Here we are on the cusp of the New Year. I hope it's better for all of us.
My wife is recovering well from her shunt surgery of last summer and is the woman I married again. Of course we are both older and can't do the things we once did, and you just have to learn to accept that, but, damn, sometimes it's tough.
I am holding togaether and hope I am through with skin cancers . Eight this past year, including two melanomas, is quite enough. I also have a problem with my right hand which is heavily bruised, the result of atrophy of the tendons around the thumb which seem to have lost strength to some extent. I will see a neurologist shortly to see what to do, recommended by my internist. I'll see the same neurologist my wife saw---a good guy and a straight shooter.
But we're here and still enjoying life, that's the important thing.
Happy New Year to all. We still have a daughter and son-in-law with us for New Year's and my wife's sister and husband from England, so we'll quietly celebrate. My youngest daughter, husband and two boys went home yesterday; another daughter and granddaughter leave tomorrow. It's been a great holiday.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
NO SIMPLE SOLUTIONS
Mpst of my kids and grandchildren are here for Christmas, as usual. My wife and I consider them a blessing, even if the decibel level of the house increased about 75%. How lucky we are to have them. Imagine how difficult Christmas will be in Newtown CT this year and count your proverbial blessings.
I watched the N.R.A. news conference and their Executive V.P., Wayne LaPierre, who runs the show. The N.R.A. solution was simple---and simplistic: Just put an armed guard in all our schools. I know this can help in places where schools are located in dangerous crime-filled neighborhoods, but I find it difficult to accept this as a panacea for our problems. After we put armed guards in all the schools. do we then put them in every movie theatre and auditorium? Most big sporting events have plenty of security, but should we have armed guard at every football, basketball or baseball game? It just won't solve all the problems. Yes, increase security in dangerous areas, but with more guns we cannot cover every possible contingency to prevent some lunatic from creating mayhem and murder. I don't want to see America become an armed camp.
More thorough psychological screening is still number one in my book. I read where there are gaps and incomplete or missing information in the F.B.I.'s database. Start again. Rebuild this database so that the country is covered by thorough investigation of backgrounds to ensure that only the sane and responsible have guns and so that it is a punishable jailtime crime to hide guns or lie about possession.
As I said in an earlier blog, mandate from the Federal government that a panel of experts from N.R.A., police and military, psychologists and sociologists---a true crosssection of people talented enough to confront the problems and come up with some positive plans to decrease arms and keep arms out of the wrong hands. Nothing is perfect, but surely we can put some good heads to face this dilemma and come up with a course of action.
Anything is better than what we have...
I watched the N.R.A. news conference and their Executive V.P., Wayne LaPierre, who runs the show. The N.R.A. solution was simple---and simplistic: Just put an armed guard in all our schools. I know this can help in places where schools are located in dangerous crime-filled neighborhoods, but I find it difficult to accept this as a panacea for our problems. After we put armed guards in all the schools. do we then put them in every movie theatre and auditorium? Most big sporting events have plenty of security, but should we have armed guard at every football, basketball or baseball game? It just won't solve all the problems. Yes, increase security in dangerous areas, but with more guns we cannot cover every possible contingency to prevent some lunatic from creating mayhem and murder. I don't want to see America become an armed camp.
More thorough psychological screening is still number one in my book. I read where there are gaps and incomplete or missing information in the F.B.I.'s database. Start again. Rebuild this database so that the country is covered by thorough investigation of backgrounds to ensure that only the sane and responsible have guns and so that it is a punishable jailtime crime to hide guns or lie about possession.
As I said in an earlier blog, mandate from the Federal government that a panel of experts from N.R.A., police and military, psychologists and sociologists---a true crosssection of people talented enough to confront the problems and come up with some positive plans to decrease arms and keep arms out of the wrong hands. Nothing is perfect, but surely we can put some good heads to face this dilemma and come up with a course of action.
Anything is better than what we have...
Thursday, December 20, 2012
ANOTHER CHRISTMAS WISH LIST
I was listening to the car radio today and heard, as one frequently would this time of year, one of my holiday favorites: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", that plaintive, melancholy but haunting song written during the war when so many young men and women were overseas fighting WW II, Judy Garland, one of the greatest singers ever (except in her final years when booze and drugs were making her a cariacture of herself) made it famous. I didn't think anyone could equal her rendition---but James Taylor comes closest, treating it with reverence and simplcity. That's the one I heard today.
All of which leads me to some holiday wishes:
(1) May all of you have happy holidays and a better 2013;
(2) May Newtown CT find some solace in prayer and national good wishes at this tragic time;
(3) May John Boehner and Mitch McConnell remove their heads from an unpleasant portion of their mid-anatomy in time to work out a fiscal compromise;
(4) May Barack Obama show the kind of leadership and vision needed in these trying times and guide us to better days, especially in his lame duck second term with nothing to lose;
(5) May we disengage with some semblance of honor, if not hope, from much of our war zones;
(6) May we use our good offices to press for peace in the Middle East without painting ourselves into inextricable corners;
(7) May the N.R.A. also remove their heads from the same unpleasant place and do something constructive for proper gun laws and psychological testing and quit treating the Second Amendment as if it came down from the mountain with Moses;
(8) May the N.C.A.A. and the N.F.L. do something for the betterment of sports and not be simply motivated by greed;
(9) May American industry regain preeminence, especially the auto industry;
(10) May we finally put emphasis on job stimulus, especailly by repairing our long-neglected infrastructures.
Keep adding to the list. I don't want to be too greedy. Smell the roses, enjoy your families and show some love. God bless you all.
All of which leads me to some holiday wishes:
(1) May all of you have happy holidays and a better 2013;
(2) May Newtown CT find some solace in prayer and national good wishes at this tragic time;
(3) May John Boehner and Mitch McConnell remove their heads from an unpleasant portion of their mid-anatomy in time to work out a fiscal compromise;
(4) May Barack Obama show the kind of leadership and vision needed in these trying times and guide us to better days, especially in his lame duck second term with nothing to lose;
(5) May we disengage with some semblance of honor, if not hope, from much of our war zones;
(6) May we use our good offices to press for peace in the Middle East without painting ourselves into inextricable corners;
(7) May the N.R.A. also remove their heads from the same unpleasant place and do something constructive for proper gun laws and psychological testing and quit treating the Second Amendment as if it came down from the mountain with Moses;
(8) May the N.C.A.A. and the N.F.L. do something for the betterment of sports and not be simply motivated by greed;
(9) May American industry regain preeminence, especially the auto industry;
(10) May we finally put emphasis on job stimulus, especailly by repairing our long-neglected infrastructures.
Keep adding to the list. I don't want to be too greedy. Smell the roses, enjoy your families and show some love. God bless you all.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
WE'VE HAD ENOUGH
What can you say that has not already been said about the horrific tragedy in Newtown CT? The president, obviously deeply moved and fighting back tears, expressed the sense of grief, frustration and desolation we all feel. He also called for “meaningful action” in gun control.
How many times have we heard that phrase “meaningful action”, or its equivalent, expressed by politicians after senseless gun tragedies? How long do we have to listen to politicians of all stripes decrying the plethora of guns and the tragedies that result? When are we truly going to interpret the Second Amendment properly and realize that the right to bear arms was for defense of person and country and not a wholesale invitation to maintain an arsenal? I’m sure our forefathers would blanch at the spate of massacres that have occurred in 2012 and shake their heads at the number of weapons, equivalent to one for every member of our population.
How many more times will we have to listen to the N.R.A. and their cant that it is people who kill, not guns? Of course that’s true---but we don’t have to make it easy for them by an overabundance of weapons. On one of the talking head shows last night, one of the N.R.A. types stated that, if teachers were allowed to have guns, many lives could have been saved. My God, can you imagine that scene, inside Sandyhook School, if we had teachers firing weapons in the heat of the moment. How many more would have died?
I’m a former hunter who owned shotguns. I enjoyed riflery and target shooting as a kid at camp. I was an Expert Rifleman in the Army. I was a bird hunter. I know many responsible people who understand guns and their proper use; for example, one of my sons-in-law owns many guns (which he keeps locked in a safe) and is an avid and expert hunter. I am not anti-gun. I am, however, against the quantity of guns out there which can fall into the wrong hands.
O.K., you say, but what do we do about all the unlicensed weapons illegally bought or stolen out there? There is no foolproof scheme to combat illegal weapons, but we should make a unified effort in every community and county to register guns. It needs to be a national law and a criminal offense not to register guns. We have laws to do this, but they must be enforced on a national basis with strict punishment including jail time.
Assault weapons should be banned for private use except at licensed clubs where they can be securely kept and available only for firing at that club. They have no part in hunting. Hunting is a sport: hunter against the hunted. It isn’t sport to fire an assault weapon at one hundred rounds a minute at an animal.
Most obvious of all, we have got to devise a better method of screening those who have guns. Too many psychopaths have access to weapons. In order to get a gun, you should be subjected to psychological testing to determine if you are fit to have a gun. Maybe this is too much Big Brother controlling our lives. But that’s the point---it is our lives.
The N.R.A., other gun enthusiasts, psychologists and others should form a panel of experts appointed by the Federal government to talk to each other---no shouting, no clichés and posturing---and seriously work to find a plan to limit the gun problem. I’m tired to death of America being a symbol to the rest of the world of chaos run amok. Yes, it happens in other places---look at Norway—but it happens here more frequently because, simply, there are too many guns and too few effective controls.
It must change.
How many times have we heard that phrase “meaningful action”, or its equivalent, expressed by politicians after senseless gun tragedies? How long do we have to listen to politicians of all stripes decrying the plethora of guns and the tragedies that result? When are we truly going to interpret the Second Amendment properly and realize that the right to bear arms was for defense of person and country and not a wholesale invitation to maintain an arsenal? I’m sure our forefathers would blanch at the spate of massacres that have occurred in 2012 and shake their heads at the number of weapons, equivalent to one for every member of our population.
How many more times will we have to listen to the N.R.A. and their cant that it is people who kill, not guns? Of course that’s true---but we don’t have to make it easy for them by an overabundance of weapons. On one of the talking head shows last night, one of the N.R.A. types stated that, if teachers were allowed to have guns, many lives could have been saved. My God, can you imagine that scene, inside Sandyhook School, if we had teachers firing weapons in the heat of the moment. How many more would have died?
I’m a former hunter who owned shotguns. I enjoyed riflery and target shooting as a kid at camp. I was an Expert Rifleman in the Army. I was a bird hunter. I know many responsible people who understand guns and their proper use; for example, one of my sons-in-law owns many guns (which he keeps locked in a safe) and is an avid and expert hunter. I am not anti-gun. I am, however, against the quantity of guns out there which can fall into the wrong hands.
O.K., you say, but what do we do about all the unlicensed weapons illegally bought or stolen out there? There is no foolproof scheme to combat illegal weapons, but we should make a unified effort in every community and county to register guns. It needs to be a national law and a criminal offense not to register guns. We have laws to do this, but they must be enforced on a national basis with strict punishment including jail time.
Assault weapons should be banned for private use except at licensed clubs where they can be securely kept and available only for firing at that club. They have no part in hunting. Hunting is a sport: hunter against the hunted. It isn’t sport to fire an assault weapon at one hundred rounds a minute at an animal.
Most obvious of all, we have got to devise a better method of screening those who have guns. Too many psychopaths have access to weapons. In order to get a gun, you should be subjected to psychological testing to determine if you are fit to have a gun. Maybe this is too much Big Brother controlling our lives. But that’s the point---it is our lives.
The N.R.A., other gun enthusiasts, psychologists and others should form a panel of experts appointed by the Federal government to talk to each other---no shouting, no clichés and posturing---and seriously work to find a plan to limit the gun problem. I’m tired to death of America being a symbol to the rest of the world of chaos run amok. Yes, it happens in other places---look at Norway—but it happens here more frequently because, simply, there are too many guns and too few effective controls.
It must change.
Friday, December 14, 2012
THE CAR THAT ISN'T
I read the other day that Ford is contemplating dropping the Lincoln. They have tried to gussy the Lincoln up in recent years, but it just cannot compete with the big luxury boys, the BMWs, Audis, Mercedes. Lexus, Acura (they're having problems, too) and Cadillac. it just comes off as a poor cousin, somewhat shabby and not quite with it. it's a pity, because the major auto companies need a jewel in their crown. Ford tried it with Jaguar but poured tons of money down the drain and figured, during their financial crisis days, to unload it. I think the Indian owner, TaTa Industries, a labyrinthian conglomerate which is into everything from vast real estate holdings to Eight O'Clock coffee, is doing pretty well with Jag.
I remember as a kid when we had a couple of luxurious Lincolns. One, sometime in the mid thirties, was a light green sedan with those great old-fashioned white sidewalls. But the one I really loved was the first Lincoln Zephyr ever produced in 1940, a sleek aerodynamic marvel in navy whose lines would look good even today. It was smooth as silk and very responsive. Of course, I was too young to drive then, hard as that may be for some of you to believe, but my Dad loved to floor it and see it instantly respond. One time he and I were on a country road and he took it up to about 120 mph, much to my delight.
It was a great car, but the world has changed, Lincoln, I'm afraid, is not a survivor.
I remember as a kid when we had a couple of luxurious Lincolns. One, sometime in the mid thirties, was a light green sedan with those great old-fashioned white sidewalls. But the one I really loved was the first Lincoln Zephyr ever produced in 1940, a sleek aerodynamic marvel in navy whose lines would look good even today. It was smooth as silk and very responsive. Of course, I was too young to drive then, hard as that may be for some of you to believe, but my Dad loved to floor it and see it instantly respond. One time he and I were on a country road and he took it up to about 120 mph, much to my delight.
It was a great car, but the world has changed, Lincoln, I'm afraid, is not a survivor.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
HURRY UP, COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS
The B.C.S. ratings are out and, for once, I think we can mostly agree that the top two teams are playing for the National championship. The big money boys and high rollers must be rubbing their hands at the bonanza of two of the highest profile colleges fighting it out. Notre Dame and Alabama have the right ring to it: long traditions, star players, reknowned coaches and the Catholics vs. the Confederates!
We are just plain lucky this year. The championship will be a true #1 and #2. (Ohio State players are being unfairly penalized for actions beyond their control and had a great season, but I do believe they are, maybe, #3.) But I can't wait until we have a proper playoff so that six or eight of the best teams can duke it out. Of course, everything the N.C.A.A. touches turns not only to gold but to crap, and I hope they don't screw this playoff up in the near future, like 2014.
Why is it that the power organizations manage to tarnish everything they touch? The N.C.A.A. and the N.F.L. deserve each other. I'm not naive enough to believe that these organizations built "for the betterment of the game" are anything but greed machiines intended to extract every ounce of money out of every possible game. Concern for the players---that's a laugh. Of course college presidents rub their hands with glee at the opportunity to get their hands on some of the bowl game loot, while those altruists in the N.F.L. dream up new ways to maximize playing time and pontificate about lessening injuries. Football, college or pro, is now truly big---no, actually mega--- business.
I bitch, but I'll be watching. But I look forward to those proper playoffs in the future.
We are just plain lucky this year. The championship will be a true #1 and #2. (Ohio State players are being unfairly penalized for actions beyond their control and had a great season, but I do believe they are, maybe, #3.) But I can't wait until we have a proper playoff so that six or eight of the best teams can duke it out. Of course, everything the N.C.A.A. touches turns not only to gold but to crap, and I hope they don't screw this playoff up in the near future, like 2014.
Why is it that the power organizations manage to tarnish everything they touch? The N.C.A.A. and the N.F.L. deserve each other. I'm not naive enough to believe that these organizations built "for the betterment of the game" are anything but greed machiines intended to extract every ounce of money out of every possible game. Concern for the players---that's a laugh. Of course college presidents rub their hands with glee at the opportunity to get their hands on some of the bowl game loot, while those altruists in the N.F.L. dream up new ways to maximize playing time and pontificate about lessening injuries. Football, college or pro, is now truly big---no, actually mega--- business.
I bitch, but I'll be watching. But I look forward to those proper playoffs in the future.
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