MY CRYSTAL BALL IS FOGGY

It is that time of year for reflection, both looking back at the year ending and anticipating the New Year.

If you were to assign one word to describe 2011, “turbulent” comes to mind immediately.

Start with the weather: worldwise, I can’t recall one year with so many natural disasters, ranging from earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan to a plethora of tornados in America.

Then look at politics across the world: the Arab spring in northern Africa and the Mideast , a spring that is increasing to four seasons and even infecting Russia.

Then look at nations. Even the Chinese are facing problems of handling growth and a rising middle class wanting their fair share. India is going through growing pains. Democracy is beginning to sprout even in Burma (Mynamar). Iran is going through internal battles between the clerics and secular leadership with a suppressed democratic movement. Iraq, with the Americans out, seems to be heading for more religious warfare between the Sunnis and the Shiites. Syria is facing a civil war. Israel and Palestine are same old , same old, squabbling, hating and nullifying the attempted peace process.

Then look at the economies of Europe. Europe is in deep doo-doo with the southern members deeply in debt and the richer nations balking at long-term solutions involving their wealth. They are stemming the flow of fiscal blood but not facing up to long-term solutions to stimulate economies and create growth. The euro is feeling the pain.

Then look at us in the U.S.A. A bitterly divided partisanship has infected the governmental process, preventing us from doing what needs to be done for job stimulus, tax reform, growing the economy, et al. We would much rather call each other names and shout at each other, while governance suffers the consequences of inaction.

Yes, I think “turbulent” is the apt word.

And what for 2012? More of the same, I’m afraid. I hope the weather will improve with a minimum of disasters, but my crystal ball doesn’t work too well in that area.

Growing expectations among those seeking more from life will continue to be the norm, I’m sure; once you’ve turned that faucet on, it’s a lot harder to turn it off because of the pressure generated.

I worry about the Middle East and pray that Iran-Palestine-Syria-Israel won’t blow up, igniting a conflagration far beyond that geographical area.

2012 could be the year the euro either lives or dies. Right now it is in terminal condition.

Here in the U.S., perhaps the election will make us move in new directions and create some political and economic actions. But that isn’t until November, so we’re probably faced with more of the same problems of governing.. The only bright light is the economy does seem to be, slowly but surely, reviving.

What do you think and see? My crystal ball is wearing out. In any case, one sure thing, I wish you all the best for an improved and constructive and happy New Year.

THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE RECALL

Recalls were held in 17 states, in 73 separate jurisdictions.
• The state with most was Michigan, with at least 30 recalls.
• 30 mayors faced recalls.
• 17 recalls were school boards.
• 11 were state legislators (by far the record -- the previous high was 3 in one year).
• 52 were city council members.
• One local prosecutor, York, Nebraska County Attorney, faced a recall.
• 34 jurisdictions held recalls on multiple days.
• Three jurisdictions adopted the recall

I got these statistics from an article in the Huffington Post called the Recall Blog, stating that recalls totaled in 2011 150, which is a pretty hefty number.

What is the significance of this number? First, it set a record---and the expectation is for this high trend to continue in 2012. Second, and most important, I think it indicates the sorry state of politics currently in America.

Politics is not attracting the high-caliber people needed but is appealing to many fast-buck glib types looking for an easy con and quick buck. If you make the right noises, playing to the crowd, you can create the illusion of “I have what this country needs”---only, most of the time, it isn’t. So many special interests have infested the political scene that it is hard to determine what and who is right. Washington has gained a reputation as a special club where influence, money and power make a potent cocktail. I’m afraid it’s true at the state and local levels, as well, but not so noticeably. The parasites and grubbers multiply in this kind of environment.

I would be happier if recall meant remembering our past glory and hoping for more in the future.

A HOLIDAY WISH

Well---what do you know? The Republicans finally were imbued with Christmas spirit and passed the temporary extension of the payroll tax! Santa Claus, masquerading as John Boehner, must have got to them and must have done some serious arm twisting or maybe reminded them that their adamant refusal was not good politics. If there is one thing politicos don’t want, it is to practice bad politics; it causes severe electoral pains. So, all those recalcitrant boys can slink home now and get in the Christmas mode.

This year coming to a close (thank God) has been filled with Hairbreadth Harry finishes, thanks to the antics of Congress. They have helped to screw up our credit rating as a country, they have made the rest of the world wonder at our political sanity, and they have disappointed a large percentage of American voters. Aside from that, they haven’t accomplished much.

Let us pray for 2012 that some good sense and willingness to face up and deal with our many problems suddenly rises to the top of the priority list. Can it supersede politics and the election? Probably not, but maybe they can squeeze some positives among all the negatives long enough to aid the recovery.

That’s a Christmas and New Year wish from the heart.

And all the best of holidays and a fine New Year to all of you.

JOY TO THE WORLD OF POLITICS ET AL.

I’m filling up with so much Christmas spirit that I can almost wish the Republican members of the House of Representatives a Merry Christmas. They have certainly given all of us a wonderful present: a tax increase of $1000, plus delayed unemployment benefits and pissed off a lot of doctors by delaying Medicare payments in the process. I hope that smiley elf called John Boehner is kept busy chasing the recalcitrants down and working on selling the compromise extension package. What a great group of misguided non-thinkers!

Ohio State got a nice present from the N.C.A.A. in adding more scholarship losses and no bowl game in 2012. I can’t waste too many crocodile tears on them. Urban is going to have to perform a lot of Urban renewal, it would appear, especially in recruiting.

A special chorus of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” should be sung to Newt Gingrich for redefining the Palestinians as a “contrived people”. Funny, I thought they had been around a few thousand years, but what do I know?

And special kudos to Mitt Romney, the political equivalent of Fred Astaire or Bojangles Robinson---the best tap dancer on the political stage.

And maybe I should include the whole Republican candidates’ debates: wholesome entertainment for the family. It makes a great puppet show featuring Punch and Judy beating on each other in the form of Rick Parry and Ron Paul---and then using Newt as the target. Michele Bachmann makes a great Scarecrow, or is it the Wicked Witch of the West?

One thing for sure---these politicos know how to keep us on our toes or on the edge of our seats. May Santa’s reindeers crap on them on the way back to the North Pole.

'TIS THE SEASON...

'Tis the season to be jolly, and all those good things of the Yuletide. We are preparing for the invasion of family: three of our four children with two spouses and four of six grandchildren. Needless to say, we have a houseful plus a condo full!

It is frantic but fun. Our three daughters take over the cooking and planning, taking pressure off my wife, who deserves a break after fifty-eight years of family Christmases. Actually, my daughters have been doing so the last few years, but now my wife welcomes the help and to have other people in charge. And this year we have a new family member: my eldest granddaughter's new husband, Tim, who will be a welcome addition.

We cram a lot into the days they are here. Naturally, the girls want to soak up the sun and get in a lot of beachtime. Our condo is right on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico only 120 feet from the water. The grandaughters spent their holidays here and have grown up with the kids of other condo owners, so it's old home week. The boys, son-in-laws and grandsons, love to go to a sports bar called the "Lazy Flamingo", noted for their Mesquite-grilled grouper sandwiches,. to-die-for seasoned French Fries, raw or fried oysters,spicy Conch Chowder and a plethora of beers.

We also go out for dinner a few times. We usually go out on a pontoon boat where we tour the waterways and islands around us. The sons-in-law have developed a tradition of doing a Seafood Feast Night where they purchase a wide variety of oysters, clams and other seafood goodies, including sometimes the product of successful deep sea fishing, which they prepare and serve.

As I say, it's frantic but fun---and what a holiday season should be---a chance for family to mingle and share the good times.

And that's what I wish all of you. Laissez les bons temps rouler,as they say in Louisiana. Happy holidays with good times, and let's hope a better New Year for the world.

ECONOMICS 101 OR MAYBE 102

“So we are isolated, are we? Cut off, locked out of the room, left on the sidelines, cast out of the inner core – and any other baleful metaphors you can think of. Well, Britain has stood alone before, as I recall, and we defended the idea of democracy in Europe then, too. But we need not get romantically heroic about it. We just have to ask ourselves: what is it exactly that we are outside of? A burning building? With only our triple-A credit rating and our competitive financial industry to console us?

What just happened, after all? We jumped off a bus that was hurtling toward a brick wall. When it eventually crashes, the driver(s) of the bus – who will survive, this being a metaphorical bus – will probably blame us, claiming that if it had not been for our failure to co-operate, the wall might have evaporated. The crash, when it comes, will be truly dreadful, and all the more tragic because a delusional European elite refused to accept its inevitability.”

These are the words of a very talented and incisive political commentator in U.K. named Janet Daly whom I have admired for a long time. She is American by birth, graduated from Berkeley as a flaming liberal, went to England in 1965 and morphed into a political analyst and commentator on the right. She is very bright and insightful, and the above lengthy quotation is part of her take on the euro crisis and Britain’s veto of the proposed new treaty.

Most Americans don’t give a damn about the euro---but, judging by the market reaction, they should., because it is affecting our financial world and economy, as well.

Back in the early nineties when the concept of the United States of Europe was born and the resultant establishment of a common European currency, the euro, the U.K. chose to be part of the European Economic Community (the E.E.C.) as a trading partner for obvious economic reasons but opted out of accepting the euro as currency. When Tony Blair was Prime Minister, he was very pro-European and wanted to push U.K. into making the euro the currency of U.K. and entering into full partnership in the E.E.C. One of the few sensible things Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer (like Secretary of the Treasury) did was to resist this idea and stayed with the pound sterling as the currency. He was not so sensible when he became Prime Minister, and England is still paying the price of the mountain of debt he accumulated, necessitating the austere fiscal policy under which they operate today.

David Cameron, the current Prime Minister had the courage to face reality and reject the new E.E.C. treaty where strict financial controls and sanctions for failure are part of the proposed treaty. If he had not rejected it, I might add, he would have probably been drawn and quartered by his own Tory party! But the point is, he did so, to his credit.

Janet Daly has hit the mark right on in her column: Europe is a runaway bus heading for disaster. Yes, they may exercise some financial controls to stop profligate economies from running amok, but they have not addressed the question of growth and economic stimulation. (Does this sound vaguely familiar?) Austerity will be the order of the day, but it will not cure the matter of kick-starting the economy to get things rolling with work and jobs. I think it is going to get messy.

So, take heart, people, we have lots of company in this chaotic economic world. We don’t have an exclusive on problems; in fact, next to Europe, we look pretty damned good. I recall the old adage: “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” I guess we’re the one-eyed jack.

A SHAGGY DOG STORY

I really miss not having a dog around. We haven't had one since I retired in 1995 due to the fact that spending three months of the summer in England isn't good or convenient for the dog or the owners. But now I don't think we'll be traveling that long or far.

For as long as I can remember when I was young we had dogs around the house. Where I was raised in Ohio, we had 24 acres, so it was ideal for kids and dogs. At one point, when I was eleven, we had ten dogs, and they never tried to kill each other.

The oldest was a black dachshund named Youser who was smart as a whip and greedy to the same degree. He would sit up on his haunches at the dinner table (back in the olden times when families sat and had dinner together), begging for a morsel. One time my middle brother teased him for a good five minutes before giving him a bite, and Youser never wavered. When Youser died at age ten in 1943, my father called my middle brother and me at our prep school in Pennsylvania to tell us. Youser was family.

The second was Sonia, a beautiful Great Dane bitch with the disposition of a lamb. She weighed about 180 pounds and was brindle-colored with unclipped ears. She used to race to meet the paper boy on his bicycle. If he was a new one, he would be ready to change his underwear at the sight of this behemoth hurtling toward him. Then she would sniff and lick his hand. Sonia was a lover, not a fighter and always a kid at heart. I remember playing in the snow with friends where we were chasing each other in a game of tag, and Sonia got in the act, leaped up on me, stealing the knit cap off my head and running away. looking over her shoulder at my prostrate body in the snow. Unfortunately, she either was poisoned or ate something that did so, and she died young.

The third was Rip, a black and white Cocker Spaniel, who was loveable but totally stupid, a characteristic many Cockers share from too much inbreeding. His main joy in life was to get thoroughy wet and then run through the woods and collect as many burrs as possible in his fur. I bet I spent hours detaching these burrs from his matted hide while he looked lovingly and gratefully at me, after which he would run outside and repeat the process.

Numbers four through nine were Bedlington Terriers, the English breed that look like lambs. Petzel was the name of the mother, and my father had her mated, and she whelped five male puppies. We gave away three to friends in another part of the country and kept two. They barely made it a year when they were shot by the police answering a complaint from a farmer-neighbor, a reclusive old bastard who claimed they were hurting his sheep. What doubtless happened was they ran into his yard and were chasing and playing with the sheep, and the sheep, stupid as always, would simply roll on the ground and be helpless. We were pretty pissed off at the police for a good while.

Number ten was shortlived in terms of residing with us, named Buck, a liver and white spotted Pointer who was three. Dad decided it would be nice to have a hunting dog available. but there was one small problem: this dog hated and would bite anyone except Dad and me, for some unknown reason. The other dogs shied away from him, as well. As you can imagine Buck didn't live here any more for long.

In our own time as parents, my wife and I had a series of dogs, usually one a time, although back in the sixties we did have two a couple of times. we had a wonderful Wirehaired Fox Terrier named Yankee---I believe we got him around the fourth of July; hence, the choice of names. He was stolen. Then we had another, Wirehair, Tigerlily, who got hit by a car.

Then we had two Minature Poodles, ChouChou and Brioche. ChouChou got hit by a car, survived but had her brain ratttled. My brother had a male poodle, so his kids and mine thought it would be a great idea to have a family wedding between our poodles. My son, about eight, was the priest, and my two daughters and a girl cousin were bridesmaids, while two male cousins were ushers. the service was held in our basement. With both families seated in this "chapel", the bride came down the aisle and must have been a bit overwrought, as she squatted to crap.

Then we had Duke, a big and lovable Alsatian hybrid, He also got poisoned, perhaps by some putrified carcass,who knows? He was a clown and ate for three. He was joined by another brown Minature Poodle, Charlie Brown, acquired in 1969 from an old friend. Charlie was everyone's favorite. He had an undershot jaw and crooked bite so that, even when his mouth was closed, you saw a small protuberance of teeth on his left side. Charlie fancied himself as a great hunter, and his rasping bark filled the air as he futilely chased squirrels and rabbits around the neighborhood. He was also very independent and showed affection only when he was in the mood. As he aged---he lived to 15---he mellowed out and became very warm. Like so many dogs, his greatest pleasure was riding in the front seat next to me with his head out the window. In his last two years he had seizures and had to be medicated daily. Finally in 1984 he could not fight the good fight, and I had him put down. I was alone in the house at the time with my wife in Florida and my kids grown or away at college, and I spent a weekend alone grieving, not going out of the house. I still keep his picture by my computer.

The last dog was Red, an Irish Setter bitch, whom my middle daughter had obtained through an ex-boyfriend, and she gave him to us to keep when Red was four in 1984. She was an endearing airhead who would wander off and be missing for a day or two until someone would call, having noted her name and phone on her collar, to say Red was in their house. One time we had two days of heavy rain and Red was missing. Sure enough, I received a call; the man heard my voice and called me by name, and I recognized his voice as an old friend from our church. In her last years I believe Red had a series of mini-strokes which slightly affected her gait. She used to sleep in the basement in her own bed, One summer night a huge thunderstorm with lots of lightning scared the hell out of her, and she raced up the stairs where the basement door must have been ajar, tore down the hall to our bedroom and jumped in-between my wife and me in our king-sized bed, making a perfect landing, whimpering and shaking as we consoled her. We used to drive to Toledo to stay with a daughter and family, and Red would spend part of the trip in the backseat, standing with her head resting on my shoulder while I drove. My granddaughter reminded me that my son, in Red's older years, on occasions would take some auburn dye and paint Red's whiskers to hide the grey! After I retired in October of 1995, we departed a month later for Florida and left her with my step-mother, who loved her dearly. In less than a month we got a call that Red had died.

So, that's my canine history. After sixteen years, maybe we're ready again. Then again, you have to be careful on an island with crocodiles. Many stories abound of dogs lost that way. We'll have to ponder this one awhile.

A MODEST PROPOSAL

After incessant months of campaign rhetoric I am compelled to comment, because I know we have almost a year more of such persiflage, hyperbole and just plain bullshit to endure before the 2012 elections. I think it a tragic waste of time, talent and treasure to endure this lengthy political rite of passage every two to four years. I realize that the candidates need to perform, to show off their expertise (or lack thereof), and to attempt to convince the voters of their unique qualifications for office. It is particularly painful when a Presidential election is at hand. The Republican debates are a case in point; how long must we suffer this process of self-expression to be followed by an interminable series of primaries.

I believe we are the only nation in the world to make the Presidential electoral process last almost two years. Of course, I should admit, a lot of the world does not have an electoral process, so we should be grateful for this manifestation of democracy in action. In the U.K. and France, for example, the electoral process takes no more than three months. Now I realize, geographically, we have a much greater area and population to cover, but surely we could do it in, say, nine months. After all, nine months is the normal gestation period, so it would be reasonable, if you can whelp in that time, to produce a winning candidate in that time from that great womb of politics. Think of the time and money we could save, not to mention the peace and quiet we could anticipate by this abridged process.

Another thing, while I’m on a roll: why not push for an amendment to the Constitution to lengthen the term in the House of Representatives from two to four years? In reality, members of the House spend one year working (reputedly) and the second year running for office, in reality. Maybe this way we could get three good years out of their legislative effort.

I don’t want to set the world on fire, as the old song says, but I would like to start a small bonfire under the pants of our political candidates. I believe it would restore some reasonableness to the process and free up time for achieving the end game of politics called governing and enacting legislation. Do you remember that process? I think I do, barely.

IN MEMORIAM: JERRY STEEGE

All of us here are mourning the loss of a dear friend, Harrison "Jerry" Steege, who died last Wednesday from the ravages of pulmonary fibrosis at 79. He had suffered from this malady for some years, but it was only within the last two years that it really affected his lifestyle where he was dependent on his tank of portable oxygen and living in a home which contained a network of tubes connected to his oxygen supply.

Jerry was truly the proverbial man of many parts. He was an Internist, a doctor in the Philadelphia area for many years. At some point many years ago in his medical career, he became an ardent Christian---not a lip service "I-go-to-church-every-Sunday" type of Christian but one whose life was infused and activated by a faith that motivated his every action. He was not sanctimonious: he had a great sense of humor leavening his lifestyle. I'm sure his compassionate manner, reinforced by his faith, must have been a source of comfort to his patients.

He was active in Faith Alive, an evangelical force within the Christian churches and often traveled to many cities to stimulate faith in action at Faith Alive meetings in a wide variety of churches. He was an articulate and inspiring speaker who could discuss his faith without embarrassment and with total sincerity. He did not wear his faith on his sleeve; it was woven into the fabric of the man.

He was also the possessor of a superb bass voice and was active in Philadelphia and here on Sanibel Island and the Fort Myers area in singing groups. In our church choir he was the anchor as well as our chief soloist. Earlier this year he finally had to give up singing because the demands on his breathing were excessive, and he could not sustain his voice. Our choir suffered a great loss. As a tenor in this choir, I was always reassured to hear his deep voice beside or behind me. He also "warmed us up" before choir rehearsals where his deep knowlege of singing techniques worked to improve our sound.

He also these last three years has been the guiding force behind a group of men in our church,called the Men's Ministry, who meet twice a month for an early light breakfast at 7:30 a.m., and then each member takes a turn presenting a program, after which we break into groups to discuss the program and then report our conclusions. Jerry kept us together and was our great communicator in reminding us of meetings and who was the speaker and who was responsible to bring the food that week. We sometimes as a group go on a retreat, and Jerry was always there with pertinent insights and unfailing good cheer.

Anyone who came into contact with Jerry Steege knew that him as an extraordinary and gifted man. Anyone who knew him was touched by him. Our hearts go out to his wonderful wife, Christine, and his family. We have lost a great man. God has regained one of His best creations.

E.O.M. SPORTING RUMINATIONS

Well, sports fans, it’s been quite a month, I must say.

First, we had the Battle of the Titans. L.S.U. vs. Bama in a boring game, unless you enjoy war in the trenches as represented by two superb defenses.

Then we end the month with L.S.U. putting on a show of offense, after sleeping through the first quarter and falling behind 14-0 but waking up in time to wallop Arkansas 41-17 and authoritatively establish their unanimous choice as #1.

In between several major contenders fell by the wayside with Oklahoma losing twice, Oklahoma State once, Boise State down one and Stanford falling to Oregon. Now all we need is for Georgia to beat L.S.U. next Saturday to totally muddy the waters for the B.C.S.

The Big Ten finally sorted itself out to two contenders who meet next Saturday: Wisconsin vs. Michigan State. The Michigan-Ohio State turned, much to my surprise, into a doozie; I expected the Wolverines to rout them. But the two best teams are meeting for the title.

Will a B.C.S. title game between L.S.U. and Alabama be a scoring fest next time?

In other sports, basketball is off to a roaring start with a host of good collegiate teams getting warmed up. And UConn getting knocked off---what an early season shocker! In the meantime, the N.B.A. finally sorts itself out and will have a good part of a season. Baseball, surprise of surprises, reaches a long-term agreement quickly. David Stern better check to see what they were smoking.

Roger Federer, the old man at thirty, reels off seventeen straight matches to win three tourneys, including the year-ending prestigious ATP Tennis Championship where the top eight point finishers play off in a round robin format----and Roger doesn’t lose a match and is back at number three in the world. Plus he crushed his old nemesis, Rafa Nadal, en route to the title, 6-3, 6-0!

And the N.F.L., to say the least, has been lively. The Packers continue to be the class of the league, but I think someone will knock ‘em off before the end of the regular season. Aaron Rodgers is in some kind of nirvana as a quarterback with his unreal q.b. rating. New Orleans seems to be shaping up, while Houston is showing real class. The Niners continue to surprise while the Chargers disappoint. I don’t think the Brady Brunch will make it all the way in spite of Tom’s usual outstanding credentials. And Tim Tebow is living proof of the power of prayer. Dallas seems to be the Kardiac Kids. Pittsburgh has got its work cut out, particularly after so many injuries, trying to stop the Ravens. And my Browns continue only improving by millimeters---not enough. The Lions better put Suh on a tranquilizer. Sanchez finally had a good day for the Jets but maybe too late. The Giants are doubtful unless they reach new heights in December.

December and the New Year will keep us on our toes. Who will do what to whom? It’ll be fun finding out.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

I hope all of you had a good Thanksgiving weekend. My wife, visiting daughter and I drove across Florida to join another daughter and family on the east coast for a very fine time. Believe me, we needed it.

The earlier part of the week was not so good, as I received an email from England and the realtor who advised me that, at the last possible minute, the proposed buyer of our English house, had withdrawn her offer because she discovered, in a surveyor’s report, that an electrical substation servicing a nearby college was located about 75 yards from our house, and she was alarmed by “an adverse health risk”. What a bummer! This substation is located near the bank of garages servicing our series of six town houses. It is a very small substation, contained within a link fence of maybe 20 square feet, I might add.

I pointed out to her in an email that it is not as if a grid of power lines was looming over the house and that the history of this complex is filled with people living into their eighties and nineties; in fact I listed the age of the occupants over the last thirty years in each of the six town houses and no one died less than 80! Of course, this will mean nothing to this silly cow who has a fixed fear in her head. So, back to square one by informing the realtors and getting them back in the hunt for a new buyer. In the meantime, the house is empty, except for a few items the buyer had said she would buy. We could have rented the house furnished temporarily until a sale was made, but now that is out of the question.

English real estate law is similar to ours in that either party can get out before a contract is signed, but in England there is no “earnest money” paid by the buyer at the start but only after exchange of contracts is made. We were in that latter process. And here the resemblance ends. Then in England they put a deposit down and later the full amount. The whole process is unnecessarily laborious and unfair for the seller. So, I’m literally out time and money.

Such is life. You pick up the pieces and carry on.

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT

Every day, in every media we are showing the strain. It is a worldwide phenomenon where dissidents the world over express their outrage at loss of freedom or the state of the economy---and the world, for that matter.

Here in the U.S.A. the demonstrations of the “Occupy Wall Street” have infected the whole country with growing demonstrations in major cities. I even read of one case in Memphis, Tennessee where “Occupy Memphis” proponents found some common ground with the Tea Party (can you believe it?), at least in their discontent with the state of the economy and the government. Adversity doth create strange bedfellows on occasions…

A few nights ago, I stayed up long enough---rare for me---to watch on P.B.S. the Charlie Rose Show where Charlie always has interesting and challenging guests. One of these guests the night I watched was Lawrence Lissig, a Harvard Professor who has just published a new book, “Republic Lost: How Congress Corrupts Politics and How to Fix it.” Charlie was questioning in his usual trenchant way about the book, and I became intrigued.

The essence of Lissig’s theme was the dreadful state of decay and total governmental paralysis in Congress, the major cause of which, according to Lissig, is the corrupting power of money, or “funders”, as he referred to them, on Congress, which has become totally compromised. The Super-Pacs and Lobbyists use their greedy hands to peddle their influences and extend their hold on Congressional personnel, who have a good thing going and don’t want to kill the golden goose. I was so impressed by his discussion that I ordered the book on amazon.com and am looking forward to reading it.

The idea isn’t original with Lissig; many of us have felt this way for a long time: that the power of the elite and moneyed .001 is pervading and abusing our government. How many times have you received an email, deploring the privileged benefits Congress has bestow upon itself and calling for reform, which is highly unlikely with the proverbial foxes guarding the henhouse, unless a political tsunami sweeps away the existing Congress? And it’s not simply Congress. The Executive branch is not above benefiting with political favors those who support them. Plus, we have a Supreme Court that I think is now tilted to support the status quo and resist change. It is not a charming portrait of government.

I’m usually a glass-half-full kind of guy, but I must say I have never been more worried about our country---and the world---than now. We have lived through World Wars, a Cold War and regional wars in our lifetime, but I have never had such a feeling of impending disaster, which, I suspect, will be an economic one and could have all of us at each other’s throats in a chaotic world. This feeling of malaise keeps growing stronger; I feel like I’m living near the edge of a precipice.

This is a new feeling for me, and I hope I’m dead wrong. I hope we can come to our senses and begin to right some wrongs. We need bipartisan cooperation to stimulate the economy; we need fiscal regulation to control the greedy impulses of a few; we need to push for democracy in the world and not by military might; we need to work internationally together to solve fiscal, climatic and political problems. I am fed up with any reforms being put off until the 2012 election---and then I wonder what and if the changes will be.

I don’t enjoy the winter of my discontent.

INTIMATIONS OF MORTALITY

More frequently than ever, I am reminded of my mortality, although I have been blessed with exceptionally good health for my age. My primary doctor told me the other day my body is ten years or more younger than my actual age, and I am told I don't look my age. The fact remains, I'm a mid-Octogenerian.

My doctor also told me my genes are catching up with me. My father in his elder years had diabetes, and my blood sugar is elevated enough for my doctor to warn me to alter my lifestyle, unless, in his words, I want "to prick, prick, prick a lot". I don't have diabetes but am in the potentially dangerous zone.

All my family have terrific sweet tooths, lapping up chocolate, pies,cookies,ice cream---you name it. Now I have to start being sensible and make the sweet tooth an occasional luxury. I also have to watch the carbs----bread, pasta, pizza, beer, booze and the like. Fortunately, my wife doesn't use a lot of white flour or white rice, preferring whole grains and brown rice, which are lower in carbohydrate percentages. I'm sure one of the contributors to my elevation in blood sugar has been the summers in England where the desserts (puddings, as the Brits call them), heavy cream and great beer no doubt sabotage my blood sugar.

I also have had for some time a swelling above my left ankle. it may be a lymph node problem or, I found out yesterday after seeing a vein specialist my primary doctor referred me to, edema. I had an ultrasound of my legs and will see the specialist again in early January. In the meantime, he suggests I wear support hose and see if this helps. He feels he can take action to fix it. Since I wear shorts most of the time, I'm going to look pretty silly in support hose! I don't have pain and can still follow my normal gym and other active routines, so I'm not suffering.

As an old fart, these are really not major problems. I have been extremely lucky compared to most people my age. It's simply little reminders that the body parts don't last forever and the machine ultimately breaks down. I'll try a good maintenance program and see if I can extend the warranty a bit longer.

STRICTLY FOR THE BIRDS

Periodically I like to keep you abreast of what is happening in our bird world.

As you may remember, if you have read this column for any length of time, we have a dead palm tree right next to our house, about fifteen or sixteen feet in height which has been inhabited for several years by red-crested woodpeckers. Later, we had a screech owl making his home there, but I don't think the woodpeckers made good neighbors, so he (or she) moved over to a neighboring strangler fig tree in front of our house. One of my neighbors had a creche outside his house at Christmas last year and came out one day to find the screech owl next to baby Jesus.

The woodpeckers are still going strong. Every morning , as I awaken around seven, I hear a drumming on the metal flashing around our chimney, and I know that one of the males is demonstrating his machismo. This drumming is to attract the females, just like some jock on a playing field preening and showing off for his chick. We put out some birdseed on a corner of our porch for our tenants as a neighborly gesture. One day I saw from our powder room window which overlooks the tree and that corner of the porch one of the females was partaking of the seed when a bigger male pileated woodpecker, whom I had never seen before or since, appeared and chased her away so he could eat. Then a crow arrived, and they eyed each other warily like a couple of old gunslingers before the pileated woodpecker moved on.

Then last week, as I was making my early morning potty call, what do I see out the window but a really big red-shouldered hawk, perched on top of the palm, surveying the kingdom. He was magnificent and looked every inch the part of the predator king of the neighborhood. One of my neighbors has seen him, and one day witnessed a fight for a fish between an osprey, an eagle and the hawk---and the hawk won that round!
I have seen him on the perch a couple of more times and called for my wife, but, by the time she got there, he was gone. Then, a couple of evenings ago, as we were backing out of the garage, lo and behold he was sitting on a telephone box on the edge of our property, and she got to see him before he swiftly winged off.

I haven't seen the woodpeckers for a few days, but I know they're around because of the drumming on the roof. I suspect they are still in the palm but lay low when the Godfather comes around.

I'm looking forward to new faces and new adventures in the bird kingdom. It's great entertainment!


P.S. My techie grandson came to visit and changed my music, which was overdue. Hope you like it. Go to the list below for your choice of ten.

BIRTHDAY MUSINGS

I turn 84 today and, in the timeless words of former Prime Minister Clement Atlee, when asked how it feels to be 80, he replied, "Considering the alternatives, it feels rather good". My back acts up occasionally, my arthritis flares---but I'm here and still have my mind--- I think.

I'm the same age as Joe Paterno, but I'm sure I will have a much better day than he. I had sense enough some years ago to realize that my prime was past and it was time to retire. Joe read too many of his press notices and stayed too long. A movement to encourage him to retire surfaced in 2004, but he rode it out. It's one thing to want to continue to contribute to the world and keep occupied, but you have to realize when the hour to hang it up has come. Joe's came some time ago. Now enforced retirement---firing under a euphemism---is the only course of action. and what is left has badly tarnished the reputation of a university and permanently scarred too many young lives. What an unecessary and tragic waste.

My friend, Grumpy, wrote one of his usually wry and perceptive commentaries the other day on Bill Clinton and how good that era was. He's right---to some extent---and I agree that Bill Clinton intellectually was extremely bright. (His wife may be even brighter...) Bill Clinton was also extremely lucky to come along at a time when economic forces were on the rise, and he was smart enough to let them run. But I also hold him responsible for assisting in making the moral compass go awry. The seeds of our increasing immorality were already there; he simply personified them at the highest level.

I'm not talking so much about sexual morality as ethical morality, our value system. Why can't we fudge the rules a bit if we can make an extra buck. Screw the little guy---what's he done for us recently? Maybe fought a few wars, but that's history. The brass rule, not the golden: do unto others before they do it unto you. Recent political and business facts of life bear out my concern.

Actually, I think the roots of this moral decay go back to the Nixon era and Watergate when the great disillusionment set in. Then came the Gipper's time: Ronald Reagan personally was a decent man,but his administration set the tone for a selfish individualism which stretched the rules---it's O.K. if it felt good and if it worked. It never got any better under later administrations.

I'm so old I can remember (barely) a time when, if you shook hands, you had a deal. Want to try that today?

Forgive the rantings of an old man. i would simply like, in my remaining years, to see a return to CIVILITY, the ability to agree or disagree by listening to each other when in discussion, I'd like to see HONESTY, facing up to truth and dealing with problems. I'd like to see MORALITY, living within ethical standards when we deal with each other.

As I blow out the candles (with several breaths, I'm sure), I'll make that my wish.

POWER PLAYS

Isn’t it amazing the recent rash of sexual allegations or, to use Bill Clinton’s classic adjective, “inappropriate” behaviour. First, Herman Cain gets accused of harassment and inappropriate advances which he has exacerbated by his clumsy handling of the whole situation. Now we get the sad and disgusting allegations against Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno’s longtime assistant and defensive specialist at Penn State, who has seemed to demonstrate another kind of specialty, accused of being a deviant sexual predator with young boys.

I’ve quoted before Henry Kissinger’s famous maxim, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Being in a position of responsibility gives the perpetrator a sense of invulnerability---I’m powerful and can do what I want. And sometimes that works for the benefit of the power broker, but, then again, it can backfire.

It is incredible how unzipping your fly can create seismic world changes on occasions. Look at Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, Napoleon and Josephine, Paris and Helen of Troy, to name a few obvious world shakers and movers. Then there are the just plain tawdry ones like JFK and Marilyn (among others), Bill and Monica, Eliot and the D.C. hooker. That tiny portion of the total anatomy has a disproportionately huge effect on occasions.

I think the Sandusky accusations particularly sad and capable of sullying the reputation of a very fine university, State University of Pennsylvania, and their legendary coach, Joe Paterno. Paterno had nothing to do with the sordid mess, but it certainly appears that his casual handling of the problem does not reflect well on his judgment. He fulfilled his legal requirements, but I don’t think he fulfilled his moral responsibility. Maybe at his advanced age he just doesn’t want to deal with it, but that is not a solution or resolution of the problem. I thought Ohio State’s recent mess a classic in mishandling; now it is more than matched by Penn State with many young lives tragically affected.

Sometimes I despair at the amorality and immorality so prevalent today. Maybe it’s always been that way, but we seem to have more than our fair share these days. It can drive a man to drink.

Bartender, make it a double.

THE SILLY SEASON

Well, the world moves on, as population hits 7 billion. I’m glad I won’t be around in 2050 or so when it hits 20 billion! Sales of deodorant should hit new highs…

In the mean time, in our current world, we keep seeing the human comedy (or tragedy, depending on your viewpoint) whirling on like the merry-go-round life is. And the horses asses of the world continue as models of consistency.

I see that paragon of goodness and world benefactor, Kim Kardashian, is divorcing her husband, the N.B.A. Nets Kris Humphries after 72 days of marriage. Why was this not hard to predict? After the lavish and hyperbolic wedding, reality sets in. I hate to see marriage treated like a commodity on the market, bought and sold as the spirit moves you.

Congratulations to Michelle Bachman for her latest gem: that she doesn’t really care about the kids of emigrants being citizens. This woman invented foot-in-mouth disease. Ed Rollins, her former campaign manager, says she is “out of money and ideas”. Even the Tea Party don’t want her.

Congress and the Presidential candidates continue to put the emphasis on all the wrong concepts. Quit debating the health plan, emigration and tax formulae---just debate how to get jobs going and nudge the economy upward and onward. For once, put the good of the people ahead of partisan politics.

And the Super-Committee, charged with coming up with a fiscal plan to balance the budget ultimately, seems to be bogged down in partisan intransigence. Isn’t the idea of a bipartisan committee that both sides give a little? What am I missing?

And I note our dear friends, those pillars of American enterprise, the big banks, like Morgan Chase and B of A, are doing their usual p.r. miracles by charging fees for using debit cards---and then backpedaling furiously when the people---shock of shocks---revolt! Paul Volcker, the former fed Chairman and august pundit of matters economic, says the size of these banks need to be reduced and strict regulations applied. This man was one of your advisers, Mr. President, are you listening?

9-9-9 or solid 20. Come on, guys, get serious and really study improvements to the tax code. Cute gimmicky numbers aren’t the answer. Parry is spending too much time extricating his foot from his mouth and now Herman Cain has to tap dance around these recent sexual allegations.

Ah yes, the silly season is in full swing.

One wonderful note: Mona Simpson’e eulogy for her brother, Steve Jobs, and quoting his last words: Oh, wow,” repeated three times. Do you think he saw what we hope we’ll see? That warms an old man’s heart. And that’s a good note to go out on.

NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER

It was a great World Series with one of the most exciting games, game six, matched only, arguably, by the famous Red Sox-Reds game six of 1975 when Carleton Fisk waved his home run fair. The final game I expected: the Rangers left their hearts on the field the night before, while the Cards were psyched up.

The Rangers stayed close for a few innings, but that disastrous three-run "gift" caused by three walks and two hit-by-pitcher sounded the death knell. A sad way to go out.

Actually, the relief pitching, one of the Rangers' fortes all year, went south in the series, and there was the difference. Clutch performances such as Scott Carpenter's pitching under pressure in the seventh game was a superb addition.

Having a mid-America series was a real treat. It's nice to know that money can't always buy happiness, so the Yanks and the Phillies sat this one out, while the Red Sox died a premature death in September. The Heartland has had a rough economic time for many years, and this psychological shot-in-the-arm was good for what ails us.

I have an affinity for the Cards, because they have a similar background to my beloved Cincinnati Reds: both river towns, German-burgher mentalities, big on culture and sports, hotter than hell in the summer, even though they hate each other right now, probably because they are so much alike!

At the same time, it would not have bothered me if the Rangers had lost their virginity and won a national championship. Nolan Ryan and his boys are doing a great job of building carefully and sytematically a dynasty.

In any case, the National Pastime got a good shot in the arm and is alive and well. Who says baseball is as exciting as watching grass grow?

HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN

I know many of you are bored by tennis, but enough of you are nuts about it as I am. You can remember when the U.S.A. dominated the singles game, going way back to Bill Tilden, Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonsalez, Tony Trabert, Vic Seixas, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, et al. Them days are gone forever or, at least, a helluva long time. In doubles, the current Bryan Brothers may be the best team ever.

In women, we have a similar tradition, going back to Helen Wills Moody, Alice Marble, Pauline Betz, Doris Hart, Maureen Connolly, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova (though Czech-born),Lindsay Davenport, The Williams sisters, et al. Same problem as the men---not many ranked players left.

Here are the current rankings of American men in the top 100: #8---Mardy Fish, #14---Andy Roddick, #23---John Isner, #36---Alex Bogomolov, Jr., #43---Donald Young, #60---James Blake,#73---Ryan Harrison, #93---Michael Russell. Note, one guy in the top ten.

For the ladies, #12---Serena Williams, #42---Christine McHale, #54---Bethany Mattek-Sands, #72---Irini Falconi. #77---Vania King, #92---Sloane Stephens. Got that? Nobody in the top ten. Incidentally, Venus Williams has dropped out due to injuries, but her best days are past.

What happened? Well, first, the rest of the world caught up and took up tennis with a passion. Look at the Russians, the Czechs, the Serbians and Croatians, the French, the Italians, the Argentines and Colombians, and especially the Spanish. In women the Chinese are coming on strong, and you can probably expect the men to make a big noise soon. The Aussies, once a powerhouse in tennis, have been in the doldrums, although a few new names are coming on strong. Even the Brits have a #3 in Andy Murray!

Second, the proliferation of competing sports like golf, in particular, track and field, soccer, rugby and the like siphoned off a lot of participants worldwise.

Third, America has individual training camps like Nick Bolleteri in Florida who has trained many of the world's best players, but no coordinated national program to develop talent. The Czechs, Serbs, Russians, Spanish and French put real emphasis on this, and the results are apparent.

It's a pattern we have known before. Witness Basketball, a truly international game now. We still tend to dominate when we seriously train and put a national team together who learn to play like a team and not as individual egos. If we don't, we have seen what has happened. Look at the number of international players in the N.B.A. now.

Golf is a another case in point. A few years ago eight out of the ten top spots in golf were Yanks. As of today. it's half of that with none in the top three.

It seems to be the way of the world, but it saddens me not to have a few Americans on top. Maybe next year, as we say in baseball!

OUR VALUE SYSTEM

Do you get as concerned as I about some of the misplaced values in this current world of ours? I'm sure you do.

Here is a prime example. I read in the Huffington Post a column by Dan Solin, which really touched a nerve.

He mentions a guy in Shreveport LA named Roy Brown, who faked a stick-up in a bank (he pretended he had a gun), took $100.00 and told the teller he was homeless and needed food. He turned himself in the next day, stating he was not raised to be a criminal, and was later sentenced to fifteen years.

Then Solin mentions the one I was so hot about in my last blog, "The New Alice in Wonderland", where Citigroup was fined 385 mill and made to reimburse investors whose subprime mortgages Citigroup bet against by selling short. No jail, just a fine, which is like a slap on the wrist to these big firms who plead nolo contendere and walk away.

Then he mentions the countless real estate scams involving billions of dollars where the criminal sentences range from three months to eight years.

Is something wrong here? Is this the result of money and influence prostituting justice? It makes one appreciate the sentiments of The Occupy Wall Street protesters still making noises and gaining converts.

Another example to me of misplaced power and values are these new so-called "Super-Pacs", the latest legal way to get around the ban on large individual and corporate gifts. What really changes except the name? I also note both parties have 'em!

When money means power and power means influence---it's as old as time---you run this risk. I don't like what it means today in this lightning world of instant communication where everything happens quicker.

The value system becomes invalid.

THE NEW ALICE IN WONDERLAND

"FOR Goldman Sachs, it was losses in private equity. For Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, it was a decline in the spread between what they pay for deposits and what they get on assets. For Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, it was the accounting lunacy that allowed them to extract profits from a decline in the value in their own debt."

This quote is from "The Economist", the beginning lines of an article entitled "Darkness Visible" regarding the woes of the banks.

Bank of America fell off its perch as numero uno, replaced by JPMorganChase. Both of them are having problems. Citigroup was found guilty and fined for the problems it shares with Morgan and Bank of America, putting together high-risk sub-prime loans in portfolios and then betting they would go down! They only were fined 95 mill but had to reimburse suing investors principal plus interest.

Can you believe this kind of chicanery and hypocrisy? To screw your investors and make money against them! That old-fashioned and obviously obsolete word comes to mind---MORALITY---where the hell did it go?

It's shades of George Orwell and 1984: right is wrong, war is peace, lies are truth.

What kind of hole has the modern Alice fallen into?

THE DEEP ABYSS

“Median family income, adjusted for inflation, grew only about one fifth as much between 1980 and 2007 as it did in the generation following World War II, even though the postwar economy was marked both by strict financial regulations and by much higher tax rates on the wealthy than anything under current political discussion.”

This quotation from Princeton Economist and columnist for “The New York Times” Paul Krugman really shocked me. Klugman cited these statistics in a column in “The Times” called Losing Their Immunity regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement. The far right despises the Nobel laureate Krugman as a damned socialist and liberal. Krugman does not bandy about false statistics or information, believe me.

In his article Krugman points out the hypocrisy of the financial community in espousing how much they have done for the American economy and understands the wrath of Occupy Wall Street movement, which, it would appear, is now a national movement, at least in major urban areas.

1980 was the beginning of the Reagan era and Supply-side Economics. After George H.W. Bush lost the 1990 election by his famous reversal of “Read my Lips---No Tax Increase” and raising taxes, Bill Clinton got in. We were in a period of booming economic growth, and Bill Clinton was content not to screw around (economically, that is!) with this boom. Then we got W., and you know the rest of the story: the draining of our economy in two wars, the financial meltdown and the beginning of the worst Recession or mini-Depression since the big one in the thirties. And now we are in that wonderful era of Do-Nothing-Just-Screw-Obama by the Republicans, plus, I admit, Obama has not frequently helped his own cause.

Here we are with the top one percent getting richer all the time while middle and lower income people struggle to subsist. If income growth between 1980 and 2007 was one fifth of the previous era, what the hell is it now between 2008 and 2011? Don’t ask…

I would not be surprised if the Occupy Wall Street movement nurtures the seeds of an even broader revolt against the financial status quo. Certainly the polls demonstrate that the vast majority of Americans is fed up with the inaction of politicians. I think it could grow bigger and better than the Tea Party whose sole aim seems to be just cut the heart out of governmental expenses. Wouldn’t it be interesting if it galvanized some political action to take economic action?

Most of this country is in a deep abyss. Can someone throw a rope down there and help people?

IT’S 1940 ALL OVER AGAIN

It’s like living in 1940. I can listen to the radio but cannot use my television or my computer.

It all started last evening, after returning from a birthday party for a dear friend., I tried to turn on the TV and, behold, a framed message from Comcast informed me that my service was interrupted and to call their 888 number. The last time I tried that, I waited over thirty minutes to reach a human being, and I was too tired to go through that Mickey Mouse procedure last night. So, this morning, bright and early, I got through, almost immediately. I was instructed by a very earnest and patient woman customer service person that I needed to get the serial number off all three of my digital adapters, a recent addition to my television sets. Comcast in the middle of June made these adapters a necessity to get the full range of channels. Since we were away for the summer and my TVs were “on vacation”, I didn’t have these adapters installed until our return in September. Two surly types came a couple of weeks ago and installed these gadgets, as if they were doing me a big favor, working me into their busy schedule.

Back to today, I barely had time to drink my black coffee, an absolute necessity to get my old body working. I shuffled from one room to two others, trying to read the microscopic serial numbers on the bottom of these 2 1/2” adapters, finally resorting to a magnifying glass to decipher them. The patient lady said it could be defective adapters or, possibly, the cable to my house may be in bad shape. I’m rooting for defective adapters, which will be gratis, whereas a worn-out cable will be at my expense. She then said she would have technicians come to our house tomorrow, the earliest they could come. I bowed to the inevitable.

I then went to my computer and was able to check my mail online. Among other messages was an email from our lawyer in U.K. that I needed to refill some forms regarding the sale of our house there and that then the deal could be consummated. I barely had time to answer her and thank her when my computer cut out. and I have been unable, all day, to use it. I tried all the old tricks of pulling the plugs on the router and the modem and then, after three minutes, reconnecting them---to on avail. So, the Comcast man will have double duty, and I’ll probably get stuck with an invoice, anyway.

Tonight, my wife and I will have conversations over a drink, as is our usual wont, and then, after dinner, we’ll talk some more and read. I can think of worse ways to spend an evening a good old-fashioned way

THE NEW (BUT REALLY OLD) REALITY

What is it with so many frustrated types living in the “reality” shows of today? I guess it’s a kind of voyeurism, a Peeping Tom complex that lies dormant in us and then is awakened to action when titillated.

Who gives a ratsass if Kim Kardashian got married? She’s a pretty girl with a good body, granted, and she’s married now to this beanpole. Who cares what narcicisstic antic Paris Hilton is currently into? What have Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton contributed to the betterment of the world? If they are so clever as to glean all this publicity and garner followers sighing at their every move, couldn’t they do something of constructive value?

Maggie Furlong, on AOL TV wrote an amusing column about the planned four-hour Kardashian wedding and what alternatives you might have. One choice in that time span was to take sixteen showers. Not a bad idea…

Publicity seeking is a disease. Some avid seekers are successful. Look at Madonna. She may be out in space some part of the time, but she has made a contribution to the world in her art of singing and acting. That gives her a few credentials for opinions, even if some seem wacky. Or Lady Gaga---offbeat but talented.

In England they are as nutso as we about “reality” programs. One of the biggest is “Big Brother” where a bunch of lowlifes live together and the camera records every moment of their action, except perhaps going to the bathroom—and that may be on the agenda later.

Thoreau said it more than a hundred years ago: “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” And to watch a gaggle of publicity hounds avidly sniffing their way to notoriety is, to me, quiet desperation.

But then I am a bit of a curmudgeon.

QUO VADIS?

A treasurehouse of commentary has been written to eulogize the death of Steve Jobs, the visionary, innovator, independent thinker and genius. He epitomizes the best in America---the pioneer iconoclast who ignores the conventional wisdom and forages ahead, defying the odds.

In one of the obits, I read an interesting observation: the iPhones and iPads have inscribed on them words to the effect of "Designed in Silicon Valley, California, Made in China". That is an tronic epitaph for our times. We,the great inventors and innovators of the last one hundred years, now send our best ideas to China to be converted into real objects. Fifty years ago, this occurred---but only rarely. Yes, we brought cheap toys and china from Japan and China, but the manufacturing base in America was one of the bulwarks of our society.

How did this happen? Well, start with the maxim that business chases profit: go where you can make it cheaper and maximize your return. My own background is a case in point. My grandfather bought control in 1900 of an underwear manufacturer started the year before in our small town in Ohio. By the middle of the century, we were the largest employer in the town. A partner and I sold the company in the seventies to a midwestern conglomerate,who were excellent accountants and lousy marketers. By the late nineties the business was gone. Now I can put part of the blame on the lack of marketing expertise, but an equal part must be ascribed to the textile business going overseas to Asia.

New England was the original cradle of American textiles; then, in the twenties and thirties, it moved to the south. (We were always an anachronism, being located in the midwest, along with competitiors Jockey and Munsingwear, but the main business had gone south.) In the seventies the trend started to snowball downhill away from the U.S.A.

Another example: the last company I worked for, an Ohio-based manufacturer of jackets who had five manufacturing facilities in Louisiana, was just starting to import from Asia their first jacket when I retired in 1995. Last year, they ceased manufacturing any jackets in America: the last domestic jackers were the wool varsity lettermen's jackets---and they moved to Mexico.

Textiles are not unique in this phenomenon; it has happened in almost every industry in America. The whole clothing industry is long gone. Look at the steel industry. The automobile industry got a shot in the arm from governmental subsidies of two of the Big Three. The foreign competitiors are also manufacturing here for many years, which has helped the economies of the states in which they are located: BMW in Alabama and South Carolina, Toyota in Tennessee, Honda in Ohio, to name a few. The foreign competitors have frequently been the innovators of new ideas in automobiles, although I am delighted to see that American innovation and quality has improved dramatically.

India and China are becoming dominant in manufacturing because of cheap wages, stealing the best ideas, and brilliant engineering. We used to attract the best brains from around the world because of the opportunity for innovative thinking. Now a lot of the Indian and Chinese are staying home.

So, where are we going? Will we continue to become a Service nation and not a Manufacturing nation? Can job stimulus, if politicians can ever agree on anything, start an upward trend toward creativity and new fields of industry? I am not optimistic but faintly hopeful.

Remember the old Chinese adage: may you live in interesting times. Let me say, they are REALLY interesting.

THE SKY IS FALLING

What the hell is going on in the monument world? First, I read the Washington Monument was damaged by the quake, and repairs are underway to ensure its stability, while visitors cannot go near it. Then I see that the National Cathedral in Washington, the main cathedral of the American Episcopal Church, is undergoing repairs at a cost of $25mm. Today I read that the Taj Mahal will need serious and extensive repairs to its wooden foundation and that already cracks are appearing and the domes are slightly tilted.

I think it rather symbolic that these landmarks are in trouble, reflecting the disrepair and decay so prevalent in the economic and political worlds of today. So many of our values and beliefs are undergoing stress tests in these hard times that you begin to feel the impermanence of our world more than ever. All the kings horses and men are having more trouble than ever with all those broken pieces and shards.

And it shows in our fragmented and divided thinking of what and how to do with the world. Republicans are still set in concrete; Democrats are still squabbling among themselves; the President is pushing for a jobs program that doesn't go far enough in dealing with our economic and political problems.

It looks like, at the minimum, we all need a good lube job. More likely, we need a systemic overhaul.

I hear Chicken Little screaming louder than ever.

LET THE JOY BEGIN!

WRITTEN BY MRS FLESHPOT:

It's October 4, 2011, three days after our granddaughter Ashlee's wedding to Tim on the beach at Myrtle Beach SC. It was quite wonderful! While the surf was rippling in the background, Ashlee, looking gorgeous in her white swathed formfitting bridal dress, said her vows. And Tim readily replied.

Anne, Ashlee's Aunt and Godmother, read from Corinthians, followed by Celtic prayers read by Bebs and GooGoo, the bride's grandparents. The minister conducting the service was a friend of the groom's family who had known the groom all of his life.

The groom's brother was Best Man, while the bride's sister, Lindy, was Maid of Honour and cute as a button. What joy and jubilation followed! As sandals sank into the sand, everyone hugged each other on such a joyous occasion.

The reception followed under a perfect sky with a gorgeous half moon at a house just off the beach the bride's parents had rented with a big tent in the back garden near the beach. Everyone ate and drank well, and the party and dancing went on into the wee hours. And just a perfect evening with that half moon!

A LETTER TO ASHLEE

(This letter is addressed to my first grandchild who will be a bride on October 1.)


Ashlee dear:

This can't be right---wasn't it the day before yesterday at St. John's Hospital in Toledo that I sat next to your mother's bed and held you? Your grandmother and I were almost as happy as your mother at contempating the first grandchild. And you were beautiful. Some things never change.

And wasn't it yesterday that I watched you pitch softball or set up your teammates on the volleyball team? And saw you graduate with high honors?

And it was just a few hours ago that we drove from your Central Florida campus (with you doing most of the driving) for Thanksgiving at your aunt's home on the east coast of Florida, wasn't it? And calling each other when Ohio State beat Michigan?

And here we are, back in time reality, looking forward to your marriage to a very good guy in Myrtle Beach SC on October 1.

I've never felt so old in my life at the prospect of my first grandchild getting married. But, I have to say, it's a nice old, like good wine and whiskey improving with age.

I like the way you turned out. You are very bright, brighter than you give yourself credit for and you are doing good things in your life. I think your value system is also in the right place. You deserve a good marriage and a good life. I was lucky enough to have one---and you should, too.

You came out of a strong background in your parents and that certainly shaped your character. And you, along with your delightful sister, have appreciated a loving and caring (they are not always the same) family.

I guess the point of what I'm saying is, i'm awfully proud of you and love you very much. I wish you and Tim a lifetime of the best. By the way, one of these days, make me a great-grandfather while you're at it!

Much love,

GooGoo

P.S. And thanks for giving me that ridiculous nickname for grandfather, which I'm stuck with (and learned to like)!

THE WORLD OF BEES

My old blogging friend, billyann-journal.blogspot.com posted an interesting link. (http://www.truthout.com/conservatives-say-it-out-loud-they-hate-democracy/1316786695) which grabbed my attention. Every now and then I say to myself, enough of your pontificating about politics, you're getting to be a bore, so just stay off the subject. But I'm like a drug addict who has to come back for more when I read something like this link.

The gist of it is the old Ayn Rand business of an elite only entitled to run the world, a kind of fascist oligarchy where a select few should be in charge. I know I have a number of acquaintances who fit right into this philosophy. Screw the majority who don't know diddly squat and aren't entitled to any of the benefits of this world; it's only we the enlightened who should run things and reap the benefits. A few winners and a lot of losers.

When I was a kid of ten, I raised bees, with the help of a local farmer/beekeeper who taught me a lot about this fascinating world of bees. I kept bees for about three years and, thanks to the understanding this farmer/beekeeper imparted to me, I learned to handle bees without a problem; in fact, I only got stung once when I put my thumb on and squashed a bee in one of the frames in a hive.

Ayn Rand and the other monolithic far right would love the principles of a bee society. There is one Queen whose purpose in life is to procreate and produce eggs. 95% of the hive is comprised of worker bees, infertile females, whose sole purpose is to produce honey. The only other classification of bees are the drones, males whose only purpose in life is to service the Queen---and only one gets that privilege in a mating ritual in which the Queen flies higher and higher in the air, and the drone who can stay with her gets the score. Then, for a few weeks, the remaining drones sit around the hive, gorging themselves on honey and doing absolutely nothing for the benefit of the hive. Then one day, usually in early autumn, you come out to visit your hive---and see a mass of dead males pushed out the front of the hive. The worker bees have struck and wiped out the drones.

We are not bees, thank God. I know we have too many drones in humanity, but we can't just turn on them and throw their dead bodies out of the hive. We do have the ability to train some of those drones to be responsible contributors to life, but there will always be a certain untrainable number who are useless who become our responsibility. I don't think we want 95% of us to do nothing but work and to have no time to enjoy the benefits of work in their leisure time. and I don't think we want a single Queen in charge.

Some of the Republican candidates seem to be making Ayn Rand-like noises. I also really get worried when I hear of incidents like a certain campaign debate crowd clapping at the idea of letting the indigent go without health care and die. It is an exclusive elitist philosophy of individualism in an anti-democratic spirit. Democracy can be a pain in the ass many times. But I don't want to contemplate a life without it. John Donne said in the seventeenth century in one of his wonderful sermons at St. Paul's in London, "No man is an island unto himselfe,,," No, we still depend on and need each other.

I don't want to be in a bee society, thank you.

THE NEW GAME IN TOWN

The world of sport and big money continues to amaze me. In the case of collegiate athletics, the tail---all that revenue from sports---is wagging the dog. Look at the recent changes in athletic conferences with colleges switcing conferences, or trying to do so. Why? more dollars, of course. the bigger and better the conference, the more chance for lucrative TV deals.

With the cost of education spiraling upward continuously, colleges are looking for any extra income they can get. Private universities are nearing stratospheric levels. My old alma mater, Hamilton Gollege is pushing $40,000 per annum. A little school like Hamilton with no prestigious sports team can expect no help from the athletic department in containing costs. The Ivy league schools aren't much better. Princeton or Penn usually have decent basketball---not football--- teams and make the March Madness tournament, which is good for some bucks but not much in the big picture.

The major conferences, the SEC, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 (or 14 0r whatever it is, the Pac-10 or 12 or 14----there you see the big bucks. And it's like an insatiable monster, gobbling up new schools, spitting out old ones. Then, if you are part of the N.C.A.A hiearchy, you get nightmares wondering if the colleges formed their own March Madness tournament and pulled away from the N.C.A.A.'s auspices. Whee, it's enough to make one giddy!

It's the new version of musical chairs. Or Abbott and Costello---who's on first?

THE CONVICTS VS. THE CONVICTS

I will be watching on TV tonight The University of Miami (FL) versus The Ohio State University, to be formal. This game could be the beginning of a new bowl format---The Hypocrite Bowl.

Both these teams, to understate it. are not exactly bastions of virtue and integrity. In the case of Miami, they have a long history of player suspensions and even arrests. Remember, if you are old enough, back in the early nineties when Miami played Notre Dame, they created t-shirts reading "THE CONVICTS VS. THE CATHOLICS". Ohio State has a more recent record of transgressions. The recent mess was big news of Jim Tressell, the coach fired---or allowed to resign---because of covering up players selling jersey and other memorabilia for tattoos and the like, resulting in five players suspended for the first five games of the current season. O.S.U. also has its businessman/President, Dr. Gordon Gee, he of the darling bow ties, noted for his cute bon mots and for looking the other way.

Both teams are symptomatic of the problems facing college football. College football is by any definition BIG BUSINESS. I saw an article in the papers today on the revenues of various universities for football. Texas edged Ohio State in revenue 86.2 mm to 86.1 mm. That qualifies as big business, and there were many school in the 80-85 mm category.

Some commentators are calling for a reality check and accepting the fact that college athletes should be given some "spending money" or expenses so that they can resist the temptations of unauthorized gifts. Admittedly, it has to be hard for some nineteen year-old athlete who comes from a poor background and is in college on an athletic scholarship to turn down the blandishments of some folded lettuce slipped surreptiously into his palm by a well-heeled alumnus or the use of a brand-new car.

On the other side of the coin, these temptations have been around for years, and you know the ground rules when you enter school and should have been exposed to the caveats of the N.C.A.A.

Tonight will be prime exhibits of this dilemma. THE CONVICTS VS. THE CONVICTS could read the t-shirts or, more gently, THE SUSPENDED VS. THE SUSPENDED, or CANES, CASH, COLUMBUS. Take your pick.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

Now that I have settled back in our Florida home, I can only note the old French adage: "le plus qu'il change, le plus le meme"---namely, the more things change, the more they are the same.

I note that the Senate Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in response to the President's latest stimulus plan, has said, "It's D.O.A.---dead on arrival." Attaboy, Mitch, kill, kill, kill, right from the gitgo.

I note in the recent Republican Presidential debates that certain members of the audience, Tea Partyists. no doubt, cheered at the idea of letting the indigents die if they can't afford health care. Nice attitude, guys and girls. Do unto others before they do it unto you.

I note that professional sports just can't possibly get along without the threat of a strike and lockout. The N.F.L. wasn't enough; now we have the N.B.A. Owners are the same in all professional sports: maximum return in revenue and minimum outlay for the players. What the hell, the customers will pay for it anyway...

I note the rate of poverty in America has now reached 46mm people or up to 16.1%. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to accelerate. And we don't need entitlement and tax reform? Not to mention job stimulation.

I note the Euro crisis continues to accelerate. Do you think maybe the euro currency is not such a hot idea and the United States of Europe a giant turkey?

Where have I heard this song before?

IS IT A BIRD OR A PLANE?

Like Freddie Kruger, I'm back--- in the U.S.A.--- after almost three months in England and really glad to be home. My old body is slowly adjusting to the time difference; it takes longer now. I had a good night's sleep, so I'm almost there.

What kept me awake and excited was the great championship match at the U.S. Open between Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal where rallies of pure power hitting were frequently twenty-five times across the net or more. Talk about two heavyweights duking it out! Djokovic has taken the game to a new dimension, somewhere in the warp speed area. He moves with incredible grace and style, all the while with power and precision.

With so many young giants on the horizon,physically and artfully endowed with power and grace, you never know who will emerge to challenge Djokovic. I only wish a few more of them were American.

Serena let her big foul mouth interfere with her tennis and deservedly was beaten thoroughly by Samantha Stosur. It's been awhile since the Aussies had a champion---and Sam deserved to win.

I've commented before how the combination of new technology in racquets---and now in strings---plus the conditioning of today's athletes who are bigger and stronger has totally changed the game. Any resemblance between today's games and thirty years ago does not exist. It's literally a whole new ball game!

What new version of Clark Kent with a racquet will zoom down from the skies? It will be fun to see. For now, Novak Djokovic wears the cape.

MY LAST ENGLISH HURRAH

This will probably be my last blog from England. We leave for America on 9/11, and this next week is going to be frantic, which it has been these last few weeks as we tried and succeeded in selling our house here in Eastbourne. The new buyer of the house, a charming lady in her sixties, is coming here on Tuesday to determine what of our possessions she wants. In England, everything not an integral part of the house is sold separately, and you must file forms showing these contents.. After she has picked her choices, we have arranged to ship certain items we like in furniture, cutlery, kitchenware and personal items by sea to our address in Florida. The day after we leave the shipping company will come in and pack up those designated items. After that is accomplished, an old friend who does cleaning for us will come in and pick up certain items chosen by her and put the house in order. Then the rest will be taken by an antique dealer/liquidator, who will come in shortly after we leave.

Then we must push to expedite the paperwork with the lawyers, hers and ours, so that we can sign the agreement, and some monies get transferred. Since we will be paid in sterling, I’m going to talk to our accountant here on how best at minimum cost to transfer the funds. Should I invest some of it in gold, in low-yield safe bonds or money market funds until final disposition is determined. That’s a nice problem!

All of which means, there is a helluva lot to do in the next eight days. Somehow we will muddle through and get it done. One of our daughters is here and can help in the disposal and packing process, thank God. Arranging the logistics for all these transfers of merchandise is tricky, but we will pull it off.

We are ready to come home. We have had a good time in spite of the English weather, which has forgotten to be summer a good part of the time. England is not the same---then, again, what is? Everything is expensive here, even more than in the states, and the mood of austerity and fiscal pain preys on everyone. As I said in an earlier blog, we’ll probably come back, health permitting, for shorter visits---but no more three months away, it’s too long.

I’ll blog at you soon from home soon.

THE END OF AN ERA

By George, we’ve done it, in the immortal words of Henry Higgins. My wife and I have reached a sales agreement on our little house here in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England. I say “reached an agreement” because in U.K. a sale is never final until the final documents are signed before any monies are paid: no “earnest money” here, the sale really favors the buyer, not the seller. In any case, we will have a cash sale from a charming and, I suspect, affluent mother/daughter combination who live in a nearby East Sussex town. I think our house is intended for the daughter.

I am relieved to have this sale agreed before we leave for home in Florida September 11, but I hope we can expedite the legal paperwork, but, knowing lawyers, that won’t be easy. I’ve lost a few days to talk to our lawyer and the buyers because it has been Bank Holiday this past weekend through Monday, the equivalent of Labor Day in the U.S., just a week earlier. Time is running short. We have some household goods and furniture to dispose of, and I hope to get with the buyers to see what they would like to select from the house and then dispose of the rest, probably to Ali Baba and the forty Thieves, as I refer to liquidators who come in and pay 10 cents on the dollar, if you’re lucky.

We are taking some goods back to America and have made arrangements with an International shipper to come in, after we leave, pack up the items we want and ship by sea. When you ship by sea, it is not weight that counts but volume, and we will have a 25 cubic foot container for our stuff. We have a beautiful nest of four carved nest tables with silver inlays, inherited from my wife’s parents (who owned this house for sixteen years), plus another small table, some china items and personal effects.

On top of this, we have a daughter arriving for a short visit September1, who will return with us on the same flight to Atlanta where she lives, while we then fly on to Fort Myers, Florida. Naturally, we want to entertain her, but it is going to be a juggling act, doing things with her while we clear the house details. She is a great organizer and can be of help, but we also want her to have a good time.

It is the end of an era. My wife’s parents bought this town house, the middle one of three connected homes in 1977 and lived here until 1993 when my mother-in-law went into a nursing home and my father-in-law to live with my wife’s sister and husband briefly before he went into a nursing home. They died within seven months of each other in December 1993 and July 1994. So, it has been in the family almost thirty-five years.

We rented the house for the nine months we weren’t here and, in a couple of cases, for a year when we did not come to England. For the last ten years, we have rented, through an excellent letting agent to mature students who took good care of the house and would go home for the summer while we occupied the house. Their rent for nine months usually covered our expenses for the summer, which was a nice deal.

My wife and I,to a lesser extent, feel sad that we won’t be coming back to this house. It is in a wonderful section of town called Meads; in fact, Meads was once an independent village and, even now, has the characteristics of an independent village with its own center of town and shopping area. We are located next to the downs, beautiful rolling hills leading to the chalk cliffs overlooking the English Channel. We could even see the channel from our bedroom windows. We are about a mile from a famous lighthouse called Beachy Head, a light house standing next to sheer white chalk cliffs in the channel. This is the part of England over which The Battle of Britain was fought in 1940.

We’ll probably come back for shorter visits and rent a larger house or apartment for children and grandchildren when they visit, but not for three months.

Yes, it is definitely the end of a wonderful era in our lives.

THE SLIMEBALL OF THE SUMMER SWEEPSTAKES

It’s always a close competition with so many horses asses competing for the title of Slimeball of the Summer, but here’s my list, in ascending order, of candidates. Change the order around any way you desire. You have to remember, I’ve been out of the country for over two months, so I may not be current on some recent sleazes that have not been brought to my attention.

10. Jim Tressell, former Ohio State football coach. Talk about really messing up big time. One of the plum coaching assignments, now kaput, because this Godly Man couldn’t tell the truth when he should have and made a bad situation worse. And the university for whom he worked is just about as bad.

9. Roger Goodell and his N.F.L. cronies. They almost cost us a football season. Drag it out, baby, and make ‘em sweat.

8. The Tea party for contributing to the gross ignorance of domestic and foreign policy. To hell with government, just CUT, CUT, CUT, the simplistic answer to all our problems.

7. Michelle Bachmann/Rick Parry---a dual entry for slander and untruths even above and beyond the pigsty of campaign politics. The wacky right is right on again for distortion and pure crap. Whose turn is it to be accused of treason?

6. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, a joint award. As leaders of the Republican congress, these two were so intent on making the President look bad and playing 2012 election politics that they pushed the country to the edge of a financial precipice. Politics first, the economy second has been the byword for too long.

5.. The Murdoch triangle of Rupert Murdoch/ James Murdoch/Rebecca Brooks and the swarmy, sleazy, hacking mess and abuse of power where covering your ass was carried to a brand-new extreme. They may not get out of this one quite so easily.

4. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, that pillar of French politics with the ever-open fly, who escaped justice, thanks to a pile of money and a disadvantaged victim with an inconsistent background. Will he run for President of France? Don’t bet against it. Stay tuned.

3. The Pakistani Intelligence Service for years of disservice to the U.S.A. who supports their country and mission, only to have these bastards help the Taliban by providing shelter and, I’m sure, intelligence. A special thanks for allowing the Chinese to photograph and get a piece of the skin of the Chinook helicopter that crashed in the bin Laden raid. Of course, you believe them when they say they didn’t know bin Laden was there. Right, and your check is in the mail.

2. Colonel Gaddafi---almost #1 in a photo finish for forty-odd years of tyranny and crazed fanaticism. I hope they hang him by his thumbs, or, better yet, by his privates when they find him. Lockerbie is remembered!

1. President Assam of Syria in a tight race edges out Gaddafi. Under the protection of our dear loyal friends and allies, the Saudis, he has got away with murder and despotism on a wholesale scale for years. Now his bloodbath is beginning to catch up to him when even the Saudis are turning against him. He has not been our friend for a long time, allowing his country to be a conduit for terrorists,and loves to fuel up the Mideast fire. I really rate him #1 because he is still a clear and present danger, whereas Gaddafi has had it.

I’m sure you can add a lot more---but here’s a good start!

AMERICA'S POOR GRADES

The President in a recent speech to the country referred to America as an AAA country, defying the downgrading of American credit by Standard & Poor to AA1/2. I think the American people---well, at least a good part of them---are AAA quality, but the politicians rate a “D”. Furthermore, let’s not make S. & P. the villain of the piece. Let’s put a large part of the blame where it belongs: on the politicians. By their inflexible stands, political posturing and lack of leadership, we got, unfortunately, what we deserved.

Certainly politics played a major role in creating a climate of turmoil and suspense which made a bad situation even worse internationally. Things were bad all over in a good part of the western world with our recession showing no signs of abatement and Europe in a euro crisis with the weak members hovering on the brink of bankruptcy. And, I might add, below the surface, a few things are rotten in the state of China. Psychologically, the inability of America to resolve the debt crisis quickly and thoroughly really gave a setback to our standing as the number one nation. Don’t think that didn’t contribute to the S. & P. decision.

To exacerbate matters even more, the debt crisis solution is a bandaid---a temporary patch until the matter can be studied further and recommendations made. It is not as if the problem was brand new, but we have refused to deal with it constructively and thoroughly for much too long. The world is seeing this, and it does no good for our respect.

I’ve been on the soap box much too many times about the politicizing of America and the dangers of polarization. I’m now seeing it from a different perspective here in England and realizing how important our leadership is in the world. We haven’t done a good job of leadership by example. I wish I could see a change coming---but I don’t. It’s really well past wake-up time.

We are going to have to work extra-hard to be AAA in every way.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

It’s a tricky subject, laden with emotional baggage, this matter of racism. Many racists lurk out there, carefully picking their spots to score points and speaking out in a carefully devised code. On the other extreme, you get the rigid politically correct who are too quick to look for and label any comment of criticism of blacks as racist.

A good example of the latter has caused a real brouhaha in U.K. David Starkey, a renowned historian who frequently appears on television, has been catching hell for remarks he made last Friday night on a program called “Newsnight” about the recent riots. Mr. Starkey was taken to task for daring to state that black “gangsta” influence of today had a major impact on the riots. In his words, “A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion…It’s not skin colour, it’s cultural.” Even a few noted black supporters of education also condemned this influence. One named Tony Parsons wrote in "The Daily Mirror": “…without the gang culture of black London, none of the riots would have happened---including the riots in other cities like Manchester and Birmingham where most of the rioters were white.”

Starkey believes that it is a problem of social scale. At the top, numerous blacks have achieved success in the white elite world and been integrated seamlessly into that world. At the other end of the social spectrum, in addition to the black “gangsta” types, you have disadvantaged white youth merging into the same kind of culture and prone to the same uncontrolled behavior and destructive mores illustrated by the recent riots.

Where Starkey really touched a nerve---and many of his friends and supporters say he made a real mistake---was quoting Enoch Powell, a Northern Irish Member of Parliament back in the fifties and sixties, who was inflammatory and violently opposed to the immigration into Britain of colored races. He made a famous speech, known as ‘The River of Blood Speech” where he predicted racial war in Britain. Starkey brought Powell into the equation by reviewing historically the reaction of liberal elements in both the Labour and Conservative parties to Powell’s speech and their resultant efforts to combat racism by condemning the working class for their attitude on race and, to quote Starkey again, “…the white working class could never be trusted on race again. The result was a systematic attack over several decades on their perceived xenophobic patriotism”; in other words, race hatred became an excuse for super-patriotism and jingoism.

The result of this attack, this anti-Powellism, according to Starkey, was a loss of national identity. Starkey makes the point that in other areas of Britain, even where areas of deep unemployment exist, such as Wales, Yorkshire and Scotland, runs a deep streak of national identity in all classes. Interestingly, there were no riots in these areas. I’m no student of British sociological history or race relations. I do remember the impact of Enoch Powell forty years ago and his incendiary effect.

In America we have had more than our share of incendiary verbal as well as actual bombers, both right and left. Racial relations have been subject to pendulum swings throughout our history. I do believe, bit by bit, America is seeing the reconciliation of races, although it still has a long way to go. But, if you are old enough, think back forty years, and the improvement is palpable. I think---and hope---we are reaching a stage where constructive criticism, back and forth between the races, should be possible.

Part of this interracial dialogue should be the right to criticize on the part of both blacks and whites. If whites act badly, blacks should criticize and demand reform. And that coin has two sides: if blacks screw up, whites should have the right to criticize and demand a change---without being called “racists”. It is too easy a cop-out on the part of whites to call disadvantaged blacks shiftless and lazy. It is equally too easy for blacks to play the race card when it is unjustified. Fairness is a standard for both sides.

If we set and live by such a standard, then we won’t have to worry about black and white. Let’s chase the elephant out of the room.

A NEW DYNASTY

Two years ago, I wrote a blog, extolling my new appreciation of Cricket. Since that time I have come to like it even more. I’m still a baseball fan, which some of you out there compare to watching grass grow in terms of excitement---but I don’t agree. Cricket is even more leisurely in pace, but, when the action gets underway, it’s plenty exciting and artful.

What makes it so interesting today is that England is entering into a dynastic period. England is playing India, previously the #1 team in the world, and has murdered them in three successive test matches, really routs, and is now ranked first in the world. All the sports writers and ex-players/commentators are saying it will continue this way for years to come. They are suddenly blessed with the maturation of young talent with a host of young players waiting in the wings for their chance to play for England. It’s rather like the Yankee dynasty in the forties and fifties or the nineties when nobody could handle them on a regular basis as new talent took over from old talent.

The major reason for England’s revival is a new emphasis on physical conditioning, plus intense analysis and practice in the arts of the game. In addition, County (remember here, a county is like a state) Cricket is similar to the minor league or a farm system where players have the opportunity to develop their skills. All the modern trappings of sport, like sports psychologists, trainers, masseurs, high speed photography---all the scientific and esoteric voodoo---are being utilized and turning Cricket into serious business.

The result is an Augustan Age where England is expected to dominate for many years to come. Many critics think that this current squad is arguable the best ever, matching or possibly exceeding the great Australian teams of the past. The Aussies have dominated the game over longer periods of time than anyone, but right now they are mediocre.

So, even if you aren’t an aficionado of the game of Cricket, it is still fun to witness the cream that has risen to the top. Supreme talent in any sport is fun to be a part of and to watch.

I am getting my kicks. I say, old boy, isn’t it brilliant? But I still check the baseball box scores daily…

AIRBOURNE EASTBOURNE

In mid-August every year, our summer home, Eastbourne in East Sussex, England, hosts a fabulous Air Show with a wide variety of planes, present and past. It starts on Thursday and ends Sunday evening, this Eastbourne Airbourne, as it is officially known. On the Grand Parade, the main drag on the English Channel, which is famous for its Carpet Gardens of an infinite variety of flowers in an infinite range of colors arranged in geometric patterns, vendors set up stands in a nearby park area, representing a range of services from snack foods to t-shirts to toys to pennants to displays by the Royal Air Force, the R.A.F, with personnel to answer your questions.

One year the city fathers or Eastbourne Council, as it is known, really let greed get the best of them and decided to charge an attendance fee for those in this central area. DUH! How do you charge for air space or people looking up? It almost ruined the show. Everyone simply went elsewhere to view the show, and the vendors got really pissed off as their business fell off precipitiously because no one showed up! A couple of councilors who were up for election the next year got their butts whipped by indignant Eastbourners. The council did not try that ingenious “money maker” again.

Everyone in Eastbourne can look up in their own backyard (or garden, as it is known here) in the late morning or afternoon and hear the drone of propeller planes or helicopters or sonic booms of the jets. One year, in 2005, on the sixtieth anniversary of the end of WW II, I was sitting in our garden one early afternoon when I heard the roar of multi-engines and looked up to see, descending over our house, a Spitfire, a P-51 Mustang and a B-24 Liberator bomber---shades of 1944-45! I was excited since my brother was Navigator on a B-24 in Italy, and I still get my kicks by the sight and sound of WW II planes.

Sometimes, when we were younger, we would climb up one of the steep downs (small mountains) and watch from the plateaus on top of the downs. Other times, including this year on Saturday, we would join my wife’s sister and husband, who live in Eastbourne, and view the air show from one of the rocky beaches where you could get an excellent prospect of the show.

Today, Sunday, we walked down to Helen’s Park, a half mile gentle walk downhill from our house. Helen’s Park has a beautiful expanse of green, plenty of park benches, a putt-putt eighteen hole golf course, children’s play area and a special section, surrounded by shrubs where local teams can bowl on the lawn, wearing their all-white outfits. We had a wonderful view of the air show from there. It is an idyllic setting, overlooking the English Channel, which today was in full glory, its colors ranging from aquamarine to deep royal blue, dotted by an armada of sail and power boats with an unrestricted view of the show. The park, as you would expect was loaded with families, filling the grass and benches. It was a Sunday summer scene the world over with the added benefit of a constantly changing air shows, ranging from sleek jets testing the limits of the viewing sky to old bi-planes turning on the smoke while they do barrel loops and figure eights.

The highlight each day is a spectacular display of precision flying and acrobatics by The Red Arrows, the RAF’s pride and joy, their equivalent of our Blue Angels. They give you your money’s worth in a show of forty-five minutes, including streaming red, white and blue smoke in arcs, circles and a final heart, after which they flip over in a victory salute and head back to base in Sussex.

Ah yes, summer time---and the livin’ is easy. And the Eastbourne Airbourne is real easy watchin'.