Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

     Thursday's Lancaster Intelligencer Journal headlined a story “Break Bread Together?” about a nearby restaurant, Prudhomme's, which offers a discount to customers who present a “current church bulletin.” A local member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, claiming discrimination against non-Christians. The parties received notification of the Commission's ruling during Thanksgiving week.      The ruling stated that discounts must be given to bulletin holders “from any group oriented around the subject of religious faith.” Note that the word “church” has been eliminated. Because atheists are considered by the Federal Courts to have a religious creed, the ruling covers them.      At first reading it seems like a reasonable ruling, and it appears likely that no problems will be encountered in the Lancaster County geographic area. But if it is extended to ...

     I am beginning to think that high schools and colleges have discontinued the teaching of science, particularly to Congresspersons. Especially in the Republican Party, a complete lack of scientific education appears to be a requirement for membership. And it's a damned shame, because the world economy runs on scientific knowledge, and to make vital economic decisions on the basis of superstition or lack of knowledge is like driving a horse and buggy in the Indianapolis 500. Here are a few cases in point:      A perfect example is the recent comment by Representative Todd Akin, the Republican Senate nominee from Missouri. “It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Rep. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”      I presume that “legitimate” rape is the situation in which the victim is physically forced to...

There is no question that schools have changed over the years; some changes are positive, some are negative. Here are a few examples: When I was in second grade, I had a teacher who believed it was her duty to indoctrinate students into Christianity. She offered a Bible to any student who could memorize twenty verses. People who know me today will find it hard to believe that I received a Bible with my twenty verses underlined in red. (I myself find it hard to believe.) I am sure there were no non-Christian families in the Sporting Hill School area, so there were no objections. But can you imagine anything like that happening today? Americans United for Separation of Church and State would be all over the school board, the teacher and anyone else connected with the school district. Parents on both sides of the issue would be upset, and rightly so. Religion is not the territory of the schools. Our technology consisted of pencil, paper and a blackboard. Today ...

I n June, 2010, I was having a problem with my right leg, and the doctor's diagnosis indicated that it was caused by a pinched nerve in my back. Consequently, it was determined that I needed a laminectomy, an operation to remove a small piece of bone in order to relieve the pressure on the nerve. A s far as the operation was concerned, everything went well, but for some reason my bladder stopped operating. It was never determined whether it was due to the procedure or the anesthetic, but in any event I had to learn to use a catheter. The function gradually improved over a three week period, which pretty much coincided with the length of time it took for me to become reasonably adept at performing this rather personal procedure. One does not use a catheter without a lubricant, normally a water-based compound such as K-Y Jelly, so off I went to the pharmacy. To my surprise I discovered that lubrication is only one of the characteristics available in this product. (You must rem...

     One of our biggest military heroes, General David Petraeus, has been caught with his literal pants down! Perhaps I am being naive, but I cannot understand how anyone, particularly a high-ranking government official, can get involved in sexual hanky-panky, and think he can get away with it. What would make Petraeus betray us? (OK, so they can't all be great.)      I am reminded of the story of a little dog who was crossing the railroad tracks when a train came along and cut off his tail. When he turned around to look at it, another train came along and cut off his head. But he was not the first dog to lose his head over a piece of tail. Think of John Kennedy, Bill Clinton and John Edwards.      With cell phones as ubiquitous as potato chips, privacy is a thing of the past in today's society.      But when one is in a position of power or fame, thinking with the wrong head poses an even greater danger. ...

     Now that the election is over we will no longer be inundated by all those political commercials; instead we will be swamped by holiday commercials. But it is also a good opportunity to forge a consensus of we instead of us vs. them . After all, are we not all Americans?      In spite of the fact that we have different opinions on many matters, when I looked out on the morning of November 7, the sun had risen, birds were singing, people were going to work (at least many of them), and the world had not ended overnight.      Later that morning I attended the monthly breakfast of my high school graduating class, what few of us that are still here, and heard statements such as, “There's not much I can do about it,” and “I'm not sure the country can last for the next four years.”      Come on guys, what the hell do you think is going to happen? Is the country going to slide into the sea? Oh, I forgot, the ...

     (1) Large is small. According to the GOP definition, any business, e.g., a partnership or a Limited Liability Company, that passes its net income through to its owners for inclusion on their personal federal income tax returns is a small business. There is no limit to the amount of income such a company can earn! For example, privately owned companies Cargill and Koch Industries each had over $100B in revenues in 2011, yet qualify as small businesses under the GOP's definition!      While agreeing in principle that the tax code needs revision, the Democratic Party would limit the definition of small business to one that has a net income not exceeding $250,000. While that figure may be a bit low, it certainly makes more sense than basing it on how the paperwork is set up.      (2) The estate tax is killing small business. Through 2012, there is no estate tax on estates not exceeding $5M in value. Unless Congress extends...

     Now don't get me wrong – I think good manners are important. I also think they boil down to treating each other with civility, which means respect and politeness. You know, like we treat others who are members of “our” political party.      We all know that we should treat everyone like that, but with those thick-headed members of the “other” party, we are like the child who came home from his first day of kindergarten.      When his mother asked what he learned today, he said, “I learned to say 'yes sir' and 'no sir' and 'yes mam' and 'no mam.'      The mother said, “You did?”      “Yeah,” was his answer.      But after reading an article in this morning's newspaper, I am convinced that good manners can be, shall we say, overdone? The article, Follow these manners to a tea , lists some tips on the “correct” way to drink tea, at least in public.   ...

     Probably the most common “secret” questions by which an online account user's identity is supposed to be verified are:      What is your mother's maiden name?      What was the name of your first elementary school?      Where did you meet your spouse?       And in these days where everything is available on the world wide web, what is secret about them? Anyone with half an ounce of computer knowledge can often get the answers in a few minutes.      Recently I called my bank and asked to submit new answers to my secret questions, and was told that once one has the answers established, they cannot be changed. How can your mother's maiden name be different from what it was when you originally submitted it?      Of course, it isn't different, but that does not mean that one can't change the answer to the question. What difference does it mak...

     A few days ago I posted a blog in which I called one of the presidential candidates a hypocrite, and presented an argument which I thought justified the appellation. A short time letter one of my Facebook friends unfriended me. This is fine – he has as much right to do that as I have to express my opinion.      We do not know each other except through Facebook, but I sincerely hope that if we did, we would display what is becoming a rare faculty these days: disagreeing and yet remaining friends.      The Bible says: “. . . unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I am not an expert on the kingdom of heaven, but the statement sounds like good advice in the personal relations field. I have seen children fight as if they meant to kill each other, and an hour later they were again best friends.      The choice today seems to be between friendship and ...

     In a September 25th speech at Education Nation, Mitt Romney said: “The largest contributors to the Democratic Party are teachers' unions. And so, if they can elect someone, then that person is supposed to be representing the public vis-a-vis the teachers' union, but actually most of the money came from the teachers' union. It's an extraordinary conflict of interest. That's something I think is a problem and should be addressed.” He added later, “We simply can't have a setting where the teachers' unions are able to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians and then those politicians, when elected, stand across from them at the bargaining table.”      Romney has a point – according to Open Secrets, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association contributed about $5.4M to federal candidates, parties and committees during the 2008 election cycle. About 95% of the contributions went to Dem...

According to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, 93% of the non-taxpaying freeloading Americans earn $50K or less, 5% earn between $50K and $100K, and the remaining 430,000 nonpayers earn more than $100K per year. The last group includes about 4,000 households with annual incomes in excess of $1M. In spite of what Mr. Romney said, I doubt that all of these “government dependent” people are going to vote for Mr. Obama. But lately there have been signs that the group of people which the GOP considers unworthy of consideration is much larger than the 47% group. For example, in honor of the Labor Day holiday, Eric Cantor, the house majority leader, sent out the following Tweet: “Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.” This would come as a surprise to Matthew Maguire, who first proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as the secretary of the Central Labor Union of New York, or Peter J. McGuire of the American...

Let's pretend that you are the sole proprietor of a small business – one that employs 15 or 20 people. Suppose you manufacture two products: shirts and widgets. Both lines are selling very well - your bottom line nets out to about $100K, on which you pay about $15K in income tax after deductions. Now the government, in its relentless pursuit of job creation, lowers your taxes to $13K. How many new employees will you hire with that extra $2,000? (A no-brainer.) Suddenly your sales of shirts drop 50% because your competitors have outsourced their production to India; do you keep all the employees in the shirt production line, or do you lay some of them off? (Another no-brainer.) Your accountant tells you that the government will give you a hefty allowance if you install automated equipment (made in China) that will enable you to compete. In fact, you will need even less employees than you have now! Do you buy the new equipment? (This is almost too simple.) Suddenly a ne...

I have just finished watching Clint Eastwood's speech to the Republican National Convention for the umpteenth time, and since just about everyone else has already sounded off on the matter, I have decided it is now my turn. Although as a liberal I am expected to disagree with everything Clint said, there are a few things with which I agree. For example, I think it would be a good idea to end the adventure in Afghanistan. Our objective was to get Osama bin Laden, and we have done so. As Clint said, we should have consulted the Russians on the problems of stabilizing that country – if we had, we would have left when we got Osama. It is not as if we are fighting for the security of the United States; it is extremely doubtful that the Afghans would attack us if we left. The rest of the world knows the tribal situation in Afghanistan, and is laughing at our stupidity. Clint also mentioned that some of us in Obama's own party are disappointed that the economic problems of ...

I am enjoying retirement so much that I have taken to heart a bit of advice from the Talmud: "Live well. It is the best revenge." Accordingly, I hereby forgive all the people who have “done me wrong” over the past 80+ years. Although a few of these events were done deliberately, most of them were so minor that the perpetrators never knew they hurt me. The following is a list of a few that I remember. If I missed any, I intend for them to be on the list: The grade school kid who won all my marbles in just five minutes. The other grade school kid who made me look ridiculous in a “friendly” rough-house on the playground. The classmate who won the lead in the junior high play. I wanted that part because it including holding hands with the female lead. Another classmate who beat the crap out of me in a boxing match in gym class. The fellow soldier who told everybody he thought I was queer. (Gay in today's parlance.) The boss who fired me on Friday aftern...

What do these three events have in common? (1) December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor was attacked. 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 were wounded. Eight battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer were either damaged or sunk. (2) September 11, 2001: Four suicide attacks against the United States resulted in almost 3,000 deaths. The twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were destroyed and a section of the Pentagon was demolished. The attackers intended to crash a fourth plane into the United States Capitol, but crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa. (3) August 1, 2012: The Affordable Healthcare Act required new health insurance policies to include FDA-approved contraceptives, an annual well woman preventive care visit with her doctor, and screening for gestational diabetes, STIs, HIV/AIDS and HPV. Also required are screening and counseling for domestic violence, and breastfeeding support, supplies...

That's a question that needs an answer, George, so I decided to look it up. And the answer is . . . he's just a guy who is fixated on one thing and one thing only. As he puts it, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” In other words, he wants to eliminate government. Period. One of the ways he hopes to accomplish his goal is through his Taxpayer Protection Pledge, in which the pledger promises to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates." In 1985 Norquist founded the Americans For Tax Reform (ATR), which he claims was in response to a request by President Reagan. Although the stated primary policy goal of ATR is to reduce government revenues as a percentage of the GDP, ATR also states...

According to the morning paper, sixteen members of an Amish sect in Ohio have rejected plea bargains which would have reduced their potential jail time from 20+ years to two or three years. Some may even have been eligible for parole. Their crime? Cutting the beards and hair of fellow church members in order to send a message that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating fellow Amish! Because short hair and beards are considered to be deeply offensive in the Amish culture, U.S. prosecutors have decided this was a hate crime! So what is a hate crime? According to Wikipedia, current statutes permit federal prosecution of hate crimes committed on the basis of a person's protected characteristics of  race ,  religion , ethnicity ,  nationality ,  gender ,  sexual orientation ,  gender identity , and  disability . I suppose an argument could be made that the current crime is an attack on the religion of the victims, but ...

 While waiting for the doctor yesterday, I got to thinking about the ways in which visits to the doctor have changed over the years. I had plenty of time to think - I arrived ten minutes early to a crowded waiting room, and figured I would be there for quite a while. Thirty-five minutes after my appointed time my name was called, and I was taken to an examination room. “Not too bad,” I thought. Thirty-five minutes after that the doctor showed up! “Not too good,” I thought, “but not unusual today, particularly for a specialist.” Now to be honest, during the 1940s and 1950s there was a local surgeon with a similar arrangement. You almost always arrived to a waiting room with 20 people ahead of you. When your name finally was called you were ushered into another waiting room filled with the same 20 people! It was usually about a 30 minute wait after you finally arrived in the examining room. But this was very unusual for the time. Until the 1960s, when one needed to see o...

       It's pretty clear – if Obama wins the election, the Affordable Healthcare Act is here to stay. If he loses, its future is dependent upon the makeup of Congress.         Despite the claims of its friends and foes, it is almost impossible to see how it will play out, good or bad, until we try it for awhile.         The problem is that people like most of its provisions, but the foes have managed to cloud the overall discussion. It is now up to Obama to clarify the discussion in a way that people understand.         Can he do it? His job for the next four years may depend on it. ******        My books, “There Are Only Seven Jokes” and “The Spirit Runs Through It” are available in paperback , or at the Kindle Store.