Since when did Halloween become THIS BIG of a holiday? Are you kidding me? Houses decorated in September?! Horror movies on television for an entire month? Children's specials other than Peanuts' "The Great Pumpkin?"
We've all come to terms with the commercialism of the Christmas season, the cultural misguidedness of Cinco de Mayo and the Valentine's Day guilt-trip. Halloween is just supposed to be about kids getting dressed up and going around the neighborhood to get candy. Another chance for college students to party.
Now Halloween has grown beyond all reasonable proportions. Why? I think that since some of the scares of the 1990s -- predators going after children, poisoned candy, etc. -- that we've tried to come up with some alternative activities for the holiday. Everyone got into the act, and now we have an overblown holiday. I know of a family going to a Halloween gathering at their doctor's office. Me? I try my best to stay away from the doctor's office.
Okay, enough ranting. Pass the chocolate.
---
It's open season on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It was bound to happen, but how deep it gets will depend on how she handles the next week or so and how her reaction plays with voters. If she remains above Barack Obama and John Edwards by double-digits in the polls in mid-November, then the verbal assaults will peter out. If the polls get closer, then the attacks on the front-runner will grow in volume and ferocity.
I did not watch the debate at Drexel University, so I can't comment directly on Clinton's performance. But the reviews are bad. She reportedly stumbled terribly in answering questions about the New York governor's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and was evasive throughout.
Edwards had what could be the quote of the campaign so far by saying that people wanted straight talk from their leaders. He's absolutely right in that regard, and it will be interesting to see if polling takes away from her and gives to him.
Criticizing the Clintons, Hillary or Bill, has traditionally been hazardous to one's career. And dissing the front-runner, by nature the favorite to win, is also unwise. That's why many Democrats have been reluctant to put the screws to her during the campaign. But it now looks like the long knives are being drawn.
But you ain't seen nuthin' yet. Maybe.
Let's say her evasiveness proves costly at the polls, and Obama or Edwards pulls ahead in the race for the nomination in January. The dogpiling on Hillary Clinton, and maybe Bill, will be tremendous. There are many Democrats who blame the Clintons for their loss of power this decade, and they're right to some extent. There are many other very active party enthusiasts who are far to her left who distrust her instincts on issues like Iraq and the War on Terrorism. If Clinton falls behind early next year, they're going to tear into her like nothing you've ever seen.
---
It's been way too early for the considerable Democratic optimism about next year's election. There was too much time for their candidates and congressional leaders to mess things up, and they're obliging.
Now the pendulum appears to be swinging toward the GOP, with conditions in Iraq improving and the economy absorbing a number of recent hits without major problems.
Again, it's too early. There's plenty of time for things to turn back against the Republicans, too. Another good reason why the campaign started way too early.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
America's Talent is at Home
We live in a celebrity-conscious environment where we are led by the media to worship movie stars, great baseball players and powerful politicians. But this week's wildfires in Southern California have proven once again that the true talent of America is right here at home.
The praise for the firefighters and volunteers has been immense and deserved. The integrated command structure within the county of San Diego and the state of California has, from at least the outside, appeared to work well. Local leaders, from San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to county Supervisor Ron Roberts and many others, performed marvelously -- and both were somewhat struggling with their reputations in the months before the fires struck. The local media, although hampered by ever-shrinking staffs, did quite well.
Compare that to our political leadership in Washington, D.C. where they're arguing over whether the fires were caused by global warming, ignoring the fact that the issue is a long-term phenomenon and that many of California's worst Santa Ana wind-related fire events have occurred in late-October. Sen. Barbara Boxer might not dare set foot in the county again after a hysterically poor performance. And compare with the national media, which I criticized in the previous post for making it appear that the entire southern half of the state has burned down.
Our heroes are right here in our hometowns. The guys who go off to fight fires and travel to foreign lands to battle terrorists, the women who streamed to shelters to help the unfortunate evacuees, and the businessmen who donated everything from bottled water to diapers. The folks who stayed home from work to keep the roads clear and helped care for the children of those whose services were needed.
We are what makes America work. The 300 million of us right here at home. Individually living our lives and making, for the most part, correct choices without help from the so-called elite in Washington, D.C., New York or Los Angeles.
---
You see small signs all over San Diego about how generous people are. I accompanied my wife to an area supermarket on Sunday, and there were pallets upon pallets of bottled water stacked up around the store -- inside and out. Ready to be donated. Unneeded, because so much water had already been delivered to those in need.
An amazed woman who lived in an area hit by the fires called a radio talk show in disbelief about how much help was arriving. She listed just about every organization she could think of and said they just kept coming and coming and coming.
---
Californians should "Google" Jerry Sanders' background. Learn about the guy. He's probably our next governor.
---
Maybe I've missed it -- and it's a good thing if I have -- but I've yet to hear anyone screaming about how we're paying for the care of a bunch of illegal immigrants in the Burn Unit of the UCSD Medical Center. Several of these unfortunate souls were caught in the path of flames of the Harris Fire near the border. Four died. Others were hospitalized, at taxpayer expense.
As much as the big issue of illegal immigration needs to be solved, the smaller issue of sometimes needing to take care of someone in need can take precedence. As a generous nation, this is one of those times.
---
Yeah, October is still the beautiful month. Sometimes the price is steep.
The praise for the firefighters and volunteers has been immense and deserved. The integrated command structure within the county of San Diego and the state of California has, from at least the outside, appeared to work well. Local leaders, from San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to county Supervisor Ron Roberts and many others, performed marvelously -- and both were somewhat struggling with their reputations in the months before the fires struck. The local media, although hampered by ever-shrinking staffs, did quite well.
Compare that to our political leadership in Washington, D.C. where they're arguing over whether the fires were caused by global warming, ignoring the fact that the issue is a long-term phenomenon and that many of California's worst Santa Ana wind-related fire events have occurred in late-October. Sen. Barbara Boxer might not dare set foot in the county again after a hysterically poor performance. And compare with the national media, which I criticized in the previous post for making it appear that the entire southern half of the state has burned down.
Our heroes are right here in our hometowns. The guys who go off to fight fires and travel to foreign lands to battle terrorists, the women who streamed to shelters to help the unfortunate evacuees, and the businessmen who donated everything from bottled water to diapers. The folks who stayed home from work to keep the roads clear and helped care for the children of those whose services were needed.
We are what makes America work. The 300 million of us right here at home. Individually living our lives and making, for the most part, correct choices without help from the so-called elite in Washington, D.C., New York or Los Angeles.
---
You see small signs all over San Diego about how generous people are. I accompanied my wife to an area supermarket on Sunday, and there were pallets upon pallets of bottled water stacked up around the store -- inside and out. Ready to be donated. Unneeded, because so much water had already been delivered to those in need.
An amazed woman who lived in an area hit by the fires called a radio talk show in disbelief about how much help was arriving. She listed just about every organization she could think of and said they just kept coming and coming and coming.
---
Californians should "Google" Jerry Sanders' background. Learn about the guy. He's probably our next governor.
---
Maybe I've missed it -- and it's a good thing if I have -- but I've yet to hear anyone screaming about how we're paying for the care of a bunch of illegal immigrants in the Burn Unit of the UCSD Medical Center. Several of these unfortunate souls were caught in the path of flames of the Harris Fire near the border. Four died. Others were hospitalized, at taxpayer expense.
As much as the big issue of illegal immigration needs to be solved, the smaller issue of sometimes needing to take care of someone in need can take precedence. As a generous nation, this is one of those times.
---
Yeah, October is still the beautiful month. Sometimes the price is steep.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Breaking News! San Diego is Still Here!
After several days on the fire lines and, more pertinently for this posting, driving around San Diego County from assignment to assignment or just scouting for fire news in general, I can tell you something that will be shocking. Especially if you've been watching national network news.
Sit down and take a deep breath. Exhale. Okay.
San Diego is still here.
Seriously!
So, for that matter, are Escondido and Ramona and Poway and Fallbrook and a lot of other towns you may have been hearing about this week.
Coverage of the wildfires this week from the national perspective has been pretty instructive and can be applied to other topics. The networks did not make a mountain out of a molehill. Our fires are absolutely a mountain of a story. However, they've managed to turn Mt. Whitney into Mt. Everest.
I spent today in Poway and the city of San Diego section of Rancho Bernardo. Many homes were destroyed. Many, many, many more were saved. In the areas where the fires passed through, my observation was that the ratio of homes saved to homes lost was conservatively 50-to-1. You probably can't tell that when the network news locates its programs at the end of a completely destroyed cul-de-sac.
The story is the same throughout Southern California. This is a huge place. The fires affected a wide area, but San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties are far wider. If you're planning to come here to attend a convention, visit for a long weekend or see relatives, give it a week or so because the hotels are filled with evacuees. But the vast majority went home today to intact homes. Our attractions like the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld and The Wild Animal Park -- which was right in the path of the flames -- are still there.
That might be news to you if you're not from around here, and the breathless national news-types are to blame. A colleague of mine told me that Katie Couric of CBS News Tuesday walked around Qualcomm Stadium -- the city's main evacuation center -- before her newscast and did not make eye contact with anyone. There's a way to boost ratings.
When you watch national network news in the future and see stories on politics, Iraq, the economy or other major news, ask yourself whether they are making big mountains out of small mountains. Because they might be.
---
A lot of what you read about how San Diego is handling the situation, when compared to Hurricane Katrina, is true. Evacuees are behaving themselves responsibly, shelter conditions are good and volunteers by the thousands have donated time, money or goods. Yet even those comparisons are overblown by the national media, because New Orleans was more or less wiped from the map and it was the less-fortunate who were affected -- with very few people left to help them. Here, most of the city is intact and, for the 500,000-plus who evacuated, another 2 million were available to assist.
The major and comparable differences between New Orleans and San Diego are leadership and civic pride. Putting San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders against Ray Nagin of New Orleans would be cruel. So would a matchup of the Governator vs. Kathleen Blanco. From police chief to police officer, from fire chief to fire fighter, things are better here. And we do have civic pride, though a more laid-back sort. This response is what we expect from ourselves. San Diego has been let down by previous mayors and city councilmembers, along with city management, but they've been run out of town. In New Orleans, the poor leaders were left in place for years and years, and were in place when Hurricane Katrina hit. The differences between them this week were clear.
Sit down and take a deep breath. Exhale. Okay.
San Diego is still here.
Seriously!
So, for that matter, are Escondido and Ramona and Poway and Fallbrook and a lot of other towns you may have been hearing about this week.
Coverage of the wildfires this week from the national perspective has been pretty instructive and can be applied to other topics. The networks did not make a mountain out of a molehill. Our fires are absolutely a mountain of a story. However, they've managed to turn Mt. Whitney into Mt. Everest.
I spent today in Poway and the city of San Diego section of Rancho Bernardo. Many homes were destroyed. Many, many, many more were saved. In the areas where the fires passed through, my observation was that the ratio of homes saved to homes lost was conservatively 50-to-1. You probably can't tell that when the network news locates its programs at the end of a completely destroyed cul-de-sac.
The story is the same throughout Southern California. This is a huge place. The fires affected a wide area, but San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties are far wider. If you're planning to come here to attend a convention, visit for a long weekend or see relatives, give it a week or so because the hotels are filled with evacuees. But the vast majority went home today to intact homes. Our attractions like the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld and The Wild Animal Park -- which was right in the path of the flames -- are still there.
That might be news to you if you're not from around here, and the breathless national news-types are to blame. A colleague of mine told me that Katie Couric of CBS News Tuesday walked around Qualcomm Stadium -- the city's main evacuation center -- before her newscast and did not make eye contact with anyone. There's a way to boost ratings.
When you watch national network news in the future and see stories on politics, Iraq, the economy or other major news, ask yourself whether they are making big mountains out of small mountains. Because they might be.
---
A lot of what you read about how San Diego is handling the situation, when compared to Hurricane Katrina, is true. Evacuees are behaving themselves responsibly, shelter conditions are good and volunteers by the thousands have donated time, money or goods. Yet even those comparisons are overblown by the national media, because New Orleans was more or less wiped from the map and it was the less-fortunate who were affected -- with very few people left to help them. Here, most of the city is intact and, for the 500,000-plus who evacuated, another 2 million were available to assist.
The major and comparable differences between New Orleans and San Diego are leadership and civic pride. Putting San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders against Ray Nagin of New Orleans would be cruel. So would a matchup of the Governator vs. Kathleen Blanco. From police chief to police officer, from fire chief to fire fighter, things are better here. And we do have civic pride, though a more laid-back sort. This response is what we expect from ourselves. San Diego has been let down by previous mayors and city councilmembers, along with city management, but they've been run out of town. In New Orleans, the poor leaders were left in place for years and years, and were in place when Hurricane Katrina hit. The differences between them this week were clear.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Time Ripe For Independent Candidate?
Every so often, a politician decides to make a Quixotic run for president as a relatively late-entry independent candidate, fueled by delusions of holier-than-thou grandeur (Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, who was technically a third-party candidate), more-intelligent-than-thou (John Anderson in 1980), or ideologically purer-than-thou (Ralph Nader in 2000 and 2004).
The result from those examples was that the candidate farthest away from the independent or third-party entrant won the election, since he pulled votes from the one whose beliefs were closer to his. That's why many Republicans hate Perot, a successful businessman and military supporter, and why many Democrats despise Nader, a champion of consumer's rights.
This ridiculously early campaign season, however, could be different. The timing might be right for someone to get into the race -- probably as an independent rather than a third party -- and make a bid to be the first president without a political party behind him. But he, or she, would have plenty of supporters around the country.
First, let's look at some facts. This week, a Zogby/Reuters poll found that just 11 percent of Americans supported the Democrat-led Congress, while only 24 percent were happy with President Bush. While both numbers reflect significantly lower support than other poll results, it's clear that we are not happy with our governmental leaders.
But there's more. We are showing similar levels of disappointment in a number of cultural areas as well. Television ratings released today show major drops in prime-time viewership, even when DVR playbacks are factored in. Established shows are still doing well, but the viewing public does not trust Hollywood to put out new worthwhile entertainment, so the new programs are struggling.
The National League Championship Series featured one of the best stories in baseball in recent years: the nearly unbeatable Colorado Rockies, against the young and exciting Arizona Diamondbacks. Viewership was the lowest in years.
Newspapers are struggling across the country. While some blockbuster movies still do very well at the box office, those that are less so are money-losers.
Bottom-line? We're not just apathetic about politics and culture anymore. We're fiercely apathetic.
That's a rare combination of feelings that someone ought to be able to capture. But it's not going to be a Republican who can do so, nor a Democrat. The overwhelming majority of the public sees the GOP as incompetent and would rather suffer from psoriasis than elect someone else from George Bush's party to the White House. The Democrats are on the wrong side of too many issues and have disappointed too many people with their failure to capitalize on their 2006 Congressional victories by governing responsibly.
Who then? I unfortunately can't name anyone specific. He or she will nominally belong to one of the major party, odds are, but can't be linked too closely to that party or the public will reject him. He or she needs to have a traditional viewpoint as opposed to stridently conservative or liberal. The person will need to speak clearly on the war and national security needs, be willing to hold the line on taxes and spending, protect our health care expenses for the poor and those hit by catastrophic expenses, be willing to solve illegal immigration and entitlement reform, and attack cultural issues such as drug abuse and gang violence.
The person most mentioned as an independent candidate is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but he is considered to be a too-liberal money man too close to the political establishment that got us into trouble in the first place.
The tragedy is that there is someone who could have played the role of the presidential candidate to the rescue, but he entered when everyone else did and thereby diminished himself and his candidacy. Mitt Romney. If he'd stayed out of the race, he could have entered as an independent early next year as the savior of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games (which were worse off than the United States is in 2007 by a long shot) and the moderate Republican governor of a liberal northeast state.
Unfortunately, he entered the race already, has run a mediocre campaign and can't fill this role.
I will name someone who can fill a vice-presidential spot on an independent ticket, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The left likes him for his stands on most issues. The right likes him for his support of the war on terror. But Lieberman is not a presidential kind of guy. Someone else will need to step forward and offer to clean up the Washington, D.C. cesspool.
The result from those examples was that the candidate farthest away from the independent or third-party entrant won the election, since he pulled votes from the one whose beliefs were closer to his. That's why many Republicans hate Perot, a successful businessman and military supporter, and why many Democrats despise Nader, a champion of consumer's rights.
This ridiculously early campaign season, however, could be different. The timing might be right for someone to get into the race -- probably as an independent rather than a third party -- and make a bid to be the first president without a political party behind him. But he, or she, would have plenty of supporters around the country.
First, let's look at some facts. This week, a Zogby/Reuters poll found that just 11 percent of Americans supported the Democrat-led Congress, while only 24 percent were happy with President Bush. While both numbers reflect significantly lower support than other poll results, it's clear that we are not happy with our governmental leaders.
But there's more. We are showing similar levels of disappointment in a number of cultural areas as well. Television ratings released today show major drops in prime-time viewership, even when DVR playbacks are factored in. Established shows are still doing well, but the viewing public does not trust Hollywood to put out new worthwhile entertainment, so the new programs are struggling.
The National League Championship Series featured one of the best stories in baseball in recent years: the nearly unbeatable Colorado Rockies, against the young and exciting Arizona Diamondbacks. Viewership was the lowest in years.
Newspapers are struggling across the country. While some blockbuster movies still do very well at the box office, those that are less so are money-losers.
Bottom-line? We're not just apathetic about politics and culture anymore. We're fiercely apathetic.
That's a rare combination of feelings that someone ought to be able to capture. But it's not going to be a Republican who can do so, nor a Democrat. The overwhelming majority of the public sees the GOP as incompetent and would rather suffer from psoriasis than elect someone else from George Bush's party to the White House. The Democrats are on the wrong side of too many issues and have disappointed too many people with their failure to capitalize on their 2006 Congressional victories by governing responsibly.
Who then? I unfortunately can't name anyone specific. He or she will nominally belong to one of the major party, odds are, but can't be linked too closely to that party or the public will reject him. He or she needs to have a traditional viewpoint as opposed to stridently conservative or liberal. The person will need to speak clearly on the war and national security needs, be willing to hold the line on taxes and spending, protect our health care expenses for the poor and those hit by catastrophic expenses, be willing to solve illegal immigration and entitlement reform, and attack cultural issues such as drug abuse and gang violence.
The person most mentioned as an independent candidate is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but he is considered to be a too-liberal money man too close to the political establishment that got us into trouble in the first place.
The tragedy is that there is someone who could have played the role of the presidential candidate to the rescue, but he entered when everyone else did and thereby diminished himself and his candidacy. Mitt Romney. If he'd stayed out of the race, he could have entered as an independent early next year as the savior of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games (which were worse off than the United States is in 2007 by a long shot) and the moderate Republican governor of a liberal northeast state.
Unfortunately, he entered the race already, has run a mediocre campaign and can't fill this role.
I will name someone who can fill a vice-presidential spot on an independent ticket, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The left likes him for his stands on most issues. The right likes him for his support of the war on terror. But Lieberman is not a presidential kind of guy. Someone else will need to step forward and offer to clean up the Washington, D.C. cesspool.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Gore Hurt Global Warming Cause; Not "Phony Soldiers, Just Poorly Timed
Shopping at one of those "big box" stores the other day, I was struck by something the attractive young checkout lady said to me, quite out of the blue: "What scares me more than anything is global warming."
We had been talking about something innocuous -- I forget what -- when she made the comment while handing me the bag. If it had come up earlier in our conversation, I might have asked her the basis for her fears or try to calm her in some way. Alas, I had the bag of items I bought and my receipt, so I was on my way.
In this age when we are at war, with men and women of her age fighting and sometimes dying halfway around the world, global warming was her biggest concern. Being a checkout girl, I wondered if she lived in a blighted neighborhood threatened by crime. Or if her parents were facing foreclosure of their home. Or if she were able to afford the schooling necessary for her to get a better job.
Maybe she was otherwise content with her lot in the world. Perhaps she had nothing else to worry about other than global warming.
I thought about her statement every so often until last week, when it gained new relevancy with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore, who has spent the past few years on a crusade to raise awareness of global warming. He certainly made his point with this young woman.
I wonder if it was Gore's intent to instill fear into a young cashier. Maybe it was. That doesn't sound like a very peaceful act to me. My opinion on global warming is stated in the header on this blog -- it's something we need to deal with and plan for but the claims of worldwide catastrophe are way over the top. And it's Al Gore who has been the King of Catastrophe on the subject.
It was rather funny that the Nobel Committee in Norway announced the Peace Prize winner the day after he was rebuked by a judge in the United Kingdom for including numerous falsehoods in the film "An Inconvenient Truth." He misrepresented data to support his claims, exaggerated the projected rise of the sea level and based his presentation on worst-case scenarios. He also did something that global warming naysayers are guilty of -- point toward individual weather events like a heat wave, unusual snow storm or destructive hurricane to prove his point of view.
And there are a lot of people right now who disagree with claims about global warming. That's a shame, because there is a strong basis of information that the world has been warming significantly over the past few decades. I don't know what share of blame we people have, or cows have, or Mother Nature has in her natural cycles.
Al Gore did not need to depend on hyperbole and falsehoods to prove that something was indeed taking place with our world. But he did. Now there are two strongly diametrically opposed camps on this extremely important subject. It didn't have to be that way, but it is, and is in large part due to the former vice-president of the United States.
Strange to think that the leading global warming advocate on the planet has POLAR-ized us on the issue. Not cool. (Sorry, couldn't resist).
For that, and scaring a young woman just beginning life as an adult, Al Gore definitely did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.
---
The Washington Post has answered the New York Times story of a couple months ago in which a number of U.S. airborne troops discussed how poorly things were going in their Shiite section of Baghdad despite the surge. The Post's own article is from 12 former Army captains who served in various times in Iraq, and they also write about how bad things were.
The media lately has ravenously consumed any military opinion that opposes U.S. policy in Iraq, including recent stories on criticism by retired generals and troopers who turned out to be less than what they said they were, giving rise to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's now-infamous "phony soldiers" label.
There's a couple of problems here. First, the airborne soldiers -- a couple of whom have tragically died since the article was published -- were billeted in one of the worst areas of Baghdad while surge operations were taking place outside the city. Of course things were bad where they were. Only in recent weeks have our soldiers and Iraqi troops been concentrating on Shiite areas. The stories of those soldiers were true, but meaningless in the debate over Iraq policy.
Second, the criticisms of Gen. Mark Sanchez, who led the military effort, who called the Iraq operation "a nightmare with no end in sight," are also true. The trouble is, he was the commander from June 2003 to June 2004. That's now a long time ago. His complaints are best left for the history books.
Now, the Washington Post article posted today. It was written by 12 former Army captains and exposes the rampant corruption and crumbling infrastructure they witnessed. They told of how the lack of manpower hinders operations even today.
At the bottom of the article, the names of the authors appear, along with when and where they served. None of them have been in-country this year. Zero. Two of them were in Iraq as recently as last year. This being mid-October, that was a while ago, well before the surge started. Most of them served their tours in 2003 and 2005 -- the second one certainly coming at a time when things weren't so good.
So be vigilant when reading articles from former and current members of the military who criticize the war effort. What they'll tell you is interesting and probably true. But so far, in the media's rush to put some armed forces credibility behind it's anti-war stance, there have been none who can legitimately say that the war is lost based on current conditions.
We had been talking about something innocuous -- I forget what -- when she made the comment while handing me the bag. If it had come up earlier in our conversation, I might have asked her the basis for her fears or try to calm her in some way. Alas, I had the bag of items I bought and my receipt, so I was on my way.
In this age when we are at war, with men and women of her age fighting and sometimes dying halfway around the world, global warming was her biggest concern. Being a checkout girl, I wondered if she lived in a blighted neighborhood threatened by crime. Or if her parents were facing foreclosure of their home. Or if she were able to afford the schooling necessary for her to get a better job.
Maybe she was otherwise content with her lot in the world. Perhaps she had nothing else to worry about other than global warming.
I thought about her statement every so often until last week, when it gained new relevancy with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore, who has spent the past few years on a crusade to raise awareness of global warming. He certainly made his point with this young woman.
I wonder if it was Gore's intent to instill fear into a young cashier. Maybe it was. That doesn't sound like a very peaceful act to me. My opinion on global warming is stated in the header on this blog -- it's something we need to deal with and plan for but the claims of worldwide catastrophe are way over the top. And it's Al Gore who has been the King of Catastrophe on the subject.
It was rather funny that the Nobel Committee in Norway announced the Peace Prize winner the day after he was rebuked by a judge in the United Kingdom for including numerous falsehoods in the film "An Inconvenient Truth." He misrepresented data to support his claims, exaggerated the projected rise of the sea level and based his presentation on worst-case scenarios. He also did something that global warming naysayers are guilty of -- point toward individual weather events like a heat wave, unusual snow storm or destructive hurricane to prove his point of view.
And there are a lot of people right now who disagree with claims about global warming. That's a shame, because there is a strong basis of information that the world has been warming significantly over the past few decades. I don't know what share of blame we people have, or cows have, or Mother Nature has in her natural cycles.
Al Gore did not need to depend on hyperbole and falsehoods to prove that something was indeed taking place with our world. But he did. Now there are two strongly diametrically opposed camps on this extremely important subject. It didn't have to be that way, but it is, and is in large part due to the former vice-president of the United States.
Strange to think that the leading global warming advocate on the planet has POLAR-ized us on the issue. Not cool. (Sorry, couldn't resist).
For that, and scaring a young woman just beginning life as an adult, Al Gore definitely did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.
---
The Washington Post has answered the New York Times story of a couple months ago in which a number of U.S. airborne troops discussed how poorly things were going in their Shiite section of Baghdad despite the surge. The Post's own article is from 12 former Army captains who served in various times in Iraq, and they also write about how bad things were.
The media lately has ravenously consumed any military opinion that opposes U.S. policy in Iraq, including recent stories on criticism by retired generals and troopers who turned out to be less than what they said they were, giving rise to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's now-infamous "phony soldiers" label.
There's a couple of problems here. First, the airborne soldiers -- a couple of whom have tragically died since the article was published -- were billeted in one of the worst areas of Baghdad while surge operations were taking place outside the city. Of course things were bad where they were. Only in recent weeks have our soldiers and Iraqi troops been concentrating on Shiite areas. The stories of those soldiers were true, but meaningless in the debate over Iraq policy.
Second, the criticisms of Gen. Mark Sanchez, who led the military effort, who called the Iraq operation "a nightmare with no end in sight," are also true. The trouble is, he was the commander from June 2003 to June 2004. That's now a long time ago. His complaints are best left for the history books.
Now, the Washington Post article posted today. It was written by 12 former Army captains and exposes the rampant corruption and crumbling infrastructure they witnessed. They told of how the lack of manpower hinders operations even today.
At the bottom of the article, the names of the authors appear, along with when and where they served. None of them have been in-country this year. Zero. Two of them were in Iraq as recently as last year. This being mid-October, that was a while ago, well before the surge started. Most of them served their tours in 2003 and 2005 -- the second one certainly coming at a time when things weren't so good.
So be vigilant when reading articles from former and current members of the military who criticize the war effort. What they'll tell you is interesting and probably true. But so far, in the media's rush to put some armed forces credibility behind it's anti-war stance, there have been none who can legitimately say that the war is lost based on current conditions.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Stealth Guerrilla Candidates Mock Electoral System
Coming soon to a presidential election near you: Dennis Kucinich running as an independent in the general election, funded by Wall Street capitalists scared of the concept of Hillary Clinton in the White House; or Mike Huckabee also aiming for commander-in-chief without a party, with campaign funds funneled surreptitiously from George Soros.
That mind-spinning scenario came down late last week and is just another sign of how our political leadership would rather play the system than take care of the needs of our country.
The idea is simple. In the past couple of years, Ralph Nader ran to the left of the Democratic candidate and took away just enough votes to give the presidency to Republican George Bush. The current leader's father was undone in 1992 by H. Ross Perot, much more a conservative than a liberal. Each time, the effect of the insurgent candidate was to help someone with a completely opposite point of view into office.
Perot and Nader at least ran on principle. If there's an independent candidate this time, it will be all about politics.
The possibility of something like this happened rose when Dr. James Dobson, who has been one of the leaders of the so-called "religious right" as the president of Focus on the Family, threatened to withhold support from the GOP if abortion-rights supporter Rudy Giuliani won the nomination. No matter that the former mayor of New York City has a tough law-and-order record that cleaned up the Big Apple, is strong against terrorism and is more likely to appoint judges sympathetic to Dobson's viewpoint. Pulling a power play, it would seem he'd rather throw the election to Hillary Clinton.
Dobson has been highly influential in the Republican party in the past, with many thousands of supporters across the country. However, in this election season, none of the front-running candidates could be described as a Christian conservative and one of them, Mitt Romney, is a -- gasp! -- Mormon. Seeing Huckabee and other religious right candidates trailing badly, Dobson is grabbing at straws to try to remind party pros how much sway he really has.
Right now, it's an empty threat and could remain that way. People are going to vote however they're going to vote in the primaries and, if the polls are in any way accurate, Giuliani could very well win the GOP nomination. In a match between Giuliani and Clinton, the religious housewife from Alabama will hold her nose and vote for Rudy, much like independents held their nose and gave Hillary's husband a second term.
But, what would happen if someone were to approach Huckabee (and I'm only using the Arkansas governor as an example because he fits the Christian conservative profile) and convinces him to run as an independent. Financial backers of the left, seeing a chance to divert Giuliani votes to someone else, can flood the new campaign with donations and make him appear to be a legitimate candidate, giving that Alabama housewife a realistic alternative to Giuliani. That could give Hillary one or two competitive states.
There's a similar scenario possible for the other side, where Clinton's stance on Iraq has not convinced anti-war activists that she represents them. In fact, Clinton and Barack Obama both refused recently to promise that all U.S. troops would be out of that country by the end of their first term. The anti-war left wants those troops out NOW, if not YESTERDAY.
Just like the Alabama housewife wouldn't change her vote in a two-person race for the White House, the University of Massachusetts philosophy professor would hold his nose and vote for Clinton over someone like Giuliani, who generally supports President Bush's military efforts in the Middle East.
However, if Kucinich (like Huckabee, a profile-fitting example), were to be convinced to run as an outside candidate in the general election, and for rich Republicans to provide him with money and legitimacy, then he could draw away votes from Clinton, handing a couple Upper Midwest states and maybe the White House to Giuliani.
This is politics in the United States in 2007. We still have not passed solutions to the Medicare and Social Security crisis, our borders are still sieves, and terrorists might still be in our midst. Our leaders might not be able to tackle the real problems of the day, but they're at the ready to game the electoral system in a bid to gain or maintain their power. After all, what's more important?
You know the answer for them. Just remember the answer for us.
---
Interesting to see the pro- and negative treatments of the arrival of the autobiography by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, "My Grandfather's Son." As you might expect, the conservative media has been glowing in its reviews of the book and the man, while the left is somehow shocked -- shocked! -- that he hates them for their abusive confirmation hearings in 1991.
Those hearings were a watershed moment for American politics. If a young person amazed at the hatred and mistrust between the political parties ever asks how control of Washington, D.C. turned into a death struggle, point to the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas.
Anita Hill, then a professor at the University of Oklahoma and now at Brandeis University, claimed that Thomas had sexually harassed her years earlier while they worked at the Dept. of Education. The issue never came up in Senate Justice Committee hearings, only when his nomination, opposed by liberal groups fearful of a black conservative in a high government position, went to the whole chamber.
There was no way to prove or disprove what took place between Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. Therefore, there was no way it should have become an issue in the nomination. But liberal groups, desperate to keep blacks on their side of the political fence, pulled out all the stops to prevent Thomas from reaching the high court.
Thomas, however, won approval and has for 16 years been a pretty good justice, and has proven to possess a mind of his own, not always ending up on the side of Antonin Scalia. We're definitely better having him on the court, and much worse off for how his confirmation was handled.
National politics, through the Clinton and Bush years, have never been the same.
That mind-spinning scenario came down late last week and is just another sign of how our political leadership would rather play the system than take care of the needs of our country.
The idea is simple. In the past couple of years, Ralph Nader ran to the left of the Democratic candidate and took away just enough votes to give the presidency to Republican George Bush. The current leader's father was undone in 1992 by H. Ross Perot, much more a conservative than a liberal. Each time, the effect of the insurgent candidate was to help someone with a completely opposite point of view into office.
Perot and Nader at least ran on principle. If there's an independent candidate this time, it will be all about politics.
The possibility of something like this happened rose when Dr. James Dobson, who has been one of the leaders of the so-called "religious right" as the president of Focus on the Family, threatened to withhold support from the GOP if abortion-rights supporter Rudy Giuliani won the nomination. No matter that the former mayor of New York City has a tough law-and-order record that cleaned up the Big Apple, is strong against terrorism and is more likely to appoint judges sympathetic to Dobson's viewpoint. Pulling a power play, it would seem he'd rather throw the election to Hillary Clinton.
Dobson has been highly influential in the Republican party in the past, with many thousands of supporters across the country. However, in this election season, none of the front-running candidates could be described as a Christian conservative and one of them, Mitt Romney, is a -- gasp! -- Mormon. Seeing Huckabee and other religious right candidates trailing badly, Dobson is grabbing at straws to try to remind party pros how much sway he really has.
Right now, it's an empty threat and could remain that way. People are going to vote however they're going to vote in the primaries and, if the polls are in any way accurate, Giuliani could very well win the GOP nomination. In a match between Giuliani and Clinton, the religious housewife from Alabama will hold her nose and vote for Rudy, much like independents held their nose and gave Hillary's husband a second term.
But, what would happen if someone were to approach Huckabee (and I'm only using the Arkansas governor as an example because he fits the Christian conservative profile) and convinces him to run as an independent. Financial backers of the left, seeing a chance to divert Giuliani votes to someone else, can flood the new campaign with donations and make him appear to be a legitimate candidate, giving that Alabama housewife a realistic alternative to Giuliani. That could give Hillary one or two competitive states.
There's a similar scenario possible for the other side, where Clinton's stance on Iraq has not convinced anti-war activists that she represents them. In fact, Clinton and Barack Obama both refused recently to promise that all U.S. troops would be out of that country by the end of their first term. The anti-war left wants those troops out NOW, if not YESTERDAY.
Just like the Alabama housewife wouldn't change her vote in a two-person race for the White House, the University of Massachusetts philosophy professor would hold his nose and vote for Clinton over someone like Giuliani, who generally supports President Bush's military efforts in the Middle East.
However, if Kucinich (like Huckabee, a profile-fitting example), were to be convinced to run as an outside candidate in the general election, and for rich Republicans to provide him with money and legitimacy, then he could draw away votes from Clinton, handing a couple Upper Midwest states and maybe the White House to Giuliani.
This is politics in the United States in 2007. We still have not passed solutions to the Medicare and Social Security crisis, our borders are still sieves, and terrorists might still be in our midst. Our leaders might not be able to tackle the real problems of the day, but they're at the ready to game the electoral system in a bid to gain or maintain their power. After all, what's more important?
You know the answer for them. Just remember the answer for us.
---
Interesting to see the pro- and negative treatments of the arrival of the autobiography by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, "My Grandfather's Son." As you might expect, the conservative media has been glowing in its reviews of the book and the man, while the left is somehow shocked -- shocked! -- that he hates them for their abusive confirmation hearings in 1991.
Those hearings were a watershed moment for American politics. If a young person amazed at the hatred and mistrust between the political parties ever asks how control of Washington, D.C. turned into a death struggle, point to the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas.
Anita Hill, then a professor at the University of Oklahoma and now at Brandeis University, claimed that Thomas had sexually harassed her years earlier while they worked at the Dept. of Education. The issue never came up in Senate Justice Committee hearings, only when his nomination, opposed by liberal groups fearful of a black conservative in a high government position, went to the whole chamber.
There was no way to prove or disprove what took place between Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. Therefore, there was no way it should have become an issue in the nomination. But liberal groups, desperate to keep blacks on their side of the political fence, pulled out all the stops to prevent Thomas from reaching the high court.
Thomas, however, won approval and has for 16 years been a pretty good justice, and has proven to possess a mind of his own, not always ending up on the side of Antonin Scalia. We're definitely better having him on the court, and much worse off for how his confirmation was handled.
National politics, through the Clinton and Bush years, have never been the same.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
October, The Beautiful
Across the fruited plain, there is no finer month than October.
The tumultuous weather faced by many of us during the summer months is over, and evenings bring out more sweaters than bugs. The leaves are changing from green to deep red, gold or a soft yellow before they gently drop to the ground. The warm aroma of apple pie wafts from open kitchen windows. The young, or young at heart, throw footballs in the street once the cars have passed.
School is in full swing, even those strangely late-starting colleges on the quarter system. Work has taken on a renewed urgency now that everyone is back from vacation. Lovers walk tightly arm-in-arm under the crisp moonlight. Football still carries the excitement of a young season with the plot yet to unfold and baseball aims dramatically toward its climax.
No month is quite like October.
Here in California, this month is really like no other. To really understand the Golden State, you have to know that October is our best month for weather. So many people from out-of-state come here for their California Dream vacation early in the summer and end up with a full dose of what we call "June Gloom."
"Summer" doesn't really start here until after July 4. Then, for about two months, we have the same hot weather faced by everyone else, though not so humid.
October, though, is the best. It's still quite warm (well into the 90s at my place today) but is dry and sunny. Through most of the weekend, I saw one cloud. My children and I rode bicycles in the heat and the old man broke nary a sweat. The air was that dry. We had some drizzle the other day, and will probably get more soon. The big rains, if they bother to show up at all, usually wait until after Thanksgiving.
In Southern California, there are other months that rival October. There's always about two weeks of Indian Summer in January, for example. In Northern California, the 10th month on the calendar is unparalleled. That line about "the coldest winter ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" is true. Wait until September. Or even better, October, when you can get the best of both worlds as our hemisphere makes fall's transition.
---
As a Westerner and college football fan, I hate college football's Bowl Championship Series and its provisions that amounted to restraint of trade for schools -- and in particular, the schools' fans and alumni -- who were judged unworthy of competing for a championship or even a big payday.
The BCS and it's forerunner were mid-1990s creations designed to create "a true national championship game" and at the same time enrich the coffers of athletic departments at the traditional powerhouse universities. Four existing bowl games were brought in under the BCS banner to host champions of the big-time conferences and a pair of so-called at-large teams, usually meaning Notre Dame and a Southeast Conference runner-up.
Well, things finally are changing, albeit slowly. The BCS has added a fifth game and loosened restrictions on Mountain West, WAC, MAC and Conference USA eligibility. Utah and Boise State both proved the value of inclusiveness.
Now, looking at the latest college football poll, Boston College is ranked fourth and South Florida is fifth. The latter, since you probably haven't heard of it other than a professor being linked to Middle East terror fundraising, is located in Tampa in what is actually the central portion of the state. Cal, known to the non-sports-oriented as UC-Berkeley, is third. THIRD. Home of tree-huggers and philosophy professors, not linebackers. The Beserkeley Bears. You've got to be kidding.
And there are other unusual teams knocking at the BCS door this year. Cincinnati, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri and Hawaii are all non-powers who suddenly are undefeated early in America's greatest month. These aren't the schools the BCS was designed for.
Michigan and Notre Dame are not in the Top 25. Neither are Alabama or Nebraska. Nor are Miami or Penn State.
Last season, BCS games included those Boise State Broncos and Wake Forest, the Winston-Salem, N.C. school with the smallest enrollment in Division 1. This year, they might host a school with a direction in its name or named after a city.
Somewhere, whoever came up with the BCS is looking at the lastest rankings and shaking his head. That is a very good thing.
The tumultuous weather faced by many of us during the summer months is over, and evenings bring out more sweaters than bugs. The leaves are changing from green to deep red, gold or a soft yellow before they gently drop to the ground. The warm aroma of apple pie wafts from open kitchen windows. The young, or young at heart, throw footballs in the street once the cars have passed.
School is in full swing, even those strangely late-starting colleges on the quarter system. Work has taken on a renewed urgency now that everyone is back from vacation. Lovers walk tightly arm-in-arm under the crisp moonlight. Football still carries the excitement of a young season with the plot yet to unfold and baseball aims dramatically toward its climax.
No month is quite like October.
Here in California, this month is really like no other. To really understand the Golden State, you have to know that October is our best month for weather. So many people from out-of-state come here for their California Dream vacation early in the summer and end up with a full dose of what we call "June Gloom."
"Summer" doesn't really start here until after July 4. Then, for about two months, we have the same hot weather faced by everyone else, though not so humid.
October, though, is the best. It's still quite warm (well into the 90s at my place today) but is dry and sunny. Through most of the weekend, I saw one cloud. My children and I rode bicycles in the heat and the old man broke nary a sweat. The air was that dry. We had some drizzle the other day, and will probably get more soon. The big rains, if they bother to show up at all, usually wait until after Thanksgiving.
In Southern California, there are other months that rival October. There's always about two weeks of Indian Summer in January, for example. In Northern California, the 10th month on the calendar is unparalleled. That line about "the coldest winter ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" is true. Wait until September. Or even better, October, when you can get the best of both worlds as our hemisphere makes fall's transition.
---
As a Westerner and college football fan, I hate college football's Bowl Championship Series and its provisions that amounted to restraint of trade for schools -- and in particular, the schools' fans and alumni -- who were judged unworthy of competing for a championship or even a big payday.
The BCS and it's forerunner were mid-1990s creations designed to create "a true national championship game" and at the same time enrich the coffers of athletic departments at the traditional powerhouse universities. Four existing bowl games were brought in under the BCS banner to host champions of the big-time conferences and a pair of so-called at-large teams, usually meaning Notre Dame and a Southeast Conference runner-up.
Well, things finally are changing, albeit slowly. The BCS has added a fifth game and loosened restrictions on Mountain West, WAC, MAC and Conference USA eligibility. Utah and Boise State both proved the value of inclusiveness.
Now, looking at the latest college football poll, Boston College is ranked fourth and South Florida is fifth. The latter, since you probably haven't heard of it other than a professor being linked to Middle East terror fundraising, is located in Tampa in what is actually the central portion of the state. Cal, known to the non-sports-oriented as UC-Berkeley, is third. THIRD. Home of tree-huggers and philosophy professors, not linebackers. The Beserkeley Bears. You've got to be kidding.
And there are other unusual teams knocking at the BCS door this year. Cincinnati, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri and Hawaii are all non-powers who suddenly are undefeated early in America's greatest month. These aren't the schools the BCS was designed for.
Michigan and Notre Dame are not in the Top 25. Neither are Alabama or Nebraska. Nor are Miami or Penn State.
Last season, BCS games included those Boise State Broncos and Wake Forest, the Winston-Salem, N.C. school with the smallest enrollment in Division 1. This year, they might host a school with a direction in its name or named after a city.
Somewhere, whoever came up with the BCS is looking at the lastest rankings and shaking his head. That is a very good thing.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Fundamentally, We're Not Sound
One of the great things about baseball is that it tells us so much about real life. As a fan suddenly without a stake in the playoffs, the Monday wildcard tiebreaker between the Padres and Rockies has weighed heavily upon my mind.
Everyone will have a different opinion on whether Colorado's Matt Holliday was safe at home plate with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning.
What gets me is how everyone says what a great game it was. Okay, it was exciting if you had rooting interest in the outcome, as I did. But this was not a well-played contest. In fact, it was played poorly throughout. The lack of fundamentals was appalling.
You can go from arguably the best starting pitcher in the National League, Jake Peavy of the Padres, being unable to keep the ball down and giving up six runs, to Friars center-fielder Brady Clark muffing several balls, to Holliday starting in on a ball hit over his head in a stadium where outfield flies are known to carry, to hitters on both sides swinging for the fences for nearly the last five innings.
The game was won by the Rockies when their hitters returned to standard hitting fundamentals, taking tough pitches the opposite way and putting the ball in play. Padres closer Trevor Hoffman made some quality pitches, and Colorado hitters fought them off and made something good happen.
I could go on and on. Of course, the person who knows least about whether Holliday actually scored was the home plate umpire.
It's no wonder why America didn't win the World Baseball Classic last year and why we often struggle in international competitions in sports we should dominate. We have completely ignored fundamentals.
It's not just baseball, or basketball, the other sport where the lack of basic skills is glaring. We're not taking care of fundamentals at home or in the halls of government. Household debt is sky high, and not just because of the mortgage. It's buying or leasing too fancy cars and maxing out our credit cards. Our once balanced national budget is spewing red ink again.
My wife and I always attend back-to-school nights so that we can get a feel for our children's schooling and impress upon the teachers that we are serious about the education of our offspring. Our experience is that, in general, parents of less than half the students attend these events. We also communicate with their teachers, make sure they do their homework and are on task in their reading assignments and projects. I don't consider us special in this regard. Both of us were raised the same way, and we're just following through.
As a nation, we're spending more tax dollars than ever on education, and we're falling farther behind the learning that's taking place in other countries. We're importing high-tech workers because there are not enough qualified U.S. natives in the talent pool, even though college enrollment is at an all-time high. And don't even let me begin on the litany of problems at colleges, which often seem more like socialist indoctrination centers than hallowed places of higher learning.
American automakers are selling fewer vehicles, as a share of the market, because they've been building bad cars for 30 years now. The Japanese, and now the Koreans, simply build better ones. General Motors is falling apart because of health care liabilities forced upon it by suicidal unions.
People take drugs, drink alcohol to excess and smoke (though less so), eat too much and too much bad food without exercising enough, despite being aware of the dangers of each. They don't take care of themselves (okay, I'm not perfect, I have a sweet tooth and am out of shape from having a bad diet and exercise habits when I was younger).
Our governments fail to uphold even the basic responsibilities of maintaining our infrastructure, protecting us from outside security threats and preventing illegal immigrants from crossing the border in defiance of their countrymen, who waste time trying to follow the rules.
Our culture has degenerated to the point that emaciated and talent-shy women and violent men are made celebrities. Our business climate has declined to where we can build a house of cards or Ponzi scheme -- be it the mortgage crisis, the Internet bubble or hedge funds -- and count on the Federal Reserve to pump more money into our financial system to prevent us from feeling the consequences of our actions. Thus, the American dollar has been surpassed in value by the Canadian dollar. What's up with that, eh?
It's a testament to the resilience of our people as individuals and our society as a whole that America functions despite all this. But there's a lot that can come crashing down on us that has nothing to do with terrorism.
We need to return to fundamentals. In baseball and in our daily lives, and we have to insist that our leaders in business, entertainment and particularly in government, do the same.
---
Another great week in the halls of Congress. Anti-war senators blast radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh for not supporting the troops even though they took his words out of context, and Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig loses his bid to withdraw his guilty plea to playing "Bathroom Stall Footsie" and vows to remain in office to serve out his term. It's 1984 meets 2007. It's why everyone hates the Democratic-led Congress and why the GOP has little chance of supplanting them.
Anyone for a third party this time?
---
I've mentioned that GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani seems to have a hard time answering questions directly. However, I listened to him being interviewed by Sean Hannity today and even though most of the questions were friendly puff balls, he did in fact answer what was posed to him. And did so well. While Hillary Clinton is running away with the Democratic nomination, Giuliani could very well strengthen his own front-running status by being direct like this.
Everyone will have a different opinion on whether Colorado's Matt Holliday was safe at home plate with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning.
What gets me is how everyone says what a great game it was. Okay, it was exciting if you had rooting interest in the outcome, as I did. But this was not a well-played contest. In fact, it was played poorly throughout. The lack of fundamentals was appalling.
You can go from arguably the best starting pitcher in the National League, Jake Peavy of the Padres, being unable to keep the ball down and giving up six runs, to Friars center-fielder Brady Clark muffing several balls, to Holliday starting in on a ball hit over his head in a stadium where outfield flies are known to carry, to hitters on both sides swinging for the fences for nearly the last five innings.
The game was won by the Rockies when their hitters returned to standard hitting fundamentals, taking tough pitches the opposite way and putting the ball in play. Padres closer Trevor Hoffman made some quality pitches, and Colorado hitters fought them off and made something good happen.
I could go on and on. Of course, the person who knows least about whether Holliday actually scored was the home plate umpire.
It's no wonder why America didn't win the World Baseball Classic last year and why we often struggle in international competitions in sports we should dominate. We have completely ignored fundamentals.
It's not just baseball, or basketball, the other sport where the lack of basic skills is glaring. We're not taking care of fundamentals at home or in the halls of government. Household debt is sky high, and not just because of the mortgage. It's buying or leasing too fancy cars and maxing out our credit cards. Our once balanced national budget is spewing red ink again.
My wife and I always attend back-to-school nights so that we can get a feel for our children's schooling and impress upon the teachers that we are serious about the education of our offspring. Our experience is that, in general, parents of less than half the students attend these events. We also communicate with their teachers, make sure they do their homework and are on task in their reading assignments and projects. I don't consider us special in this regard. Both of us were raised the same way, and we're just following through.
As a nation, we're spending more tax dollars than ever on education, and we're falling farther behind the learning that's taking place in other countries. We're importing high-tech workers because there are not enough qualified U.S. natives in the talent pool, even though college enrollment is at an all-time high. And don't even let me begin on the litany of problems at colleges, which often seem more like socialist indoctrination centers than hallowed places of higher learning.
American automakers are selling fewer vehicles, as a share of the market, because they've been building bad cars for 30 years now. The Japanese, and now the Koreans, simply build better ones. General Motors is falling apart because of health care liabilities forced upon it by suicidal unions.
People take drugs, drink alcohol to excess and smoke (though less so), eat too much and too much bad food without exercising enough, despite being aware of the dangers of each. They don't take care of themselves (okay, I'm not perfect, I have a sweet tooth and am out of shape from having a bad diet and exercise habits when I was younger).
Our governments fail to uphold even the basic responsibilities of maintaining our infrastructure, protecting us from outside security threats and preventing illegal immigrants from crossing the border in defiance of their countrymen, who waste time trying to follow the rules.
Our culture has degenerated to the point that emaciated and talent-shy women and violent men are made celebrities. Our business climate has declined to where we can build a house of cards or Ponzi scheme -- be it the mortgage crisis, the Internet bubble or hedge funds -- and count on the Federal Reserve to pump more money into our financial system to prevent us from feeling the consequences of our actions. Thus, the American dollar has been surpassed in value by the Canadian dollar. What's up with that, eh?
It's a testament to the resilience of our people as individuals and our society as a whole that America functions despite all this. But there's a lot that can come crashing down on us that has nothing to do with terrorism.
We need to return to fundamentals. In baseball and in our daily lives, and we have to insist that our leaders in business, entertainment and particularly in government, do the same.
---
Another great week in the halls of Congress. Anti-war senators blast radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh for not supporting the troops even though they took his words out of context, and Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig loses his bid to withdraw his guilty plea to playing "Bathroom Stall Footsie" and vows to remain in office to serve out his term. It's 1984 meets 2007. It's why everyone hates the Democratic-led Congress and why the GOP has little chance of supplanting them.
Anyone for a third party this time?
---
I've mentioned that GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani seems to have a hard time answering questions directly. However, I listened to him being interviewed by Sean Hannity today and even though most of the questions were friendly puff balls, he did in fact answer what was posed to him. And did so well. While Hillary Clinton is running away with the Democratic nomination, Giuliani could very well strengthen his own front-running status by being direct like this.
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