Two new TVs and more jerks

Campus holiday police presence: What does it say about our young people when only a stepped up police presence can keep some of them from behaving inappropriately? They are supposedly the best of the next generation, intelligent and college bound, but you'd never know it from their lack of self-control.

Should the primary ballot include an advisory vote on the war? We elected the President, and he has the authority to wage war. We elected Congress, and they have the authority to fund the military. The President employs military experts to conduct the war. My opinion is irrelevant. If you think you know more than the military, you can vote for a new President and Congress in November 2008.

More jerks: I was premature in recognizing the jerk of the week. Some even more disgusting candidates have challenged for the title. One is Hai Nguyen, 24, of Garden Grove, who attacked a sea lion with a steak knife because the pinniped had stolen the bait from his fishing line; and, last night, vandals broke the windows and slashed the seats of seven vans used by a local charitable organization to transport developmentally disabled clients to their special education classes. They seem to be trying to outdo Michael Vick for jerk of the year.

Addis Minus

Discounting politicians, the jerk of the week is Paul Addis, 35, a "performance artist" from San Francisco. This selfish creep went to the northern Nevada desert, and while festival attendees were enjoying the total lunar eclipse, he set fire to the Burning Man, the cult icon which is the reason for the celebration, and which was scheduled for ceremonial burning on Saturday. He even had the nerve to resist arrest, and I hope the officer got in a few good licks. Addis is out on bail, and if you encounter his disreputable person, please feel free to insult him appropriately. You may tell him I asked you to.

Two bits

The vitriolic Democratic members of Congress have driven yet another fine American out of government. Alberto Gonzales, a truly kind and honest man, has begged President Bush to allow him to resign to relieve the pain of further unwarranted abuse from the Reid-Pelosi cabal.

XXXXX XXXXX University students kept police busy over the weekend. There were five DUI arrests, 205 other calls, including 10 fights-in-progress, and seven or eight assaults. Gee, I miss waking up in the drunk tank with a raging hangover, a split lip, a black eye, and that familiar ache from a kick in the stomach. I really miss college.

EXTRA: I can hardly wait until 10 p.m. tonight when the TV is featuring a show about the life and legacy of Princess Diana, when she will speak from the beyond. Oooh.

Gene's Texaco

As a young man, I patronized Gene's Texaco. Depending upon the area of the country and the time frame, it was either a filling station, a gas station, or a service station. Gene was an affable young man who seemed to care that one's car ran well. He sold gasoline, other automotive fluids, batteries, belts, windshield wiper blades, and, by special order, tires. (It was a small building and he had limited storage space.) He did oil changes, tuneups and minor mechanical repairs. One day Uncle Sam called, and invited me serve in the Army in France. When I returned, I lived elsewhere, and never had the occasion to visit Gene's again.

In my absence, gas stations had begun to change. Seeing the potential for greater profits, they started to pander to some of the most destructive human weaknesses, and began to sell, first tobacco, then alcohol, and finally, lottery tickets. So, it appears that the filling/gas/service station has been a major contributor to the downfall of civilization. Ya gotta blame somebody.

So, today you can go in for a fill-up, waste some of the kids' clothing allotment on lottery tickets, jump into the environmentally friendly Prius, light up a tasteless filtered cigarette (polluting the kids' lungs with the dreaded second-hand smoke), and pop open a frosty Bud for the drive home. It's America, man!

Four not yet used

My TV submissions aren't used as often, as the feature is becoming more popular. But I keep soldiering on.

1. On smoking: The holier-than-thou can't decide which they want more -- keeping people from smoking or taxing smokers. They seem to ignore the fact that those dollars they want to extort to fund children's health care will dry up if there's no place to smoke.

2. On government run health care: Recently, I spent 2 1/2 months in a Medicare/Medi-Cal rehab facility, and the only thing all the employees could agree upon is that they spend 40% of their time on paperwork. During those times care suffers. I cannot recommend government run health care.

3. On bailing out foreclosures: We have to stop depending on the government for everything. If you made a mistake, or were suckered into something, and it wasn't a police matter, handle it yourself.

4. How many books have you read this year? I read a book once. I believe it was green. Actually, I finished a book yesterday. I stayed within the lines on every page. (Hopefully, the staff got a laugh.)

P- BS

The last couple of days, I have watched more PBS than is usually prudent. I enjoyed a special about a man who reunited with his estranged father in Alaska, with heart-warming results, and an entertaining program about penguins. The global warming propaganda was gentle, and the penguin show even conceded that men "may" be causing the problem.

Then, last night, at bedtime, I caught the beginning of the Charlie Rose show, and I had to watch when I heard the words, "abolished the school board." This will require much more research, but it prompted the thought, "What is going on in New York City?"

The interviewee was the school czar who copiously thanked Mayor Bloomberg for his job. He admitted he had no background in education, but he has been closing "poor" schools and opening "better" ones. He appears to be intelligent, well-spoken and slick. I wonder what he's up to.

However, my immediate reaction was that the government had usurped another right of the people. What I am hearing here is that parents are too stupid to know what is best for their children, and they can't be trusted to oversee their education. So, the holier-than-thou have removed the people's authority, the school board, and are now dictating by the will of the government. This smells bad.

Welfare?

There are Americans who will go deep into the earth to mine coal, at the daily risk of their lives. There are Americans who replace roofs in 100+ degree temperature. There are Americans who can be seen along the highway doing paving and other work in the heat of summer. Why can't we find Americans to pick fruit and vegetables? It is honest labor which cannot be any more stressful or physically taxing that the jobs mentioned above. How can any American with children turn down any opportunity to provide for them by working at whatever is available? Aliens do, to the shame of the indolent and dishonest of the entitlement generation. How long can we afford to let this continue?

Watch out!

Several days ago, two fifty-foot steel girders, acting as scaffolding, fell on a passing FedEx truck, trapping the driver inside for several hours, but he finally emerged relatively unhurt, and is probably back on his route, delivering cheap Chinese crap all over the county. A workman who was standing atop the structure is recovering from some broken bones he sustained in the fall. A woman who came upon the scene broke both legs when her vehicle struck a construction truck. We have heard nothing about her since. I have learned from a reliable source that she is an undercover CIA agent. Oops.

The daily pamphlet has not followed up on the story of the man who was on a hunger strike, and within a week of death, almost two weeks ago. I have been informed that he also was an undercover CIA agent, and his assignment was to monitor the numerous homeless people who inhabit City Plaza. My bad, again.

In today's daily pamphlet an 'American citizen' opined, "You know why we are having earthquakes? Because our scientists keep sending up space shuttles into the atmosphere, punching holes in the atmosphere and it's causing the earth to shift direction. It's going to keep happening." What kind of person would say such a thing? You guessed it; an undercover CIA agent.

Because of the Bush administration, there are undercover CIA agents behind every tree, spying on you. Isn't it fortunate you haven't done anything wrong?

One-liners

A local tire company, on TV, is advertising, "All shapes, all sizes." Finally, someplace I can buy some of those elliptical ones.

Jenna Bush, the President's fun-loving daughter is engaged. Engaged in what?

I once lived on an island, accessed only by four bridges and a tunnel, but, foolishly, I never thought of telling my boss I couldn't get to work when one or more of them was closed.

My daughter laughed copiously when I said something I thought I had said hundreds of times before: "[Someone] is as busy as a cat covering it up."

Our puppy ate my TV remote, and now I have to walk over to the set to perform functions. I'm lucky it's old enough to still have a few buttons, but apparently too old to accommodate a new universal remote.

Wind, draft, smoke and silence

In reference to the belly gouge, Endeavour's commander, Scott Kelly, asked Mission Control which way the managers were leaning. The reply: "Unfortunately, we have no idea which way the wind is blowing at the moment." Hasn't science taught us there's no wind in space? By the way, why the extra UK-like "u?"

As [edited] by TV

[The last war we won, World War II, we did so with a large number of draftees.] Today it will primarily be the people who want to lose the present war who will oppose the draft. It's a new political climate where the lies from cowards are trying to thwart our efforts to fight this new threat to our way of life.

[Everyone doing the same job should be paid exactly the same. Just ask any woman.] Employers have two ways to deal with workers who lead "unhealthy lifestyles." Don't hire them to begin with, or if you do, have them sign well-defined contracts, and fire those who violate them. (The question posed involved docking their pay, mostly to defray health insurance costs.)

Not yet.

There are shock jocks, talk radio hosts, and comedians who insult people. Some are clever and some are mean, but only politicians and Don Imus lie. We need less of both.

O.J. had time to write a book? I thought he was busy searching golf courses around the world for the real killer.

The Anti-Christ

In fine homes across the nation, funded by your taxes, Congressional Democrats are dancing about, celebrating the departure of Karl Rove. Yes, Karl Rove, the anti-Christ, the man who has done his job so well that his client was elected Governor of Texas, and President of the United States twice.

Mr. Rove is no doubt tired of the undeserved abuse he has endured, and he will leave using the popular generic explanation, "I want to spend more time with my family," to which one particularly venal liberal said, "I'm surprised he has a family."

It's another sad comment on that segment of our society that would punish a person for good job performance, and who will, no doubt, hound him to death to satisfy their hateful impulses.

Three questions/one answer

This week, "Parade" magazine, one of the quintessential purveyors of pop culture, asked, in their cover story, "What can we do about underage drinking?" C'mon parents, drinking alcohol is a voluntary behavior. Start by abstaining yourselves, and then teach your children that people of intelligence and creativity don't need artificial stimulation to enjoy life. Also, you might point out that "peer pressure" is a specious concept, and your child is an individual who will be more respected if he follows his/her own mind and morals, and doesn't emulate the behavior of weaker people.

I'm sure you've noticed the high cost of corn, beef and milk this summer. In large part, this has been caused by the conversion of food producing land to corn crops for ethanol production. Would you rather import food from places like Mexico and China, or oil from the Middle East?

If we can fly into space, walk on the moon, drive a car that parks itself, replace human body parts, and make electronic components that fit on the point of a needle, why can't we invent the technology to mine coal without endangering human life?

Sex, again

Jorge Smirnoff is back with one of his most outrageous ideas yet. He contends that it has been sexually repressed leaders who have fomented all the evils in the world, including "child abuse by clergy, enslavement, torture, wars and so forth." I don't know what "so forth" includes, but apparently Jorge dwells on it, and it's eating at him.

Even sillier are the thoughts of "won't-be-president" Mike Gravell, who believes that the ancient Spartans trained their armies to be homosexual, because then they would fight more fiercely for that man they loved standing next to them. Does he also believe that a person can be trained not to be homosexual? That's not PC.

As seen on TV

[Whenever I hear the suggestion that we should ask the government to intrude into another facet of our lives, I shudder.] Good grief, when are we going to take responsibility for our own families? If you don't want the kids playing violent [and/or sexual] video games, do something about it yourself.

Update

Congress has gone on vacation (except those who are campaigning for President), after having accomplished nothing. Correction: They keep reminding us that they at least increased the minimum wage. Unfortunately, that's not necessarily a good thing.

Suppose you are a business owner operating on a tight budget, and the government suddenly tells you have to pay some of your employees more. What can you do? You might let some people go, and ask those who remain to do more work, hoping they don't quit. Or, if you don't mind breaking the law, you could replace the lost workers with illegal aliens. You assure them you're paying them minimum wage. You accept their fradulent social security cards, and you take FICA and withholding out of their checks. and pocket it, because if you send it to the government, one of those 80-some U.S. Attorneys that weren't fired may prosecute you for hiring illegal aliens. In the meantime, though, you have beaten the minimum wage.

When Congress comes back, let's hope they do something to win the war, control immigration, and stop wasting time trying to emasculate the Republican Party.

Science strikes again

California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, has banned the use of some kinds of touch-screen voting machines, and sharply limited the use of others. Bowen said teams of researchers were allowed access to the machines, and they found they could be tampered with in ways that allowed the manipulation of voting totals and other information.

Local county clerk/recorder, Candace Grubbs [really], says the return to paper ballots will be costly and slow. Boo hoo. Voting by paper ballot has been fine for over 200 years. As Paul McIntosh, the executive director of the California State Association of Counties, said, "The veracity of an election, no matter what type of equipment or system is used to tabulate the vote, comes down to the integrity of the individuals responsible." Amen.

Mea culpa

Recently, I have had to apologize to two people. I allowed myself to be offended, and lashed out against those who had no part in their respective situations. I hope I have learned to be more circumspect.

One person to whom I owe no apology is David Kensinger. He responded to my letter by repeating the same tired political rhetoric which he had heard, and then he inadvertently punctuated it with the philosophy of Joseph Goebbels, "It is easy to accuse people of doing something wrong, and if you repeat it often enough and loud enough, some people will believe it." I couldn't resist pointing out the irony.

Small kids pee in the fountain

How much consideration should we extend to criminals? I'm not talking suspects here, I mean someone who has been seen by police committing a crime or are on some "wanted" list. I find it very difficult to work up any sympathy, if, during their apprehension, they are injured while resisting arrest.

Criminal activity is a voluntary behavior. If you don't engage in crime, chances are very good the police will never arrest you. If you are arrested, it is foolish to risk injury by resisting.

The case in point: A 55- year-old stepfather is in the 16th day of a hunger strike in the infamous City Plaza, and he plans to continue until the state attorney general reviews the surveillance tape of his stepson's arrest. The man had been ejected from a casino for being intoxicated, clearly a criminal offense.

His stepfather wants to challenge what the police describe as " a few distraction blows with batons and also using a carotid choke hold until the man passed out," needed to overcome his continuing resistance. Whose fault was that?

Sue Hilderbrand of the Peace and Justice Center, exercising a legitimate function of the group, has also asked the state attorney general to intervene, because she is concerned for the stepfather's health. Classy and compassionate.

As to the drunken criminal, I suspect he got what he deserved.