ordered to do so for a specific reason. Those office visits are, with few exceptions, worthless and a waste of the parole officer's time. Office visits that are not conducted for a special reason, enable the parole officer to know only what the parolee wants him to know.
As for those field visits, none of this 8-5 Monday through Friday business. Not only should field visits be conducted on a surprise basis, but those to the parolee's home should be conducted after dark, and occasionally on weekends. That is the only way a parole officer will be able to keep on top of the parolee's activities. Home visits by appointment have little valuse because, as with the office visits, the parole officer will see only what the parolee and his family want the officer to see.
It is important that, except in emergency cases, parole officers be required to adhere to a strict work schedule. Case loads should never exceed 80 parolees. For those case loads of 70-80, the parole officer should be limited to just two days in the office for paper work and for special appointments. For the remaining three days, two should be required for after dark home visits and, in some cases, surveillances. Some field work should be conducted on weekends. These case loads should require at least one home visit every three months, or more if necessary.
For special case loads of 30-40, there should be only one office day, with three evenings scheduled for home visits. And, of course, there has to be some weekend scheduling for those after dark home visits and surveillances. These case loads should require at least one home visit each month, or more if necessary.
Such work schedules will eliminate most MSWs from being parole officers because they will be too scared to go out after dark, especially into high-crime, gang-infested neighborhoods. After all, they didn't earn a masters degree to get shot, stabbed or have the shit kicked out of them. Good riddance! For the protection of society, parole needs to be much more of a law enforcement model than a social work one. The parole agency should also hire professional counselors to which parolees can turn or be assigend to for needed counseling.
This brings me back to the street-wise and con-wise parole officer. When I supervised the civil addict parolees, all of the addicts that were to be assigned to me or who had been returned from my case load, were housed in one dorm at the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC). A correctional couselor was in charge of each CRC dorm. I was required to make frequent visits to (my) dorm and particiapate in the group couseling sessions which were conducted daily. That had me working closely with the correctional counselor for that dorm.
One day I learned that my dorm had a new counselor and that he was an ex-con who had done fderal prison time. What?!!! Me, an ex-cop having to work with an ex-con? Holy shit!!! Well, it took only the first visit for me to realized that I would be dealing with the best correctional counselor I've ever encountered. He was so wise to their ways, that the inmates in his dorm did not get away with anything.
A favorite pastime for the inmates at CRC was to stop up the toilets so they could visit inmates in other dorms when they had to take a crap. Well, those fun and games came to a quick stop. The ex-con counselor would not allow his cons to leave their dorm, would not call for a plumber, and made the inmates unplug the toilets themselves.
Another problem in the dorms was the theft of personal belongings. Each inmate had a footlocker and pad lock for his belongings. But as will happend, the inmates would frequently forget to lock their footlockers. You'll never guess what the ex-con counselor did the first time a footlocker theft was reported to him. Surpirse! He took away all the pad locks. That brought an end to the thefts because now the inmates were forced to police themselves.
What's the point? California had hired a number of ex-cons as correctional couselors and in most cases they turned out to be the best of the lot. Then why can't we hire some ex-cons as parole officers? California could not because its parole agents were state peace officers, and the law prevented anyone from becoming a peace officer if he had a felony conviction on his record.
I believe that a carefully screened ex-con, one who has been discharged from his sentence and has for a number of years led a conforming and productive life, would make an outstanding parole officer. He would be street-wise and con-wise, and most likely brave enought to venture into gang-infested neighborhoods after dark. His parolees would not be able to con him because he's been there and knows all their tricks. As an ex-cop and former parole agent, I would strongly urge that the laws be changed in order to enable selected ex-cons to become parole officers.
"doc," if you read this blog, I hope that I have responded to the comments you made, and that I have done so to your satisfaction.
I do not believe matching up criminals with parole officers is the answer to effective supervision. There are too many logistical barriers. Because there are so many different types of criminals, each with their own qjuirks, it would almost take one parole officer for each parolee, and that would be an impossibility. By and large, parolees are assigned to parole officers based on where they live, so that they will be in a managable geographic area. Unfortunately, that's just the way it has to be.
It is of the upmost importance that the parole officer be both street-wise and con-wise, as well as brave. Unfortunately, college doesn't prepare you for that. Idealism is fine, but it matters little because case loads are too large for the parole officer to put that idealism to work. Protection of society from criminals has to be the primary consideration in the supervision of parolees. That is why I believe well educated ex-cops and former correctional officers make the best parole officers. Conversely, that is also why many MSWs are among the worst parole officers.
Managable case loads are extremely important. When I started out as a California parole agent, I had a "regular" case load. It was supposed to have no more than 70 parolees in it. However, I started out with 85 parolees, about 20 of whom were in jail, and they had to be seen at least once a week.
Because of my background as a narcotics officer, I was eventually assigned to the state's civil addict rehabilitation program. Case loads in this specialized program were not to exceed 30 parolees (I started out with more than 40) because it required frequent visits to the parolee's home and place of work. I was also required to conduct weekly group therapy sessions and surprise drug tests. Furthermore, you cannot properly supervise a bunch of drug addicts without conducting a certain amount of surveillance on them.
"doc" believes in specialization, but in California's civil addict program, the parole failure rate exceeded 60 percent. As an ex-cop, I had a lower failure rate, but it was still close to 50 percent. California also had special case loads for "high interest" cases with parolees whose crimes made major news headlines - child predators, gangsters, serial rapists, celebreties who committed violent crimes, etc.. These case loads were extremely small because the parole agent had to see each of his parolees in the field at least once a week.
In order for parole to succeed in protecting society, parole officers must not only be street-wise and con-wise, but they must also provide the kind of supervision that will be effective in preventing and detecting criminal behavior. That requires SURPRISE field visits to the parolees' homes and work sites. No parolee "reporting to his parole officer" crap, unless ordered to do so for a specific reason. Those office visits are, with few exceptions, worthless and a waste of the parole officer's time. Office visits that are not conducted for a special reason, enable the parole officer to know only what the parolee wants him to know.
As for those field visits, none of this 8-5 Monday through Friday business. Not only should field visits be conducted on a surprise basis, but those to the parolee's home should be conducted after dark, and occasionally on weekends. That is the only way a parole officer will be able to keep on top of the parolee's activities. Home visits by appointment have little valuse because, as with the office visits, the parole officer will see only what the parolee and his family want the officer to see.
It is important that, except in emergency cases, parole officers be required to adhere to a strict work schedule. Case loads should never exceed 80 parolees. For those case loads of 70-80, the parole officer should be limited to just two days in the office for paper work and for special appointments. For the remaining three days, two should be required for after dark home visits and, in some cases, surveillances. Some field work should be conducted on weekends. These case loads should require at least one home visit every three months, or more if necessary.
For special case loads of 30-40, there should be only one office day, with three evenings scheduled for home visits. And, of course, there has to be some weekend scheduling for those after dark home visits and surveillances. These case loads should require at least one home visit each month, or more if necessary.
Such work schedules will eliminate most MSWs from being parole officers because they will be too scared to go out after dark, especially into high-crime, gang-infested neighborhoods. After all, they didn't earn a masters degree to get shot, stabbed or have the shit kicked out of them. Good riddance! For the protection of society, parole needs to be much more of a law enforcement model than a social work one. The parole agency should also hire professional counselors to which parolees can turn or be assigend to for needed counseling.
This brings me back to the street-wise and con-wise parole officer. When I supervised the civil addict parolees, all of the addicts that were to be assigned to me or who had been returned from my case load, were housed in one dorm at the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC). A correctional couselor was in charge of each CRC dorm. I was required to make frequent visits to (my) dorm and particiapate in the group couseling sessions which were conducted daily. That had me working closely with the correctional counselor for that dorm.
One day I learned that my dorm had a new counselor and that he was an ex-con who had done fderal prison time. What?!!! Me, an ex-cop having to work with an ex-con? Holy shit!!! Well, it took only the first visit for me to realized that I would be dealing with the best correctional counselor I've ever encountered. He was so wise to their ways, that the inmates in his dorm did not get away with anything.
A favorite pastime for the inmates at CRC was to stop up the toilets so they could visit inmates in other dorms when they had to take a crap. Well, those fun and games came to a quick stop. The ex-con counselor would not allow his cons to leave their dorm, would not call for a plumber, and made the inmates unplug the toilets themselves.
Another problem in the dorms was the theft of personal belongings. Each inmate had a footlocker and pad lock for his belongings. But as will happend, the inmates would frequently forget to lock their footlockers. You'll never guess what the ex-con counselor did the first time a footlocker theft was reported to him. Surpirse! He took away all the pad locks. That brought an end to the thefts because now the inmates were forced to police themselves.
What's the point? California had hired a number of ex-cons as correctional couselors and in most cases they turned out to be the best of the lot. Then why can't we hire some ex-cons as parole officers? California could not because its parole agents were state peace officers, and the law prevented anyone from becoming a peace officer if he had a felony conviction on his record.
I believe that a carefully screened ex-con, one who has been discharged from his sentence and has for a number of years led a conforming and productive life, would make an outstanding parole officer. He would be street-wise and con-wise, and most likely brave enought to venture into gang-infested neighborhoods after dark. His parolees would not be able to con him because he's been there and knows all their tricks. As an ex-cop and former parole agent, I would strongly urge that the laws be changed in order to enable selected ex-cons to become parole officers.
"doc," if you read this blog, I hope that I have responded to the comments you made, and that I have done so to your satisfaction.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
PAROLE OFFICER TYPES
Yesterday I blogged about a retired Texas parole officer's well-intentioned but loony proposal that only psychology and sociology majors be hired as probation and parole officers. Today I am going to describe the different types of parole officers. (The same types can be found among probation officers.) They don't teach this in psychology or sociology.
THE PROGRESSIVE COP - Sees almost everything as either black or white, no in-between. Suspicious by nature. Expects strict adherence to each and every parole condition. Will treat parolees fairly within those parameters. Will always cooperate with the police, except when he believes the police are just on a fishing expedition.
THE TRADITIONAL COP - Is convinced that the parolee is going to screw-up from the get-go. Not out to get the parolee, but always looking for the worst in him. Will not give the parolee any slack. Will alwalys cooperate with the police, no questions asked.
THE SISSY SOCIAL WORKER - Believes the parolee is a victim of society. Will serve the needs of the parolee, even when that could be detrimental to society. (A California parole officer took one of his parolees to Tijuana to be treated by a Mexican doctor for a gunshot wound he suffered during an attempted liquor store holdup.) Finds it hard to cooperate with the police. When one of his parolees is returned to prison he will tearfully whine to him, "You let me down."
THE PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGIST -Took a few psychology courses in college, Is convinced the parolee has been acting out as the result of a troubled childhood. Analyzes everything the parolee does and finds excuses for any misconduct. Will cooperate with the police, although somewhat reluctantly.
THE RIGHTEOUS CASE WORKER - As long as the parolee abides by all the rules, will help him in his efforts to succeed on parole. Will give the parolee some slack, but if he keeps screwing-up, will recommend revocation and return to prison. Wants to cooperate with the police but, like the progressive cop, will not do so if he thinks they are just on a fishing expedition.
THE MIDDLE CLASS STANDARD BEARER - Expects parolees to follow a middle-class life-style, regardless of their socio-economic background. (Some parole officers insist that all of their parolees open and maintain a bank savings account, take their families out to a nice restaurant once a week, and take them out to a cultural arts venue - theater, museum, etc. - once a month.) Will cooperate with the police.
THE EVANGELICAL - Expects parolees to attend church services every Sunday and bible study classes every Wednesday evening. Always carries the bible while on the job. Will not tolerate the use of the Lord's name in vain. If the parolee screws-up and faces return to prison, will sit down with the parolee and pray for him. Hallelujah! Will cooperate with the police.
THE THREE MONKEYS - Hears no evil, sees no evil, speaks no evil. Scared shitless he might get hurt on the job. Stays on only because he can't find a better paying job. A sure ticket for the parolee to continue his criminal ways while on parole. Will cooperate with the police, but only if that doesn't put him in harm's way.
Many parole officers will practice the attributes of two or more of these types, and that is as it should be. The sissy social worker will probably be one of the three monkeys. But you will never see the progressive and traditional cops as sissy social workers or the three monkeys. You should be able to conclude which of the types are the best and the worst.
All the do-gooder stuff notwithstanding and regardless of type, the guiding principle for all probation and parole officers must be that, first and foremost, probation and parole serve to protect society from criminals.
THE PROGRESSIVE COP - Sees almost everything as either black or white, no in-between. Suspicious by nature. Expects strict adherence to each and every parole condition. Will treat parolees fairly within those parameters. Will always cooperate with the police, except when he believes the police are just on a fishing expedition.
THE TRADITIONAL COP - Is convinced that the parolee is going to screw-up from the get-go. Not out to get the parolee, but always looking for the worst in him. Will not give the parolee any slack. Will alwalys cooperate with the police, no questions asked.
THE SISSY SOCIAL WORKER - Believes the parolee is a victim of society. Will serve the needs of the parolee, even when that could be detrimental to society. (A California parole officer took one of his parolees to Tijuana to be treated by a Mexican doctor for a gunshot wound he suffered during an attempted liquor store holdup.) Finds it hard to cooperate with the police. When one of his parolees is returned to prison he will tearfully whine to him, "You let me down."
THE PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGIST -Took a few psychology courses in college, Is convinced the parolee has been acting out as the result of a troubled childhood. Analyzes everything the parolee does and finds excuses for any misconduct. Will cooperate with the police, although somewhat reluctantly.
THE RIGHTEOUS CASE WORKER - As long as the parolee abides by all the rules, will help him in his efforts to succeed on parole. Will give the parolee some slack, but if he keeps screwing-up, will recommend revocation and return to prison. Wants to cooperate with the police but, like the progressive cop, will not do so if he thinks they are just on a fishing expedition.
THE MIDDLE CLASS STANDARD BEARER - Expects parolees to follow a middle-class life-style, regardless of their socio-economic background. (Some parole officers insist that all of their parolees open and maintain a bank savings account, take their families out to a nice restaurant once a week, and take them out to a cultural arts venue - theater, museum, etc. - once a month.) Will cooperate with the police.
THE EVANGELICAL - Expects parolees to attend church services every Sunday and bible study classes every Wednesday evening. Always carries the bible while on the job. Will not tolerate the use of the Lord's name in vain. If the parolee screws-up and faces return to prison, will sit down with the parolee and pray for him. Hallelujah! Will cooperate with the police.
THE THREE MONKEYS - Hears no evil, sees no evil, speaks no evil. Scared shitless he might get hurt on the job. Stays on only because he can't find a better paying job. A sure ticket for the parolee to continue his criminal ways while on parole. Will cooperate with the police, but only if that doesn't put him in harm's way.
Many parole officers will practice the attributes of two or more of these types, and that is as it should be. The sissy social worker will probably be one of the three monkeys. But you will never see the progressive and traditional cops as sissy social workers or the three monkeys. You should be able to conclude which of the types are the best and the worst.
All the do-gooder stuff notwithstanding and regardless of type, the guiding principle for all probation and parole officers must be that, first and foremost, probation and parole serve to protect society from criminals.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY MAJORS TO STOP THE KILLINGS
Much has been in the news lately on the large number of black-on-black homicides. Houston is one of the cities with the highest ratio of young black men killing other young black men. The mayor of Houston, soon to be a cadidate for the U.S. Senate, has turned to the city's black ministers for the solution. Fat chance of that working.
A retired Texas parole officer has his own solution to this problem. Here are some parts of what he wrote in a letter to the Houston Chonicle:
"......All the years I have spent as a juvenile probation and parole officer have proven to me that these respective agencies (probation and parole) are nothing more than breeding grounds for future criminals. The same holds true for adult probation and parole agencies, which flood the probation and parole positions with graduates from instutions granting criminal justice degrees.
......It is not so much a problem of being able to decrease youth homicides as it is to alter those approaches that do not work. If I were in charge of hiring field officers for juvenile or adult supervision of deviants, they would all be psychology or sociology majors and/or successful sales people. They must succeed in altering anti-social behavior and must be able to 'sell' to the individual who is acting out in a negative way why it would be in his or her interests to avoid such negative behavior."
Psychology or sociology majors? Thank God this guy is retired. I've got news for him. California has already tried that. Back in the 1950's and 60s, when California's correctional philosophy favored the rehabilitation of criminals, the state hired mostly MSW (Master of Social Work) graduates as parole officers. The MSWs had lots and lots of psychology and sociology course work to their credit. Did they succeed at altering anti-social behavior? Not by a long shot.
The problem with sociology students is that they have been taught that people who end up in the correctional system are victims of society. And psychology majors have been taught that anti-social behavior is the sign of a troubled childhood, brought on when mommy looked backwards in the mirror while she was pregnant, or when daddy took away the rubber duckie he liked to play with in the bathtub.
I am not going to describe some of the ludicrous ways those MSWs tried to alter the anti-social ways of their probationers or parolees. It must have come as a shock to find they had to deal with members of an ingrained subculture far removed from their own middle class upbringing. The MSWs failed at dealing with people who were not the least bit eager or able lead an acceptable (by society) life style. More than half of all California parolees were returned to prison.
Sales people? Even a salesman who can sell refrigerators to the eskimos, would find it hard to sell a young man with his pocket full of money from selling dope on the idea of getting a minimum wage paying job.
That retired Texas parole officer missed the boat entirely. What about those black-on-black killers who have not yet entered the correctional system? There are plenty of those. They are the ones that are ingrained in the subcultrue of the "gangsta rap" life style. They are school dropouts. They have no father figure at home. Their families live in poverty or near-poverty. Their role models are the gold necklace wearing dope dealers or pimps who drive around in sporty cars.
The only way to stop all those killings is to take these young men out of that "gangsta rap" subculture and provide them with well paying jobs and a bright future. How do you do that with unskilled school dropouts? And even in good economic times, where will they find enough of those well paying jobs?
A retired Texas parole officer has his own solution to this problem. Here are some parts of what he wrote in a letter to the Houston Chonicle:
"......All the years I have spent as a juvenile probation and parole officer have proven to me that these respective agencies (probation and parole) are nothing more than breeding grounds for future criminals. The same holds true for adult probation and parole agencies, which flood the probation and parole positions with graduates from instutions granting criminal justice degrees.
......It is not so much a problem of being able to decrease youth homicides as it is to alter those approaches that do not work. If I were in charge of hiring field officers for juvenile or adult supervision of deviants, they would all be psychology or sociology majors and/or successful sales people. They must succeed in altering anti-social behavior and must be able to 'sell' to the individual who is acting out in a negative way why it would be in his or her interests to avoid such negative behavior."
Psychology or sociology majors? Thank God this guy is retired. I've got news for him. California has already tried that. Back in the 1950's and 60s, when California's correctional philosophy favored the rehabilitation of criminals, the state hired mostly MSW (Master of Social Work) graduates as parole officers. The MSWs had lots and lots of psychology and sociology course work to their credit. Did they succeed at altering anti-social behavior? Not by a long shot.
The problem with sociology students is that they have been taught that people who end up in the correctional system are victims of society. And psychology majors have been taught that anti-social behavior is the sign of a troubled childhood, brought on when mommy looked backwards in the mirror while she was pregnant, or when daddy took away the rubber duckie he liked to play with in the bathtub.
I am not going to describe some of the ludicrous ways those MSWs tried to alter the anti-social ways of their probationers or parolees. It must have come as a shock to find they had to deal with members of an ingrained subculture far removed from their own middle class upbringing. The MSWs failed at dealing with people who were not the least bit eager or able lead an acceptable (by society) life style. More than half of all California parolees were returned to prison.
Sales people? Even a salesman who can sell refrigerators to the eskimos, would find it hard to sell a young man with his pocket full of money from selling dope on the idea of getting a minimum wage paying job.
That retired Texas parole officer missed the boat entirely. What about those black-on-black killers who have not yet entered the correctional system? There are plenty of those. They are the ones that are ingrained in the subcultrue of the "gangsta rap" life style. They are school dropouts. They have no father figure at home. Their families live in poverty or near-poverty. Their role models are the gold necklace wearing dope dealers or pimps who drive around in sporty cars.
The only way to stop all those killings is to take these young men out of that "gangsta rap" subculture and provide them with well paying jobs and a bright future. How do you do that with unskilled school dropouts? And even in good economic times, where will they find enough of those well paying jobs?
JEW HATING JEWS
Professor Jennifer Lowenstein, the Associate Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin, accuses Israel of unleashing "state terror" against Gaza and claims the Israeli conflict with Hamas is really part of a larger plot by evil Jews to dominate the world's wealth. Here is what she said:
"The state terror unleashed from the skies and on the ground against the Gaza Strip as we speak has nothing to do with Hamas. It has nothing to do with ‘Terror.’ It has nothing to do with the long-term ‘security’ of the Jewish State. Strip away the clichés and the vacuous newspeak blaring out across the servile media and its pathetic corps of voluntary state servants in the Western world and what you will find is the naked desire for hegemony; for power over the weak and dominion over the world’s wealth. Worse yet you will find that the selfishness, the hatred and indifference, the racism and bigotry, the egotism and hedonism … the callousness with which we indulge in them all are endemic to our very culture; thriving here like flies on a corpse."
Sounds like pure Marxist drivel. Lowenstein is typical of the left-wing academics who have infested our institutions of higher education. She not only expresses a hatred of Israel, but one of Jews as well. What she said does not disturb me nearly as much as the fact that Lowenstein is herself a Jew, albeit a self-hating one.
Of course, Lowenstein is not the only Jew hating Jew. In San Francisco, there were a number of politically correct Jews among the supporters of Palestinian demonstrators who carried Arabic signs like this: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews).
I suspect that the Jews who supported the Palestinians in San Francisco were college students, or former students, who have been influenced by their left-wing professors. The academic left has long supported the Palestininas and condemned Israel as a terrorist state. One of the self-proclaimed Marxist professors at the college where I used to teach, has not only supported the Palestinians in the past, but he and his wife helped to organize pro-Palestinian demonstrations in front of the Israeli consulate in Houston.
The problem with American Jews who support Jew haters is that they have always lived the good life afforded them by this country. They have never been excposed to the type of hatred that Jews experienced during the Nazi era. They have never experienced the hatred of Jews in Muslim countries. They do not seem to realize that Jews are not wanted in much of the world and that Israel is the only safe haven for those who are persecuted because of their Jewish faith. And they ignore the fact that the "final solution" for the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world is the extermination of the Jewish state.
"The state terror unleashed from the skies and on the ground against the Gaza Strip as we speak has nothing to do with Hamas. It has nothing to do with ‘Terror.’ It has nothing to do with the long-term ‘security’ of the Jewish State. Strip away the clichés and the vacuous newspeak blaring out across the servile media and its pathetic corps of voluntary state servants in the Western world and what you will find is the naked desire for hegemony; for power over the weak and dominion over the world’s wealth. Worse yet you will find that the selfishness, the hatred and indifference, the racism and bigotry, the egotism and hedonism … the callousness with which we indulge in them all are endemic to our very culture; thriving here like flies on a corpse."
Sounds like pure Marxist drivel. Lowenstein is typical of the left-wing academics who have infested our institutions of higher education. She not only expresses a hatred of Israel, but one of Jews as well. What she said does not disturb me nearly as much as the fact that Lowenstein is herself a Jew, albeit a self-hating one.
Of course, Lowenstein is not the only Jew hating Jew. In San Francisco, there were a number of politically correct Jews among the supporters of Palestinian demonstrators who carried Arabic signs like this: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews).
I suspect that the Jews who supported the Palestinians in San Francisco were college students, or former students, who have been influenced by their left-wing professors. The academic left has long supported the Palestininas and condemned Israel as a terrorist state. One of the self-proclaimed Marxist professors at the college where I used to teach, has not only supported the Palestinians in the past, but he and his wife helped to organize pro-Palestinian demonstrations in front of the Israeli consulate in Houston.
The problem with American Jews who support Jew haters is that they have always lived the good life afforded them by this country. They have never been excposed to the type of hatred that Jews experienced during the Nazi era. They have never experienced the hatred of Jews in Muslim countries. They do not seem to realize that Jews are not wanted in much of the world and that Israel is the only safe haven for those who are persecuted because of their Jewish faith. And they ignore the fact that the "final solution" for the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world is the extermination of the Jewish state.
Friday, January 09, 2009
BANG. OOPS, I MEANT ZAP
On New Year's Day, several officers with the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police were making some arrests on a crowded train station platform in Oakland, California. One of those arrested, an unarmed 22-year-old black man, was forced face down on the platform and then suddenly shot in the back by a white officer.
The incident was captured on a cell phone video and played over and over again on the internet and by the media. The young man's death led to several hours of rioting by members of Oakland's sizable black community. Cars were set on fire and storefronts were smashed. More than 100 rioteers were arrested and around 300 business establishments were damaged.
The shooting is being investigated by the Oakland Police Department and by the Alameda County District Attorney's office. The officer who shot the victim resigned from the BART police force and will most likely face criminal charges.
What would have caused the officer to shoot an unarmed man in the back, one who had been forced face down on the ground? Who knows? But some experts have questioned whether the officer fired his pistol deliberately or mistakenly believed he was using his tazer gun instead. Sound farfetched? Not really.
Because police tazer guns are designed similar to the pistols officers usually carry, sooner or later something like this was bound to happen. It is quite possible that in the highly-charged excitement of making an arrest, an officer could have confused his pistol with his tazer gun.
In order to prevent any such accidental police shootings, law enforcement agencies should immediately demand that manufacturers of police tazer guns change the configuration of those weapons so that they cannot be confused with a pistol.
The incident was captured on a cell phone video and played over and over again on the internet and by the media. The young man's death led to several hours of rioting by members of Oakland's sizable black community. Cars were set on fire and storefronts were smashed. More than 100 rioteers were arrested and around 300 business establishments were damaged.
The shooting is being investigated by the Oakland Police Department and by the Alameda County District Attorney's office. The officer who shot the victim resigned from the BART police force and will most likely face criminal charges.
What would have caused the officer to shoot an unarmed man in the back, one who had been forced face down on the ground? Who knows? But some experts have questioned whether the officer fired his pistol deliberately or mistakenly believed he was using his tazer gun instead. Sound farfetched? Not really.
Because police tazer guns are designed similar to the pistols officers usually carry, sooner or later something like this was bound to happen. It is quite possible that in the highly-charged excitement of making an arrest, an officer could have confused his pistol with his tazer gun.
In order to prevent any such accidental police shootings, law enforcement agencies should immediately demand that manufacturers of police tazer guns change the configuration of those weapons so that they cannot be confused with a pistol.
ATTENTION ALL PET OWNERS
One of my former students, now a good friend, sent me the following commandments. I think the 10th commandment is especially important. Although it broke my heart to have my beloved Suki put to sleep, I felt some comfort in cradling her in my arms as she passed away. I am certain that, in hugging Suki well past her last breath, she was able to feel just how much I loved her.
A PET'S TEN COMMANDMENTS.........
1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.
2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.
3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.
4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.
5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.
7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.
8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.
9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.
10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me pl ease. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.
~Remember that they can't do a lot of things for themselves and that they depend on you to make their life a quality life! Take a moment today to thank God for your pets. Enjoy and take good care of them.
A PET'S TEN COMMANDMENTS.........
1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.
2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.
3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.
4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.
5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.
7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.
8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.
9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.
10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me pl ease. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.
~Remember that they can't do a lot of things for themselves and that they depend on you to make their life a quality life! Take a moment today to thank God for your pets. Enjoy and take good care of them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)