We in America all receive numerous email messages around this time of year relating to our celebration of the 4th of July, or Independence Day. I received one this week that stood out, not because it was more patriotic than the others, but because it seemed to contradict them.
The email message was titled, “John Adams writing about the 4th of July.” Of course, John Adams, our second president was a very important figure among the Founding Fathers. Therefore, his writings had to be important and sacrosanct.
Here is the exact quote from a letter to Adams’ wife, Abigail:
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).
I don’t know about you, but I did a literal double take when I saw that date at the beginning of the quote. Why would John Adams consider July 2, 1776 to be our Independence Day? So I did some research and here is what I found.
It turns out that the above quote was taken from a letter John Adams wrote on July 3rd, after the Continental Congress voted in the affirmative on a resolution by Richard Henry Lee calling for independence from Great Britain. That vote took place the day before on July 2nd.
Here is his resolution of July 2, 1776:
Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
After the vote tally, a committee was appointed to draft the actual statement. It consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. They in turn appointed Jefferson to draft the document.
While John Adams was penning his letter to his wife, Abigail, Thomas Jefferson was penning a more important document that would eclipse the events of July 2nd. He was drafting the Declaration of Independence, which he presented the following day for reading and signing. Thus July 4th became the true day of independence.
Richard Henry Lee, the person who first wrote and proposed independence, wasn’t even present two days later when the Jefferson document was signed. He had gone back to his home in Virginia. He did, however, sign later. Eventually he became the president of the Second Continental Congress and later a senator from Virginia in the United States Senate. His name has never been closely associated with the Declaration of Independence and he faded into obscurity in history.
As to the true date of our independence, I can understand why it became July 4th instead of July 2nd. It’s a lot harder to say “The Second of July” than it is “The Fourth of July.” The latter expression just kind of rolls off the tongue.
So now you’ve had a history lesson that I hope will motivate you to think about the true meaning of Independence Day and how far we’ve come from that fateful day 235 years ago.
God bless America!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Scamming the System
A little over a year ago I wrote a column detailing how I was cheated out of getting the First Time Buyers credit for purchasing our new town home. The real estate dealer, who was coincidentally the wife of the builder, raised the selling price by just a little less than the amount of the credit. Therefore, I bought the property at an inflated price and the credit I claimed at tax time only compensated me for a small part of that inflated cost.
The only reason I caught on to the scam is that my wife went across the street to see what the same model of town home was selling for after the First Time Buyers Credit expired. The newly built ones were priced several thousand dollars less than ours had been. That immediately lowered the value of our place by that amount, so we lost our refund credit entirely.
I refer to that scam now because there is a similar one taking place right now, but it isn’t in the housing market, but in the automobile market, another troubled sector of our weak and failing economy. I only learned of it a few weeks ago. The news was contained in an article I probably sent to you titled, Greed is Good as a Tax Credit by John Ransom. (The actual title of the article, which I admit I altered so that my left-leaning family and friends would read it, is, Dems: Greed is Good as a Tax Credit)
In that article Mr. Ransom cites evidence that, among other scams that cheat the system and steal from the American Taxpayer, many General Motors car dealers – it might not be ALL, but a huge majority - who sell the new Chevy Volt hybrid car are creating their own scam.
The dealers title the cars as they receive them, claim the $7,500 credit available for any buyer of these $40k+ cars, and then turn around and sell them as ‘used’ cars with low mileage – in some cars, only 10-30 miles on the odometer – at full Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. Of course, the purchaser of this ‘used’ car thinks it is new, but is not eligible to claim the credit. He or she might not find that out until tax time when the credit is disallowed.
The GM Volt scam has two consequences. The first is that unscrupulous dealers are cheating the purchaser and ultimately, the taxpayers. You probably already know that car dealers are among the most distrusted of all sales people. The second is that is enables all interested parties, including the Obama Administration and the “eco-freaks,” to claim that the Volt is so popular that Chevrolet can’t make them fast enough. After all, new ones aren’t available on the car dealers’ lots, only slightly used ones.
Disregarding the fact that the $7,500 credit is being paid to the wrong people through fraud, the second consequence is just another lie we’re being told to support the contention that our economy is in the recovery phase.
Ask any of those millions – I believe the number is over 4 million, possibly as high as 6 million as I write this – who are unemployed and have been so for two years or more. They will tell you that their economy certainly isn’t in the recovery phase.
I’m not making any judgments, just reporting the facts. Can you live with them?
The only reason I caught on to the scam is that my wife went across the street to see what the same model of town home was selling for after the First Time Buyers Credit expired. The newly built ones were priced several thousand dollars less than ours had been. That immediately lowered the value of our place by that amount, so we lost our refund credit entirely.
I refer to that scam now because there is a similar one taking place right now, but it isn’t in the housing market, but in the automobile market, another troubled sector of our weak and failing economy. I only learned of it a few weeks ago. The news was contained in an article I probably sent to you titled, Greed is Good as a Tax Credit by John Ransom. (The actual title of the article, which I admit I altered so that my left-leaning family and friends would read it, is, Dems: Greed is Good as a Tax Credit)
In that article Mr. Ransom cites evidence that, among other scams that cheat the system and steal from the American Taxpayer, many General Motors car dealers – it might not be ALL, but a huge majority - who sell the new Chevy Volt hybrid car are creating their own scam.
The dealers title the cars as they receive them, claim the $7,500 credit available for any buyer of these $40k+ cars, and then turn around and sell them as ‘used’ cars with low mileage – in some cars, only 10-30 miles on the odometer – at full Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. Of course, the purchaser of this ‘used’ car thinks it is new, but is not eligible to claim the credit. He or she might not find that out until tax time when the credit is disallowed.
The GM Volt scam has two consequences. The first is that unscrupulous dealers are cheating the purchaser and ultimately, the taxpayers. You probably already know that car dealers are among the most distrusted of all sales people. The second is that is enables all interested parties, including the Obama Administration and the “eco-freaks,” to claim that the Volt is so popular that Chevrolet can’t make them fast enough. After all, new ones aren’t available on the car dealers’ lots, only slightly used ones.
Disregarding the fact that the $7,500 credit is being paid to the wrong people through fraud, the second consequence is just another lie we’re being told to support the contention that our economy is in the recovery phase.
Ask any of those millions – I believe the number is over 4 million, possibly as high as 6 million as I write this – who are unemployed and have been so for two years or more. They will tell you that their economy certainly isn’t in the recovery phase.
I’m not making any judgments, just reporting the facts. Can you live with them?
Saturday, June 18, 2011
The Pledge of Allegiance
(This is a repeat of a column I first wrote and published in June of 2007, but it is as relevant today as it was then. In fact, I received another of those bothersome emails just this week.)
Last Tuesday was National Flag Day. I hope you displayed your flag properly and paused at some point during the day to honor our flag. Perhaps you even recited the Pledge of Allegiance. If so, did you include those two inflammatory words, “under God” in your pledge?
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG,
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS,
ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE,
WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
I’ve received the email promoting “Under God” at least a hundred times. I’m sure you have too. I’m getting tired of seeing it in the subject line, and I delete the message ASAP. It’s not that I’m not patriotic, because I am, but I find the whole controversy over the words is focused on the wrong ones. The whole pledge is a sham.
Do you know that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist named Francis Bellamy in 1892 for a popular family magazine of the time, Youth’s Companion? The owners of the magazine used it—and the 500,000 kids who subscribed to it—to sell flags to schools, and they were successful beyond their wildest dreams; over 26,000 schools bought them. Until that time, flags were rarely seen in front of or in the schools.
The original words to the pledge were, “I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands – one nation indivisible – with liberty and justice for all.” This was the first nationalistic pledge in our history. The man who wrote it was in favor of nationalizing most of the American economy and he hated our capitalistic system. They didn’t call it communism back in those days, but that’s what it was he wanted. Reverend Bellamy also wanted to use the words “fraternity” and “equality” in the pledge, but he decided that the words were too radical and omitted them.
The first known public recitation of the Pledge Of Allegiance was at the Columbus Day ceremony commemorating the quadricentennial anniversary of his discovery of the New World. The publishers of Youth’s Companion, arranged with the National Education Association to have the national public schools observe the day with the use of the American Flag. They also got Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a national proclamation making the public school flag the center of the Columbus Day celebrations for 1892. (Margarette S. Miller, Twenty-three Words Printcraft Press, Portsmouth, VA 1976 pp. 63-65)
The original pledge was recited while giving a stiff, uplifted right hand salute. That was criticized and replaced with the hand over the heart during WWII because it resembled the German salute that went along with “Heil Hitler.” The words, “my flag” also were changed to, “the flag of the United States of America” because it was feared that the children of immigrants might confuse “my flag” for the flag of their homeland. Congress and President Eisenhower added the phrase, “under God,” in 1954 at the urging of the Knights of Columbus. (Christopher J. Kaufmann, Knights of Columbus Harper and Row, NY 1982 pp 385-386)
Only two nations in the world have and use a “pledge” to a flag, the United States and the Philippines, and the latter took on a pledge when the Spain ceded the colony to the U. S. at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War in 1898. The pledge custom was retained after Philippine independence was granted in 1946.
Think for a moment about the words. Do your eyes well up and do you get a lump in your throat when you recite them, like they sometimes do when you hear or sing the National Anthem? Of course not! They are just a series of monotone words that—now admit it—cause us to reflect more on the controversial additions than the meaning itself. Some even omit those two words.
The words of the Pledge of Allegiance are recited everyday in schools and at most official public meetings. However, if most of us knew the strange and disreputable origin of these words, regardless of their import today, we might not be reciting the pledge at all, let alone the words, “under God.”
(Portions of this text were borrowed from the Internet document The Strange Origin of the Pledge of Allegiance by John W. Baer.)
Last Tuesday was National Flag Day. I hope you displayed your flag properly and paused at some point during the day to honor our flag. Perhaps you even recited the Pledge of Allegiance. If so, did you include those two inflammatory words, “under God” in your pledge?
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG,
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS,
ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE,
WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
I’ve received the email promoting “Under God” at least a hundred times. I’m sure you have too. I’m getting tired of seeing it in the subject line, and I delete the message ASAP. It’s not that I’m not patriotic, because I am, but I find the whole controversy over the words is focused on the wrong ones. The whole pledge is a sham.
Do you know that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist named Francis Bellamy in 1892 for a popular family magazine of the time, Youth’s Companion? The owners of the magazine used it—and the 500,000 kids who subscribed to it—to sell flags to schools, and they were successful beyond their wildest dreams; over 26,000 schools bought them. Until that time, flags were rarely seen in front of or in the schools.
The original words to the pledge were, “I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands – one nation indivisible – with liberty and justice for all.” This was the first nationalistic pledge in our history. The man who wrote it was in favor of nationalizing most of the American economy and he hated our capitalistic system. They didn’t call it communism back in those days, but that’s what it was he wanted. Reverend Bellamy also wanted to use the words “fraternity” and “equality” in the pledge, but he decided that the words were too radical and omitted them.
The first known public recitation of the Pledge Of Allegiance was at the Columbus Day ceremony commemorating the quadricentennial anniversary of his discovery of the New World. The publishers of Youth’s Companion, arranged with the National Education Association to have the national public schools observe the day with the use of the American Flag. They also got Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a national proclamation making the public school flag the center of the Columbus Day celebrations for 1892. (Margarette S. Miller, Twenty-three Words Printcraft Press, Portsmouth, VA 1976 pp. 63-65)
The original pledge was recited while giving a stiff, uplifted right hand salute. That was criticized and replaced with the hand over the heart during WWII because it resembled the German salute that went along with “Heil Hitler.” The words, “my flag” also were changed to, “the flag of the United States of America” because it was feared that the children of immigrants might confuse “my flag” for the flag of their homeland. Congress and President Eisenhower added the phrase, “under God,” in 1954 at the urging of the Knights of Columbus. (Christopher J. Kaufmann, Knights of Columbus Harper and Row, NY 1982 pp 385-386)
Only two nations in the world have and use a “pledge” to a flag, the United States and the Philippines, and the latter took on a pledge when the Spain ceded the colony to the U. S. at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War in 1898. The pledge custom was retained after Philippine independence was granted in 1946.
Think for a moment about the words. Do your eyes well up and do you get a lump in your throat when you recite them, like they sometimes do when you hear or sing the National Anthem? Of course not! They are just a series of monotone words that—now admit it—cause us to reflect more on the controversial additions than the meaning itself. Some even omit those two words.
The words of the Pledge of Allegiance are recited everyday in schools and at most official public meetings. However, if most of us knew the strange and disreputable origin of these words, regardless of their import today, we might not be reciting the pledge at all, let alone the words, “under God.”
(Portions of this text were borrowed from the Internet document The Strange Origin of the Pledge of Allegiance by John W. Baer.)
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Strange Convergence of Events
I’m going to tell you a true story that has a mystical slant. You might call it coincidence. Some might even say it was fate, and I really don’t know how or why this occurred, but occur it did. It still gives me goose bumps today to recall it.
My maternal grandmother was born in 1878. She was (as grandmothers usually are) closer to me than my mother. She also had a sense about her that she knew secret things about us kids that she just shouldn’t have known. For instance, she could always find our hiding places for our ‘secret’ objects and she would know about things we had done out of her sight. Of course, she was a direct descendant of one of the Salem Witches, so we always knew from where her powers came.
Grandma McKeever lived to a ripe old age, was approaching her 99th birthday and was living with her daughter – actually my mother was her niece, but that’s another story – in Buffalo, New York when I moved my family from Buffalo to Omaha, Nebraska in May of 1976.
In the fall of the next year, I was called back to Buffalo as a witness for the prosecution in a trial. That was due to the fact that I had been the agent-on-duty when the defendant had picked up a package from our freight department at work. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that package contained pornographic materials, which became the focus of the jury trial two years later.
I was served with a subpoena in Omaha to appear at court expense in Buffalo to testify. This was in October of 1977, and I went back to Buffalo as ordered. I did decline the court offer of hotel and expenses, however, since I wanted to visit with Mom and Grandma, and I certainly preferred home cooking to restaurant food. I stayed at Mom’s house for the two days of my testimony in the trial.
My part in the trial took up Monday and Tuesday, so I had some quality time to visit at the house those evenings. I left Buffalo for Omaha on a Wednesday morning, but my homecoming was short-lived.
On Thursday evening I received a call from Mom that Grandma McKeever had passed away that day. I was back on a plane for Buffalo the very next day for the funeral.
It was truly amazing to me that I was able to have one last visit with my beloved Grandma McKeever just a few short hours before she died at the age of 99. It would not have happened except for that trial, which had been delayed several times.
Call me superstitious – I am also a descendant of the Salem Witches – but I’ve always wondered if there was some intervention that caused the convergence of events that enabled me to have that one last reunion.
It has been nearly thirty-four years since the passing, but I can still envision a strange smile on her face as Grandma McKeever bid me goodbye that last time. What a gift!
My maternal grandmother was born in 1878. She was (as grandmothers usually are) closer to me than my mother. She also had a sense about her that she knew secret things about us kids that she just shouldn’t have known. For instance, she could always find our hiding places for our ‘secret’ objects and she would know about things we had done out of her sight. Of course, she was a direct descendant of one of the Salem Witches, so we always knew from where her powers came.
Grandma McKeever lived to a ripe old age, was approaching her 99th birthday and was living with her daughter – actually my mother was her niece, but that’s another story – in Buffalo, New York when I moved my family from Buffalo to Omaha, Nebraska in May of 1976.
In the fall of the next year, I was called back to Buffalo as a witness for the prosecution in a trial. That was due to the fact that I had been the agent-on-duty when the defendant had picked up a package from our freight department at work. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that package contained pornographic materials, which became the focus of the jury trial two years later.
I was served with a subpoena in Omaha to appear at court expense in Buffalo to testify. This was in October of 1977, and I went back to Buffalo as ordered. I did decline the court offer of hotel and expenses, however, since I wanted to visit with Mom and Grandma, and I certainly preferred home cooking to restaurant food. I stayed at Mom’s house for the two days of my testimony in the trial.
My part in the trial took up Monday and Tuesday, so I had some quality time to visit at the house those evenings. I left Buffalo for Omaha on a Wednesday morning, but my homecoming was short-lived.
On Thursday evening I received a call from Mom that Grandma McKeever had passed away that day. I was back on a plane for Buffalo the very next day for the funeral.
It was truly amazing to me that I was able to have one last visit with my beloved Grandma McKeever just a few short hours before she died at the age of 99. It would not have happened except for that trial, which had been delayed several times.
Call me superstitious – I am also a descendant of the Salem Witches – but I’ve always wondered if there was some intervention that caused the convergence of events that enabled me to have that one last reunion.
It has been nearly thirty-four years since the passing, but I can still envision a strange smile on her face as Grandma McKeever bid me goodbye that last time. What a gift!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
New Age Conservation
I’ve recently returned from a road trip to New England, and while I found everything up there to be very scenic, there was one aspect of the great deciduous forests that disturbed me. They were choked with undergrowth and fallen trees and branches and leaves. Those conditions invite forest fires, and once started, they burn uncontrollably for weeks and even months.
I have to admit that I didn’t go into the forests in the lower New England states, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, but in the other three, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire, the forests were littered with nature’s debris.
I couldn’t help comparing the sight of those forests to the ones I visited in the Black Hills of South Dakota a couple of years ago. One of the neatest sights there was the stacks of debris every 100 feet or so throughout the forests. And the floor of those forests was clean of any brush. Tree trunks were visible all the way to the ground, and there was very little flammable material in between those trunks.
We have a forest area within a few miles of my home, which is also cleared of all undergrowth, and the floor of it is clean and fireproof. If all forest areas looked like this, we wouldn’t have the huge fires that have plagued the Southwest, and especially West Texas this year. (They are in their fifth straight month of drought over there.)
Obviously, some people had worked pretty hard and long to accomplish this cleanup, and it was still in progress, since the stacks hadn’t yet been collected for disposal.
This is just a guess on my part, but I suspect some of that underbrush gets put through a wood chipper and recycled back into nature as mulch, while part of it is used to create good hiking and biking trails in those same forests.
So, what is my point? Where could we ever get enough volunteers to clean up the forests in New England like they did in South Dakota or here is Georgia? You are perfectly correct to ask those questions, but I have an answer.
We currently have unemployment in the country above 9%, and congress has recently passed yet another extension of the unemployment insurance payment to people who have been out of work for over two years. Since the states quit paying after only 26 weeks, that means that you and I have been footing the bill since then with out federal tax dollars.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as though the jobless will find any work soon, and I’m sure you’ve read or heard the same reports as I have that continuation of payments provides a disincentive for many people to even seek gainful employment. I heard this week that if we counted the people who are not even actively seeking jobs, the true unemployment rate would be about eleven-and-a half percent. That represents a couple of million slackers.
Add to that the number of fraudulent claims that are apparently being filed by people who are actually working “off the books” and collecting benefits too. Frankly, we are paying way too much taxpayer money and getting absolutely nothing in return.
My solution is to require those able-bodied people on extended unemployment benefits - say anything beyond thirty-nine weeks - to take part ten days a month in a mini-CCC work group. (Don’t know what CCC stands for? Google it, and learn!) They would work 5 days a week with a weekend off between work periods. During those two weeks the group will participate in the forest cleanup within fifty miles of their home.
I’m certain that there is a model in South Dakota that could be followed to set up the work group. I’m also sure that there will be a lot more self-motivation among the unemployed to find a new job to replace the one they lost, even at a lower wage. There’s nothing like a manual labor job to spark initiative to escape it.
Please, those of you who usually respond or comment on my columns, don’t tell me about how politically incorrect this would be. After all, it only requires about one-third of their time and effort to “earn” their ‘free” benefits. That payment is not covered by the unemployment insurance premiums after the first twenty-six weeks.
I also am taking into account that there would have to be some purchases of equipment and maybe even clothing to outfit the workers. I’m confident that the investment in that infrastructure would be rewarded when fewer people collect the unemployment after they find a replacement job.
I suspect there are some details I’ve left out of the formula – I’m not a businessman or an entrepreneur, after all – but it is a means of utilizing all that excess labor we seem to have for the public good.
In case you’re wondering, I do intend to present this idea to my congressman and both of my senators for their consideration. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a program that FDR started way back in the Great Depression rekindled (a pun, in case you didn’t catch it) by the Republicans?
Your comments are welcome with the exception I specified above.
I have to admit that I didn’t go into the forests in the lower New England states, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, but in the other three, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire, the forests were littered with nature’s debris.
I couldn’t help comparing the sight of those forests to the ones I visited in the Black Hills of South Dakota a couple of years ago. One of the neatest sights there was the stacks of debris every 100 feet or so throughout the forests. And the floor of those forests was clean of any brush. Tree trunks were visible all the way to the ground, and there was very little flammable material in between those trunks.
We have a forest area within a few miles of my home, which is also cleared of all undergrowth, and the floor of it is clean and fireproof. If all forest areas looked like this, we wouldn’t have the huge fires that have plagued the Southwest, and especially West Texas this year. (They are in their fifth straight month of drought over there.)
Obviously, some people had worked pretty hard and long to accomplish this cleanup, and it was still in progress, since the stacks hadn’t yet been collected for disposal.
This is just a guess on my part, but I suspect some of that underbrush gets put through a wood chipper and recycled back into nature as mulch, while part of it is used to create good hiking and biking trails in those same forests.
So, what is my point? Where could we ever get enough volunteers to clean up the forests in New England like they did in South Dakota or here is Georgia? You are perfectly correct to ask those questions, but I have an answer.
We currently have unemployment in the country above 9%, and congress has recently passed yet another extension of the unemployment insurance payment to people who have been out of work for over two years. Since the states quit paying after only 26 weeks, that means that you and I have been footing the bill since then with out federal tax dollars.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as though the jobless will find any work soon, and I’m sure you’ve read or heard the same reports as I have that continuation of payments provides a disincentive for many people to even seek gainful employment. I heard this week that if we counted the people who are not even actively seeking jobs, the true unemployment rate would be about eleven-and-a half percent. That represents a couple of million slackers.
Add to that the number of fraudulent claims that are apparently being filed by people who are actually working “off the books” and collecting benefits too. Frankly, we are paying way too much taxpayer money and getting absolutely nothing in return.
My solution is to require those able-bodied people on extended unemployment benefits - say anything beyond thirty-nine weeks - to take part ten days a month in a mini-CCC work group. (Don’t know what CCC stands for? Google it, and learn!) They would work 5 days a week with a weekend off between work periods. During those two weeks the group will participate in the forest cleanup within fifty miles of their home.
I’m certain that there is a model in South Dakota that could be followed to set up the work group. I’m also sure that there will be a lot more self-motivation among the unemployed to find a new job to replace the one they lost, even at a lower wage. There’s nothing like a manual labor job to spark initiative to escape it.
Please, those of you who usually respond or comment on my columns, don’t tell me about how politically incorrect this would be. After all, it only requires about one-third of their time and effort to “earn” their ‘free” benefits. That payment is not covered by the unemployment insurance premiums after the first twenty-six weeks.
I also am taking into account that there would have to be some purchases of equipment and maybe even clothing to outfit the workers. I’m confident that the investment in that infrastructure would be rewarded when fewer people collect the unemployment after they find a replacement job.
I suspect there are some details I’ve left out of the formula – I’m not a businessman or an entrepreneur, after all – but it is a means of utilizing all that excess labor we seem to have for the public good.
In case you’re wondering, I do intend to present this idea to my congressman and both of my senators for their consideration. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a program that FDR started way back in the Great Depression rekindled (a pun, in case you didn’t catch it) by the Republicans?
Your comments are welcome with the exception I specified above.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Spelling and Grammar
One of my pet peeves is receiving a document, email or any other written message that contains several misspelled or misused words. By misused, I refer to use of ‘then’ where ‘than’ is appropriate, or ‘there’ instead of ‘their’.
Most word processors, and even email servers, have a ‘Tools’ button on the taskbar that will allow for a spelling check prior to ending documents or messages. Some even have the option to have automatic spellcheck and corrections made while you type. They usually will suggest grammatical corrections, too.
Why don’t people use these tools?
One reason is that the bloggers of the world have established that it’s kewl (that is how they spell ‘cool’ in their new language, leetspeak) to shorten or abbreviate words. If the word leetspeak confuses you, it is derived from the word ‘elite,’ which translates to the best or most chic. (And ‘chic’ is not pronounced like a baby chicken, but rather like an Arabian Sheik)
Leetspeak also contains all those abbreviations you see, like ‘LOL,’ ‘IHMO’ and ‘ROF.’ Those in turn were invented to enable quick texting, which is done using the thumbs only. Of course, leetspeak and texting do not and will not ever lend themselves to spelling checks, since most words are either abbreviated or misspelled anyway.
The whole world is going dumb with the expansion of the neo-language ‘phr33ks.” Oh yes, it even combines letters and numbers to make it way kewl. (The correct word is freaks, by the way)
Well, now there is an email message floating out there in cyberspace that promotes the deliberate misspelling of about ninety-nine percent of all words. It consists of a paragraph written with only the first and last letters of the words in the correct place. Everything in between is scrambled. The only words that it can’t be done with are those that have less than four letters in them, for obvious reasons.
The point of the message is that our brains have the ability to unscramble letters to read the words so long as the first and last letters are correct. It actually works! At least, for me it works.
Given that this is the case, and the conclusion—right or wrong—of the message is that spelling isn’t all that important, I’ve dciedid to chgnae the splelnig of msot of my lneogr wrods and let erevynoe esle mkae the spllenig corcetins thmeslevs.
Jsut to gvie you smoe prastcie, i’m gonig to wrtie the rset of thsi clomun wtih all wrods mesplied. Ins’t taht anoynig?
Okay, lesson over... Please at least use your spellchecker, and if your word processor has one, your grammar checker. Dammit, spelling and grammar ARE important!
Most word processors, and even email servers, have a ‘Tools’ button on the taskbar that will allow for a spelling check prior to ending documents or messages. Some even have the option to have automatic spellcheck and corrections made while you type. They usually will suggest grammatical corrections, too.
Why don’t people use these tools?
One reason is that the bloggers of the world have established that it’s kewl (that is how they spell ‘cool’ in their new language, leetspeak) to shorten or abbreviate words. If the word leetspeak confuses you, it is derived from the word ‘elite,’ which translates to the best or most chic. (And ‘chic’ is not pronounced like a baby chicken, but rather like an Arabian Sheik)
Leetspeak also contains all those abbreviations you see, like ‘LOL,’ ‘IHMO’ and ‘ROF.’ Those in turn were invented to enable quick texting, which is done using the thumbs only. Of course, leetspeak and texting do not and will not ever lend themselves to spelling checks, since most words are either abbreviated or misspelled anyway.
The whole world is going dumb with the expansion of the neo-language ‘phr33ks.” Oh yes, it even combines letters and numbers to make it way kewl. (The correct word is freaks, by the way)
Well, now there is an email message floating out there in cyberspace that promotes the deliberate misspelling of about ninety-nine percent of all words. It consists of a paragraph written with only the first and last letters of the words in the correct place. Everything in between is scrambled. The only words that it can’t be done with are those that have less than four letters in them, for obvious reasons.
The point of the message is that our brains have the ability to unscramble letters to read the words so long as the first and last letters are correct. It actually works! At least, for me it works.
Given that this is the case, and the conclusion—right or wrong—of the message is that spelling isn’t all that important, I’ve dciedid to chgnae the splelnig of msot of my lneogr wrods and let erevynoe esle mkae the spllenig corcetins thmeslevs.
Jsut to gvie you smoe prastcie, i’m gonig to wrtie the rset of thsi clomun wtih all wrods mesplied. Ins’t taht anoynig?
Okay, lesson over... Please at least use your spellchecker, and if your word processor has one, your grammar checker. Dammit, spelling and grammar ARE important!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Suspect Suicide
I have a confession to make… I watch a lot of television, and I like police shows like The Closer, Chase and Detroit 1-8-7. I’m even giving Dana Delaney a chance with her new show, Body of Proof.
In the past few weeks I’ve watched several episodes that depicted the bad guys getting boxed into a corner and choosing to take their own lives instead of surrendering. At that point one of the cops steps in and defuses the situation, disarming or otherwise rescuing the villain from his or her life-threatening dilemma. The police take the perpetrator off to jail and the theme music comes up to end the show.
This week it was an old episode of Criminal Minds. In this case the bad guy chose to commit “suicide by cop” instead. Of course, Dr. Reed gave his own gun to one of the other agents and then talked the gun-wielding suspect out of shooting himself. The result was the same. The suspect was taken into custody and locked up to stand trial for the six or seven script murders—this is fiction, after all, not a reality TV show—he had committed during the course of the show.
Every time I see that kind of scene replayed, and also when I hear on the news of real life cases where a foiled suicide attempt of a suspect takes place, I question why the police risk their lives to save the life of that person. Is that cruel of me? I think not.
I just can’t help thinking that there is no up side to saving the obvious criminal so that a trial can be held and he or she will most likely be convicted and sentenced to death. Then that person will be housed at taxpayer expense for up to twenty more years and eventually executed. The cost of that trial, imprisonment and execution will probably run to millions of dollars.
The above is overly optimistic, however, because a lot of the guilty ones either go free or get reduced sentences. In fact, there have been several real-life cases in recent years where the convicted and condemned prisoner takes up law in prison and mounts his or her own appeal years later. Some of these appeals have actually resulted in overturned convictions. Even the worst of the worst, like O. J. Simpson, can get a hung jury with a good lawyer. But the act of suicide by the suspect at the scene of the crime is a pretty sure sign of guilt to me.
Getting back to the world of television crime, sometimes the person who risks his or her own life to save the felon is even treated as a hero. Other times they are scolded for taking the risk, but the script is rarely written that has the superior officer saying what a foolhardy act it was to save the person so that a ton of money has to be spent to bring the prisoner to justice.
On that recent episode of Criminal Minds where Reed (the ‘geek’ psychologist) actually committed that selfless and stupid act, after the suspect was cuffed and taken into custody, the team leader reamed Reed out for his risk-taking. However, in the very next episode, the team leader disarmed and took off his Kevlar vest to walk into a hostage situation and confront an armed murderer. Well, duh!!!
Maybe I’m not politically correct when I say this, but I get a special pleasure out of hearing that the shooter or bomber in one of those mass murder cases committed suicide simultaneously or shortly thereafter. The person committing murder and mayhem doesn’t deserve a trial in my estimation, so it is better for all if they just do the job on themselves as well.
In the past few weeks I’ve watched several episodes that depicted the bad guys getting boxed into a corner and choosing to take their own lives instead of surrendering. At that point one of the cops steps in and defuses the situation, disarming or otherwise rescuing the villain from his or her life-threatening dilemma. The police take the perpetrator off to jail and the theme music comes up to end the show.
This week it was an old episode of Criminal Minds. In this case the bad guy chose to commit “suicide by cop” instead. Of course, Dr. Reed gave his own gun to one of the other agents and then talked the gun-wielding suspect out of shooting himself. The result was the same. The suspect was taken into custody and locked up to stand trial for the six or seven script murders—this is fiction, after all, not a reality TV show—he had committed during the course of the show.
Every time I see that kind of scene replayed, and also when I hear on the news of real life cases where a foiled suicide attempt of a suspect takes place, I question why the police risk their lives to save the life of that person. Is that cruel of me? I think not.
I just can’t help thinking that there is no up side to saving the obvious criminal so that a trial can be held and he or she will most likely be convicted and sentenced to death. Then that person will be housed at taxpayer expense for up to twenty more years and eventually executed. The cost of that trial, imprisonment and execution will probably run to millions of dollars.
The above is overly optimistic, however, because a lot of the guilty ones either go free or get reduced sentences. In fact, there have been several real-life cases in recent years where the convicted and condemned prisoner takes up law in prison and mounts his or her own appeal years later. Some of these appeals have actually resulted in overturned convictions. Even the worst of the worst, like O. J. Simpson, can get a hung jury with a good lawyer. But the act of suicide by the suspect at the scene of the crime is a pretty sure sign of guilt to me.
Getting back to the world of television crime, sometimes the person who risks his or her own life to save the felon is even treated as a hero. Other times they are scolded for taking the risk, but the script is rarely written that has the superior officer saying what a foolhardy act it was to save the person so that a ton of money has to be spent to bring the prisoner to justice.
On that recent episode of Criminal Minds where Reed (the ‘geek’ psychologist) actually committed that selfless and stupid act, after the suspect was cuffed and taken into custody, the team leader reamed Reed out for his risk-taking. However, in the very next episode, the team leader disarmed and took off his Kevlar vest to walk into a hostage situation and confront an armed murderer. Well, duh!!!
Maybe I’m not politically correct when I say this, but I get a special pleasure out of hearing that the shooter or bomber in one of those mass murder cases committed suicide simultaneously or shortly thereafter. The person committing murder and mayhem doesn’t deserve a trial in my estimation, so it is better for all if they just do the job on themselves as well.
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