March 30, 2009 (Usury) Slowly, over the past few decades, laws prohibiting usury have been abolished. Banks can now earn 25% on credit card debt. "Its just the market at work," we are told. But when a bank earns a 25% return, and autos earn only 5%, what industry is going to grow? Where are all those who want to earn the best living their talents allow going to work? Not in the auto industry. Not as a carpenter. We have witnessed the virtual capture of this country by the banks. This is your market at work. And once they captured us, once Bush took over, the banks then ended bankruptcy. They had never liked it. American style ("Fresh start") bankruptcy had been around for a hundred years before Bush took office. Bush gave us European style bankruptcy, a "moral" bankruptcy that told America's middle class that if it defaulted on a debt to a bank it would have to work as that bank's indentured servant for 5 years. No more turning over your exempt property to your creditors and starting over again. No more risk taking. No more Hewitts and Packards starting a new business in their garage. It was usery and the elimination of bankruptcy, not, as Obama would have us believe, failure of the SEC to regulate, that sent us into the current depression. Usury, bankruptcy, and public employee unions, who threaten our health and safety if we don't overpay them. Sadly, we are now learning, all over again, that the price of liberty is eternal vigilence.
March 29, 2009 (More Bushvilles) The RGJ treats us again today with an editorial decrying Reno's "tent cities," and admonishes us that another one is likely this summer. The RGJ refuses to call them "Bushvilles," in an apparent attempt to lay the blame for these tent cities on Obama, despite the fact that the stock value of Nevada's major casinos dropped over 90% last year. Bush was President all of last year. Powerful corporate forces, of which the RGJ's owners are one, are gathering here, for the purpose of trying to lay the blame for the current economic crisis on Obama. That is too bad. It will only confuse our efforts to get out of this economic cesspool.
March 28, 2009(Bowling) The United States Bowling Conference Woman's Championships starts today. Should keep Reno hopping for the next 100 days. Welcome, ladies. The Shrine Circus also arrived in Reno today.
March 24, 2009 (Republicans) "At bottom, and I mean the demographic as well as the spiritual bottom, the motivating ethos of the Republican Party base is not national defense, or free markets, or “family values.” At bottom it is what Cola Hudson knew it was, what Joan Didion, a Goldwater Republican in her youth, partly had in mind when she wrote about a “wagon-train morality.” In his heart of hearts, the Republican conservative is still a pioneer and a homesteader, someone who takes care of himself, practices thrift, prizes industry, despises waste. I do wonder if the appeal of Sarah Palin had less to do with her opposition to abortion than with her ability to dress a moose. "
The foregoing is from Garret Keizer's "Notebook" column, "Shine, Perishing Republicans." in this month's Harpers. The article concludes that Republicans into "self reliance," while Democrats emphasize "social responsibility," and that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. To us, this means that Republicans, at their core, most value freedom and that Democrats, at their core, most value safety. Those who, like Rush Limbaugh, most value money and power are properly neither. They just have temporarily hijacked the Republic party.
Republicans, under Bush and Limbaugh, blew it. Really, really blew it. China, huge among our creditors, is now pushing for a reserve currency to replace the dollar. Our reputation is in tatters. Capitalism is dead for the forseeaable future, here and around the world, and deservedly so. It will likely creep back, as it is possible of great things. But not until Republicans get back to their base. They could start by waterboarding Bush and his traitor cronies.
March 23, 2009 (more unwed) We seem to be the only ones who were surprised to learn that 40% of American babies are now born out of wedlock. How can this be? What does it bode for the future? Is it fair to raise a kid without a father around? Government, of course, thinks of itself as the solution, not the problem. We the people are the problem. But lets think about that: Society ("we") salute a fellow who shags a lot of women, provided, of course, he follows Planned Parenthood's admonition and uses "protection." He is "cool." If in high school, he sits at the best table. The more girls he shags, the more popular he is. And lately, among our high school students, the more kids he has the more popular he is. The girls give him a present, a "young egg" baby. This is us, not government. But then government steps in and puts its stamp of approval on this process, by requiring the guy to support his kids. It will search him out, high and low, and put him in jail if he doesn't support them. But if by some chance he wants to really support his kids, by being a force in their lives, by marrying the mothers, goverment steps in and says "no." And, if he does so anyway, Government puts him in jail for polygamy. So the overall message he gets is: shag as many as you can, but if you do, if, as seems so often to be the case, "protection" fails, you can only be a bank. Your kids can never have a real father.
This is unnecessarily harsh on many women. Many are helpless victims and every case is special. But 40%? David Letterman bragging? It is getting out of hand.
March 22, 2009 (bonuses) The bonuses given to AIG were well deserved, at least from AIG's standpoint. How many of us could get a $100 billion plus federal bailout if our business was in the tank? Sort of a "finder's fee," as Wall Street sees it.
March 21, 2009 (Bushville) No one knows for sure if this is a depression, nor will they for a couple of years. But the evidence we are in a depression continues to mount. The common stock of both the MGM Grand and the Las Vegas Hilton dropped about 95% last year. According to gaming expert I. Nelson Rose, Herbst Gaming and Station Casinos are "tottering," and Harrahs is trying to swap up to $2.8 billion in new notes due in 2018 for debt coming due next year. So we weren't surprised to learn that some 150 folks gathered together the other today in Reno's first Bushville, a small tent city near the downtown core. (Remember the Hoovervilles of the last great depression?). The city is going to take it down and promises to put the poor folks up in more formal homeless facilities. Perhaps Reno can, if its Bushville has only 150 residents. But what if its 1,500, or 15,000? Or worse? The good people of Nevada don't seem to much care and continue to raise taxes on the few tourists who still have the money and the inclination to visit us. No doubt this explains why the Red Hawk Casino in Sacramento is still going great guns. Now if only we could find a way to force more tourists to gamble, smoke, drink and shag the girls at Mustang. Bin Laden must be smiling.
March 20, 2009 (Planned Parenthood) We have more or less allowed Planned Parenthood its way these past several decades. Now some 40% of children are born out of wedlock. We taxpayers are the real "daddy" of these children. Instead of paying for higher education and the like, we give our money to see that these children do not starve. As a result, we are dumber, more kids are born out of wedlock, and the cycle continues. Every dime we spend making the lives of these fatherless families more tolerable leads to more such fatherless families. Where will it all end?
March 19, 2009 (unwed moms) An ever-growing percent of American babies are now born out of wedlock. The question becomes something like: Do these mothers want to be unwed mothers, raising bastard children on a single mom's income? Or is it that they just can't get the guy to marry them? And who are the guys? Is it a few rounders, who are doing this, or is it hundreds and thousands of different guys? We recall here Wilt Chamberlain's claim to have bedded 10,000 women and sired numberless children.
March 18, 2009 (Prohibition all over again). Nevada is the land of discretionary spending. Gambling, drinking, prostitution, smoking, skiing, boating, climbing, etc. That is why tourists come here and tourists are the basis of much of our economy. So what do assemblymen Sheila Leslie and Bernie Anderson want to do? Tax discretionary spending. These two, never the brightest lights on the tree, and those like them, will bury this state if they keep it up. Nevadas will soon be going to Speakeasies to buy booze and cigarettes and to California, Utah or Arizona to have a good time.
March 17, 2009 (Microsoft rots brain) We noticed on KNPB Channel 5 last night an acknowledgement that Mac and Linux are superior operating systems. KNPB doesn't even bother porting its brain exercise program to Mac or Linux. Apparently only Windows users need it.
March 15, 2009 (Library funding) The editorial in today's RGJ lamenting the massive cuts in Washoe's budget for public libraries misses the main point, which is whether any city should attempt, as Reno has done, to put neighborhood libraries all over the place. We really haven't had a decent public library system since the empire building that went on by our librarians 15 years ago. Those satellite libraries had the effect of essentially shutting down the downtown library. The librarians apparently were afraid of the bums. Now, not even the bums can use the library.
A much better model is the Salt Lake City public library. There, leaders far wiser than our own, are concentrating their limited library funds on one downtown library, both massive and beautiful. Perhaps someday we will come to our senses. But don't bet on it.
March 8, 2009 (Tax increase) The Nevada Democrats have never seen a government program they don't like. Faced now with a choice of eliminating some of them or raising taxes, guess what? They want to raise taxes. Well, first, they should post in a very prominent place the government agencies we could do without. For example, the "family court" is not a "family court" at all. It actuality, it usually breaks up families. Similarly, the police who work in the family end of domestic violence could and should be cut. There is no reason to continually spend money on protecting women who are too weak to leave an abusive relationship. Let us not burden those women who have enough sense to leave with taxes to pay for those who don't. The police could also lighten up on its DUI force. Police are now charging those who sleep drunk in their car with DUI. Presumably they will soon start charging bicyclists stupid enough to bike drunk. The child welfare folks are likewise too heavily funded. At the drop of a hat they are in the home investigating this, investigating that. Let them stay home. Many other examples of our ever-more-stifling welfare state could be here related, if time and space permitted. But enough said for now.
March 1, 2009 (Newspapers) The RGJ is responsible for most of its problems. Long ago, it started hiding the Sunday funnies from Reno's children, eliminating most any desire a kid might have to get in the habit of reading papers. Now the RGJ routinely puts ads on the front page and, often, stickers that have to be removed before the rag can even be seen, much less read. But, whether self-inflicted or not, we lament the current wounds being suffered by the RGJ. It is a source of news. Blogs, like this one, depend on someone getting the data upon which these columns are based. When the RGJ suffers, we all suffer.
February 17, 2009 (Music in downtown Reno) There is this bar, the 3rd St. Bar. On, you guessed it, 3rd St. Downtown Reno. Near the Eldorado. Every Tuesday the Reno Big Band practices there, 8-10 pm. Jakki Ford usually sings a couple of her Jazz favorites. The music is beautiful. Downtown Reno is beautiful, at least on 3rd St. Good time and place to let go for a couple of hours. Pretend Bush never was President, that we didn't kill a million Iraqis who never did us wrong. Pretend that Bush didn't screw up the rest of the world. Easy to do Tuesday nights on 3rd St.
February 16, 2009 (experts on economy) There are lots of pundits out there speculating on whether the economy is at bottom and, if not, when we can expect things to get better. These are the SAME folks who DID NOT tell us a couple of years ago that the market was about to crash. Apparently they are experts on things going up and not on things coming down. Well, we think they won't be any better predicting up than they were predicting down. They are the same experts. If we are at the bottom now, 5 years from now they will be on talk shows explaining why that fact should have been obvious to us. And who cares if you lost a lot of money on your house anyway. Your home is not an investment. Its a place to live. Always has been. So, if you can afford to pay your mortgage, don't worry about it. If you can't, there's always renting. And, whether the market is going up or down, some will make a buck. Keep your eye out for opportunities.
February 8, 2009 (Biden's "partnership" speech) The US is to continue down the same path, a path that so far has led only to death and destruction. Or so VP Biden seems to be saying. Zionist Israel can have the bomb. Iran can't. Does he really think that Islam will ever live peacefully with this situation?
February 6, 2009 (Fed Stimulus) The main argument agains the stimulus is that Bush supported it. That aside, anyone who wants to understand the complex stimulus situation needs to read the "Japan's Big-Works Stimulus Is Lesson for U.S." article beginning on the front page of today's New York Times. It shows that there are good arguments for and good arguments against the stimulus. We have just elected a guy who is enthralled with the arguments in favor of the stimulus. He is the guy who has to decide this stuff, with input from Congress. Lets go with him, hopefully, but warily. The article notes that most Japanese professionals interviewed, being presumably most of those who have studied the matter, think that a similar stimulus put in effet in Japan a few years back probably did more harm than good. Its a close call. We are too busy with making a living to see it all. Lets go with the guy we just elected and hope he knows what he is doing. The New York Times article proves, if nothing else: Government, whether Japanese, American, Russian or otherwise, normally looks first to itself and the interest of whatever party is in power, and only then to the welfare of the people. That is its nature. Obama can't stop that.
February 1, 2009 (overtime) Today's RGJ has some good stuff on overtime. Every 5 or 10 years, a similar expose' is made. But nothing is new. The problem is and always has structural and obvious: every municipal employee in Reno, excepting only one or two at the division top, is in a union. And every union worthy of the name wants just one thing: "more." Unions need a management willing to say "no." Somebody to push back. The union has the ball. It has the money and the interest. Some defense is needed. If you don't count a couple of recycled newpaper reports every 5 or 10 years, everyone is on offense. When one team has one player and the other 100, who do you think will win? Can't blame the union. Its just being a union. Blame the defense. If you can find it.
January 31, 2009 (Honeymoon over) The idea behind the tradition of giving a new president a 90 day honeymoon is that the president needs that time to get his feet wet. Not Obama. He came out swinging, just like Bush after his second term began. Obama has the political capital now and he intends to spend it now, not 90 days from now. Are we surprised? Not really. Just disappointed. The hope was that Obama would be something different. A real leader of everyone. Not so. He is proving himself to be a partisan hack, just like Bush. The main difference between the two, aside from the fact that Obama is intelligent and doesn't hear voices, seems to be the drummer they listen to. Bush listened to the religious right. Obama the radical feminists. Still, both believe that if you have power, if you have 51% on your side for a couple of minutes, you should use that power to shove whatever you can up the butts of the remaining 49%. We doubt it will be possible for Obama (or anyone else) to be as bad as Bush. But, for the meantime: Fie on both their houses.
January 29, 2009 (talk radio) Talk radio won't shut up. No matter it was soundly defeated in the last election. No matter no American with an double digit IQ still listens. It just keeps talking. Like the energizer bunny. About all its good for anymore is as a disaster refresher course. Turn it on if you want to find out why we are in this mess. The announcer will say its because we put Obama in office a few days ago. But we know its because we paid attention to talk radio for far too long.
January 25, 2009 (UNR-funding) During the recently ended good times, the University of Nevada was under heavy assault by businesses who want it to turn out skilled employees rather than philosophers. We saw heavy emphasis on sports during that same period. Now that the money isn't available, perhaps its time to look once again at the purpose of higher education. Is it to impart technical skills or is it to impart general knowledge. enlightenment and understanding? If the goal is to impart wisdom then it has not been doing its job very well for years now. The liberal arts are continually being cut. Technical departments have been on the rise. Is that fair? Can't Microsoft, IGT, the NFL and the mining companies educate their own employees? Seen this way, a smaller university might not be so bad, if the end result is to return the university to its traditional mission of imparting Wisdom.
January 24, 2009 (abortion) We think Obama wrong to once again start giving taxpayer dollars to the world's abortionists. A taxpayer dollar is a precious thing. The government puts those who don't or won't pay taxes in prison. To force those who deeply oppose abortion on moral grounds to choose between supporting a hated practice or going to jail is just plain wrong. The details of the policy are confusing. Apparently foreign children are not as valuable as our own. Something like that. At least this is not a new wrong. Obama is following in Clinton's footsteps here and in that sense, it is an acceptable, or at least predictable, wrong. That is what we hope, that Obama will just roll back whatever Bush did and not do much "new" changing for a couple of years. We badly need a rest from government interference in our lives. We put Obama in office as he was more likely than McCain to rid us of the Bush cancer. Acceptance of government assistance to those who wantonly kill the most helpless among us in order to continue their own licentious conduct is apparently a price we had to pay.
January 23, 2009 (capitalism dead?) Talkshowdom is not yet sure who to blame for nationalizing the banks, or even if they have been nationalized. But talkshowdom is sure that the bail-out is somehow bad for capitalism. Perhaps. But what is really bad for capitalism is too much capitalism, for, unless it operates within a country whose government is willing to enforce anti-trust, it always morphs into feudalism. And, since people today won't long stand for feudalism, what really happens is that the people, in disgust, turn to some form of socialism. That is where America is now. Completely disgusted with capitalism and unwilling to live under Bush feudalism. Simply put, capitalism is always digging its own grave but vigorous enforcement of anti-trust laws keeps it out of the casket. When Bush killed anti-trust, he killed capitalism. Too bad, for capitalism is far superior to socialism.
January 20, 2009 (Bush is gone) The SOB is gone. God save what is left of us. We can only hope that our wounds are not fatal, and that somehow, someday, America can regain its former stature.
January 19, 2009 (Israel) If nothing else, Israel's recent attack on Gaza shows us that Israel, religious though it may be, is no better, and no worse, than any other country. It cannot be blamed for trying to stop rocket attacks against its citizens, nor can the Gazaians be blamed for trying to open their borders, or get their land back, by launching rockets. So, is there anyone to blame? Yes. We, the good old USA, are to blame. We, along with European allies, established a religious state called Israel in 1948. We did this despite the warnings of Tom Jefferson against the evils of a state-established religion. We are now seeing how right Tom was. The broad solution to the problems of that area involve concentrating again on Jefferson's warnings. Our policy should be to de-religiousize the region. Jews, Arabs and Christians lived together in that part of the world for thousands of years. Our policy must be designed to allow them to do so again. Not a "two-state" solution, but a "one-region" solution. We can get rid of Israel without getting rid of Jews. Same with the Islamic Republics that plague the people of the Middle-East.
January 16, 2009 (John Mortimer) John Mortimer died today. Mid-eighties. Lets all get out our Rumpoles and have a look. Good man. Smoked cigars. Barrister. Playright. But Rumpole was his main contribution. A TV show about an English Barrister, probably shown originally on BBC. The world fell in love with Rumpole and now his creator has joined our ancestors in whatever place they might be. We wish you the best, John Mortimer. You enriched our lives.
January 15, 2009 (queers in military) Let us be clear. We discourage men from shagging other men. Nothing serious, mind you. No Oscar Wilde prisons. Just mild discrimination. Our reasoning, if it can be called that, is simply this: Most men who have prostate glands gain some pleasure from anal sex. Some more. Some less. This does not mean they are queer. Just that they are civilized. Its a cultural thing. Civilized folks are not barbarians. A look at San Francisco shows us what happens when men are encouraged to anal sex. The king of that road is the guy with the biggest penis. Puts more pressure on the prostate. Just glance at the gay periodicals found everywhere in that city. Where will it all end? Best to set sex between men and women as the ideal and discourage homosexuality, lest we follow in the footsteps of ancient Greece. What kind of military will we have when buggery takes place openly in the showers, when men who are suppose to be on the look-out are giving each other blow jobs? Enemies will have a field day. Our armies will be jokes.
January 11, 2009 (give us a breather) Senator Reid, you are a good man and Nevada is proud of you. We sincerely hope that you wait a couple of years before starting on, say, the woman's pay issue, union voting, or any other such non-vital issue. We are tired. We both need and deserve a rest from politics, Democrat and Republican. We know you have to give middle America tax relief, and that you have to deal with the depression. Everything else can wait a couple of years. Please. Bush has grievously wounded us. Give us some time to heal.
January 10, 2009 (Bush's Depression) The Bush apologists are at it full bore. See e.g. David Jacobs' "President Bush is a History Maker" in today's RGJ. Who is that weirdo, anyway? Best we can tell, he is the RGJ's resident Zionist, something they should probably point out when printing his drivel. But no need to go there. His articles fail on their merits alone.
We asked once whether there was anything Bush hasn't (yet) screwed up and were told that he is not to blame for the current depression. Beg to differ. His tax cuts for the rich are directly to blame. Once, when America had decent income and death taxes, the rich were soaked whenever they took money out of their companies. So they left it in...bought machinery, gave employees a decent raise..etc. Under Bush, they took every possible dime out of their companies. All those rich folks with all that money permitted the financial industry to grow to dizzying heights under Bush. And now crash. Just like under Hoover, last depression. Herbert, George and David. Quite the group.
January 7, 2009 (even depression has silver lining) Don't let them tell you this is another recession. This is a depression. Perhaps those slimy little do-gooders who have nothing better to do than tell others how to live will now take their foot off our back and let us smoke in a few of the bars? And if they don't, some bars will likely allow smoking anyway. If the choice is between going to jail and letting their families starve? Atlantic City just reversed its smoking ban.
January 5, 2009 (nukes) What is something that President Ronald Reagan, Senator Dianne Feinstein, former Soviet leader Mikhall Gorbachev, former Defense Secretary Perry, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn have in common? They all want America to commit to a Nuclear-Free World. See WSJ, Jan. 3-4, 2009, p. A9. We will apparently not know what President Obama thinks about this for a few months. Nonetheless, we hope he promptly joins this illustrious group and thereby begins to undo the damage Bush did (is there anything that SOB didn't screw up?) with his proposals to increase our nuclear arsenal.
January 3, 2009 (Letter from Reno's Firemen) Reno's firemen hold the most dangerous of jobs. We sleep better knowing that every one of them, from Chief to apprentice, would give their lives in a minute if necessary to save ours. Too many firemen have selflessly died in the past for this to be open to any doubt. The following is an excellent letter received today from the union in response to some recent criticism in Reno.org. We encourage the reader to visit the union's referenced web site for further information.
"Dear Fellow Reno Citizen,
We recently read your comment on the article by Suzan Voyles on your website. Unfortunately, the information was not entirely correct. Your Fire Chief has caused a major reduction in safety of both the Citizens of Reno and the Firefighters that serve and protect them. We hope that you can visit our website here http://iaff731.org/index.cfm?section=10&pagenum=309 and see the whole truth. Recently, your Fire Chief has also reduced the amount of ladder trucks in the city from a paltry 4 to just 2 on most days. In essence, one truck must cover the south part of the city from Moana lane to the Carson City border. The other Ladder Truck must cover Downtown and everything to the California border by Cold Springs. These trucks are responsible for the following activities at an incident: Ladders Overhaul Utilities Ventilation Extrication Rescue Salvage
They are also used as RIT (rapid Intervention teams) should one of us get trapped in a fire. These rigs are being closed while Battalion Chiefs (which are his staff) are on overtime. Also since all the stations still have a engine in them, there is no obligation to notify the citizens of Reno.
Please consider our side of the story. Our lives depend on it. Thank you"
January 2, 2009 (Happy New Year) Happy New Year to all! We continue to hope that this year will be better than last. It is hard to imagine that it could be worse. Like it or not, the feds seem intent on avoiding a massive 1930s type depression and we think the feds will succeed. But will capitalism survive? Lets hope so, but also lets hope it survives in a form more in keeping with its roots. Bush never liked the competitive aspects of capitalism. Bush pushed, correctly, to keep the means of production in private hands. Bush's mistake was in trying to protect those private owners from competition. He ignored our anti-trust laws, and did just about anything he could to protect those owners from the rigors of competition. Yet competition is essential to capitalism. If the choice is between private ownership without competition and government ownership without competition, government ownership is better. Much better. Private ownership without competition is nothing more than the feudal system of the middle-ages. Lets hope that Obama and his advisors have the wisdom to return us to the boisterous seas of freedom. Lets hope Obama turns his back on Bush's calm waters of despotism.
December 27, 2008 (ESPN and Israel) Who in the heck is in charge of the airwaves? Is it us or is it ESPN. How in the world did anyone let ESPN get control of the college bowl games? Ridiculous. Don't we still have some anti-trust laws?
As to Israel's latest bombing of Gaza, at this point 150 Palestinians have been killed. One Israeli has been killed. One thing is now clear. The Zionists were wrong about needing a separate religious state for Jews. Another thing is also clear. Despite their efforts to equate Judaism with Israel, those are two separate things. Israel is Zionist, not Jewish. Jews are either Zionists or not. More and more American Jews are coming to realize that the establishment of Israel was a mistake. It has only prompted the Arabs to form their own Islamic republics. Both the Islamic Republic of this or that and Israel are violating the basic, fundamental American concept of separation of church and state. Shame on us for allowing ourselves to be duped by the Zionists. This is not to say that the Jewish religion is anywhere near as bad as Islam. The Koran is not equal to the Bible (old testament) in any serious regard. We find ourselves much more comfortable around Jews than around Muslims. But that doesn't justify a separate Zionist state. The sooner we come back to the wisdom of Tom Jefferson on this matter, the better.
December 25, 2008 (Xmas) Jesus was the greatest man ever to live. We worship him on this, His day. Among his many gifts to us is our current government which, happily, will soon be run by some relatively sane folks. Perhaps we can somehow atone for our sins in electing Bush the second time. Certainly we have been punished enough. And with no one to blame, but ourselves. Still, lets worship that great man, show our appreciation to His concept of "now," no doubt His greatest gift to us all.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
December 20, 2008 (GM, Chrysler bailout) We don't know if bailing out Chrysler and GM is a good idea or not. We are inclined to think not, in part because George Bush did it and he never does the right thing and in part because the sooner we get away from "they are too big to fail" the better. We are also inclined to think that the best way to avoid the "too big to fail" argument in the future is to enforce our anti-trust laws and, probably, pass some new ones. We need some little American car manufacturers, as we had 50 years ago. The small car companies slowly failed as the feds allowed, encouraged even, monopoly, something not restricted to autos. The feds continue to refuse to break up Microsoft and many other monopolies. We are learning all over again that monopoly is the cancer of capitalism. Too bad the lesson is so painful.
December 12, 2008 (queer marriages) We have done our best here to avoid this issue, but some of the silliness requires a response.
First, while it may be that a very small percentage of men are attracted only to men, get sexually aroused only by persons of their own sex, that percentage is far too small to justify changing the ancient institution of marriage to accommodate them. All men have a sexual organ in their anus. Its socialization and form, structure if you will, that requires a decent society to stifle the male urge to satisfy his sexual needs in that fashion. In ancient Greece and elsewhere, we have seen what happens to societies who do not stifle that barbaric sexual practice.
Second, as was pointed out in a letter to the RGJ editor the other day, marriage is a carrot we hold out to men to entice them to stick with the mother of their children as those children grow. It is grounded in the needs of mothers with young children. As men to men sex does not produce young children, there is no need for the carrot.
December 5, 2008 (Bush about gone but legacy not) Not many days left before the SOB is out. Thank God! Bankrupted the World. But first eliminated right of middle class America to file fresh-start bankruptcy. A right they had for 100 years. A right that brought us Hewlett Packard, and countless other garage start-ups. Now his big business buddies are seeking handouts from that same middle class. "Too big to fail." Too big, we suggest, because the SOB wouldn't enforce anti-trust laws. November 30, 2008 (Atheists)
The good thing about atheists, no matter how radical, is that they don't blow themselves up.
November 23, 2008 (firefighters) At page 5B (letters) in today's RGJ, a recently retired interim fire marshall notes that Reno firefighters are paid an average of $100,000 a year and that they spend a lot of their on-duty time watching TV, shopping and the like. He notes that firefighters were in the Mizpah shortly before Reno's deadliest fire (the Mizpah was destroyed on Halloween night, 2006 by a fire which killed dozens), that they duly noted that mattresses were piled up in violation of fire codes, but did nothing else. If the fellow (Bill Burney) is to be believed, the reason the violation was not reported related to a union demand that the firefirefighters get paid even more for making such reports. Pretty poor, Reno. Pretty poor.
November 17, 2008 (Real women) Lets pause for a moment to honor real women. Real Women are women who understand that they are primarily responsible for raising the children that they bring in to the world. This has nothing to do with equal rights or such. There is no law requiring a woman to have kids or, for that matter, even to have sex. But when they choose to exercise that right, a right possessed by their sex alone, they choose to also accept the corresponding duty to raise that kid and raise him well.
Many think that they can put the "raising duty" off on the father, if he can be found, or the husband, if there is one. And true, the father/husband/significant-other/lesbian-roommate whatever should help. But there is a limit on what support laws can do. They are ignored as often in the break as in the observance, for the fellow can always choose to go on the lamb, and all too many make that choice. We could pass a law prohibiting earthquakes, but it would do little good. Same with our laws trying to make the father responsible for raising the kid. They do little good.
Mom, you don't have to have a kid, but it you do, she's yours to raise. You have to raise her, supervise her raising by others or see to it that she is adopted. If you can do this and keep a job, fine. But if you can't, stay home with the kid. Don't sacrifice your kid on the alter of false equality. He didn't choose to have the kid. You did. Don't be a mother pig who eats her own young. Be a real woman. God, if none other, and if you are lucky, your kids, will thank you for it.
October 20, 2008 (Jefferson) Tom Jefferson thought that once America became an urban society, once the farmers left their farms, once we started living on top of each other in cities, we would become like the Europeans and Tom didn't much like Europeans. He found them far too willing to bend to the will of Kings and other governments. But now that this has happened, now that we are mostly an urban society, it seems that those living in cities are more willing to resist government intrusions than those who live on farms. Today, its the farmers who seemingly have no problem with government listening in on their phone calls, reading their mail, and constantly searching their persons and homes. This is confusing to say the least. Where are the Tom Paines of today? Do they live in cities or on farms.
We will posit an answer: In Tom Jefferson's day, farm families were stronger than city families. The wife was busy cooking and canning, the husband, who had no tractor, was busy picking the cotton. The kids were also busy helping with farm chores. When Abe Lincoln's mother died, his father took off for a couple of weeks to find a wife. A wife was an absolute necessity to the proper functioning of his farm. The city family then was not so busy. There was much mischief to be had at night. They could eat out, and had no need to always cook at home. Wealthy city-dwellers had little need for family. Someone else picked up their garbage, etc etc. The city family was then strong, compared to the family of today, but not as strong as the farm family of Tom Jefferson's day.
October 14, 2008 (Family) Most folks, men and women alike, would agree that people are better off if they are members of a family, living under one roof. As they are weaker and more vulnerable, most would agree that this is particularly true for women and children. Most would also agree that the old saw "With the reason goes the rule" pretty well explains why so many folks today are not living in a family. During our agricultural period, as Abe Lincoln's father showed us, a traditional family (wife, husband and children) was pretty much a necessity. As manufacturing took over and we started our great migration to the cities, family was weakened, but still had significant importance for most...dad brought home the bacon. Mom cooked, cleaned and raised the kids. But urban living enabled divorce, as mom often had a job too and was not completely dependent on dad's paycheck. As modern conveniences became commonplace in the home, the need for family continued to diminish. Now, dad, after a day at work, can stop off at McDonald and get something for the kids to eat. Family is still helpful, but not all that important. As crime rates drop, more and more women feel safe living along and today a huge percentage of children are raised in single-parent homes, the parent usually being the mom. Divorced women and widows also live alone much of the time and will most likely continue to do so so long as the police are able to protect them.
The main victims of all this modernity are kids. It is no longer thought necessary to have family populated by a mom and dad in order to properly raise kids. Despite the statistics that show, mostly, that by reason of our neglect of our children, we are raising a generation of barbarians. How else can one explain the election of King George Bush or McCain's selection of Palin as his Vice President nominee? Books about the dumbing down of America are now terrifyingly commonplace.
So what solutions are being offered? None, really. More of the same. The big fool is waist deep in the big muddy and he says to move on. As our civilization is destroyed before our very eyes.
We need to examine once again into how we can make family important again. This should be a national priority, more important than drilling, social security or just about anything else. What can we do to put the reason back into family? Do we have to, as Rome before us did, wait until the Barbarians take us over for good? Is there something that can be done?
It is thought that women here must come up with the solution, for, as indicated, family is their cup of tea. Once a woman is protected, as we are now seeing, she blossoms....there are now more women in law school than men. This is not, we suspect, because women today are smarter than their grandmothers. Rather it is because civilization guarantees them, more or less, safety and with that guarantee, they can do about anything. But children are suffering and something needs to be done.
Throughout history, women have mostly been appendages to men. They have not made much of a mark, as a sex. Now, we think, they are at their most vulnerable. Civilization, the foundation of their successs, is being sorely challenged. Perhaps a leader among them will now emerge who says something like "Its is time for us to take charge and protect civilization, for otherwise we may soon revert to our former state of near servitude." Sadly, this is unlikely. Women generally don't try to do things differently than men. They are content to do the same thing, only better. The big fool....
All former great American movements have been led by men. The movement to fix family, perhaps the greatest of all, will have to be led by women, and not by women who want nothing more than to be men. Rather, this movement is being led by women such as Patricia Dixon of Georgia State University. Dr. Dixon understands the need we all have for family and at great personal and professional risk, is leading ways to promote its resurgence. We wish her and her followers the greatest success.
October 11, 2008 (Smoking) Anyone who wants to know why this country is in such trouble need only attend a football game at the University of Nevada, home of the "Wolf pack." Not too long ago, smokers could just go to the game. Last year, they were relegated to the North end-zone area, where they had to stand to watch the game. All seats were reserved for non-smokers. This year UNR moved the smokers to an area behind the bleachers in the North End zone, a place where the game is not visible to smokers, even if they stand. There you go. We are a democracy now, not a democratic republic. We no longer make any pretense of respecting minority rights. If we have 51% of the folks on our side, we simple eliminate those with whom we disagree. Today's game was a great example. Having told some 50% of Nevadans that they weren't welcome, the bleachers were half empty. Non-smokers all, non-smoking away, in half-full bleachers. The minority prohibited from the stadium. Apply this disregard to one's fellow man through-out American society and you understand what happened to a once great nation. Americans are busy trying to get 51% of the folks on their side on any particular issue, so those who disagree can be eliminated. In the process, what has been eliminated is America. This really can't be blamed on the people. A majority is always evil. "Tyranny of the majority" is common. What is unusual is the court's failure to protect minorities. That, we suppose, results from the majority's insistence that it elect judges as well.
October 3, 2008 (Wall Street Bailout) Well, it passed. No one took much of a look at alternatives. Basically, Bush and his Wall Street friends held a gun to our head and said "your money or your life." What choice is that? But we will remember what Wall Street did. Massive profits for the rich for so many years. Capitalize the profits. Socialize the losses. Nice work if you can get it. We will remember, Wall Street. We will remember. 700 billion dollars is hard to forget. These rich bastards best take their money and run to the Cayman Islands or some such. Get out now, while the getting is good. Bush has totally ruined this country. And he still has 3 months left.
September 30, 2008 (Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008) We wonder at the conservative Republican's sudden love of freedom, as they review the Bush bailout plan. We deeply regret that they so value economic freedom while regularly trashing our personal liberties. But in the end, they and those Democrats who joined them, are right to force government to pause before enacting Bush's 700 billion Wall Street bailout act. Bush, and so many before him, have shown us that our founding Father's belief that government will always turn on its people, unless held in strict check, was well founded. We simply cannot trust it with the massive new powers it seeks by way of the HR 3997 (Financial Markets Bill), at least unless there is no other possibility to avoid massive starvation and death. And we cannot know that now. We have the greatest respect for Senator Reid, but think he should take a step back, hold hearings, and generally look at alternatives. HR 3997 should be enacted only if, after such hearings, there is no other alternative.
September 29, 2008 (Bailout) We have no doubt but that something like the current "Wall Street bailout" plan is necessary. The devil is in the details, which it always is, and the details are not yet public. Pretty interesting. Why we did not foresee the current crisis is anybody's guess. The run-up to the 1929 depression should have been all we needed. Its not that long ago. These pages were asleep at the switch. We knew that Bush had been rejected by the University of Texas law school as being too stupid to be a lawyer, but somehow we just assumed he could appoint people who would oversee the financial process. Wrong. As in Iraq, where these pages were NOT asleep during the run-up, the rest of the world got Bush wrong. Everyone assumed a minor amount of competence, a modicum of decency.
September 21, 2008 (Firemen) Today's RGJ is worth a read. No ads to tear off the front page. Good immigration article by Frank Mullen, and a courageous story on the Reno Fire Dept. by Susan Voyles. It takes reporters with the stature of these two to tackle these problems. Fire Chief Paul Wagner seems to be standing alone in that department. His staff....everyone....(but him) seems to belong to the union. Good thing he has a supportive city manager or we would all be doing little else but paying firemen salaries. Public employee unions are bankrupting cites across the nation. Let us hope we are spared. One guy in that department fighting for us? One guy? Why doesn't the city put the amount each fireman made last year on its web site. After all, they are public employees getting paid with taxpayer money. Why all the secrecy about their salary?
The immigration article, first of a series, shows that these beautiful immigrants are as often a benefit as a burden and that the problems are not problems of legality but rather problems of timing. Anytime one culture invades another, particularly when the languages differ, the mother culture must be protected. It is the timing that determines whether its an invasion or an immigration. For example, if we had the same number of immigrants, legal and illegal, but they had taken two hundred (instead of 20) years coming, they would now be Americans, speaking our language and as protective of our freedoms as anyone else. There would be no immigration problem. We would not have legitimate fears that they would attempt to force us to adopt the different, if not clearly inferior, culture and language of their former home.
September 8, 2008 (Palin) The problem, dear reader, with Mrs. Palin is not in her views, but how and why she holds them. She has not decided that abortion or whatever is bad. She has decided to do whatever God tells her to do, and God tells her that abortion is bad. Were God to tell her that abortion is good, she would be for abortion. This, though from the Christian right, is precisely the problem with the radical Jews who now run Israel and the radical Muslims who now run Iran and Syria. Palin, like the leaders of Israel and Iran, doesn't do what is good for the people. She and they do what God tells them to do. As we have learned from George Bush, these are a dangerous and sick group when they rise to power. Best to do as Tom Jefferson counseled and keep them in the churches and out of government.
August 26, 2008 (Bush Fallout) Today's RGJ, p 4A, quotes 14 year old gang member Emmanuel Torres as explaining why the shotgunned a Sun Valley homeowner who was giving a birthday party for his daughter: "Torres said he thought the man was a rival gang member and shot him because he feared the man had a gun." Didn't the President of the world's most powerful country use this same language to explain his murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women and children? The only thing Torres didn't learn from Bush was how to shoot straight.
Well, we discovered this week one of of the most powerful arguments for electing McCain over Obama: Madonna and other such sluts are rallying to Obama's aid.
August 18. 2008 (Russia) We read that Bush is trying to start the Cold war again. He will have to leave office soon if he can't somehow start a major war with someone. We asked the Bush administration when Iraq had attacked us and were told that under the Bush policy, we could attack anyone we wanted anytime. Doesn't matter if they attack us. Any attack we make is, by definition, a defensive attack. Cause we are good and they are evil. Now Russia seems to be balking a bit as Bush's plan to encircle it with American missiles. Seems like Putin doesn't believe Bush won't use those missiles to attack Russia. Perhaps Putin didn't see much to like when he looked into Bush's soul. If Bush can figure out some excuse, however flimsy, (remember he used 9/11 as the excuse to attack Iraq even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11) we can attack Russia and perhaps Russia will respond by sending a few missiles this way. Then Bush can cancel the election, which seems to be his main goal. These darn elections are so disruptive! As a footnote, we read in today's paper that Bush's boy in Pakistan has been ousted. Perhaps he will use that as an excuse to attack Pakistan. So many bombs. So little time.
August 16, 2008 (Torture) We were most happy and relieved to learn from today's WSJ that there is a difference between torture as administered by a dictator and torture as administered by George Bush who, should he leave office in January, is something short of a dictator. We were disappointed however to be left in the dark about just what that difference is. All we know, as explained at page 9 of toda's WSJ, is that "Cuban state security applied every torture method in the totalatarian handboon -- and even some new inspirations-- to break the prisoners" (being held "in tiny, windowless cells" at Cuba's Isle of Pines) and that this is bad, while Bush's torture of Guantanamo inmates a few miles south is good. We can surmise though, that the reason Castro's torture is bad and Bush's torture is good is that Castro is torturing good people - people who worship the real God and refuse to convert to communism, while Bush is torturing bad people - people who worship an imposter God and refuse to let the oil companies take over their country.
August 14, 2008 (Record Low Turnout) Tuesday's primary election saw record low turnouts. According to yesterday's RGJ, only 20% of eligible Reno voters went to the polls. Some think this is bad. We are not sure. Perhaps its just that the voters don't care. Nevada has the initiative. Whenever the elected representatives do something the voters don't like, they just reverse it through the initiative process. This, despite the fact that the Founding Fathers, along with numerous other phrases designed to thwart the tyranny of the majority, put language into the US Constitution which was designed to insure a republican form of state government. A Republic is government by elected representative. A democracy is government by the people. Initiative procedures exist only because the US Supreme Court refuses to enforce the constitution's anti-initiative language - on the grounds that the issue is a "political question." Why bother voting for senators and assemblymen when the people can just enact their own laws whenever they want? When you think about it, elections of state and local representatives are more or less a fraud on the public. They have no real power. In a democracy, which we have become, the real power lies with the people, or, more properly, with those who have enough money to convince the ever-so-gullible and increasingly clueless Nevada public to vote for their pet initiative petition(s).
August 1, 2008 (Olympics) Those who keep up with this page know our deep disgust with George Bush and his supporters. Those folks cloak their cowardice and greed in patriotism. "America is great," they say, while lining their pockets with the public treasury. "Freedom is great," they say, so long as we can exercise it without risking our lives. Now, King George is fooling around with the Olympics, meeting with prominent Chinese dissidents just days before opening ceremonies. He is not content to just let the atheletes compete. Why not, as the ancient Greeks did, pause our wars for a few days every four years so we can get a brief glimpse of the peaceful interaction the is possible someday between the peoples of the world? The minds of those who would risk the games for temporary political advantage are small minds indeed.
July 18, 2008 (Oil) Though he had to bankrupt the Western World to do it, George seems to be following through on his promise to his Oil Buddies to get them authority to drill anywhere they want. George knows the American people for the wimps they are. Threaten their safety and they throw the constitution in the trash. Threaten their pocketbook and they let you drill for oil in Golden Gate park. All the while blaming George, though all he has done is exploit our own weaknesses - own selfish timidity, our own all-encompassing greed. King George knows us better than we know ourselves.
July 11, 2008 (smoke) Those who blame the area's smoke on California wildfires are falling for the tobacco industry's line. We know its cigar smoke, not, as the Democrats claim, smoke from California wildfires. Until we can ban all forms of smoking, anywhere, anytime and anyhow, we will continue to suffer and die. The good news is that once we rid ourselves of cigarette and cigar smoke, we can expect to live forever.
Or
Those who blame the area's smoke on global warming are falling for the tobacco industry's line. In truth, Al Gore is causing all this smoke. Al is sitting in his bedroom burning the smokiest stuff he can find, just to prove his false theory of global warming. That we have never had this much smoke before does not prove Gore right. No, No! We must never validate Al's Inconvenient Truth. He is a LIBERAL!
July 8, 2008 (Bush) In his last few months in office, Bush is finally acting Presidential. Which is all the more despicable, as it shows he well knew how to act during the first 7 years of his regime. He is apparently going to spend these months trying to get some kind of a legacy. Too late, George. You have ruined this country. You have convinced the world that it must create a power to balance ours, whether China or whoever. Anyone, as we have shown the truth of that old adage: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Too bad. At the outset of your reign, the world was content to let us show the way. No longer. No longer. No longer.
June 25, 2008 (smoke) The smoke around here is terrible. Perhaps the good people of this state need a new initiaive, banning forests. No other way we know to rid the area of smoke from forest fires. We could pave the Sierras. Heck, wouldn't be too bad. You've burned one tree, you've burned them all. We say.
And speaking of smoke, why doesn't someone put out an initiative amending the smoking ban to provide that smoking Nevadans who want to dilute their alcohol with a little food can do so, say, in 10% of the restaurants in any one community. Do the non-smokers really need to have every single restaurant cater to their non-smoking fetishes? And while on our high-horse, why doesn't some Youtube enthusiast film two air-tight garages, one with a cigar smoker and a couple of rats in a cage and the other with a new Honda and a couple of caged rats. Start the cigar and the car at the same time. See which group of rats lives longer.
June 19, 2008 (too many unwed mothers) Its getting ridiculous. One irresponsible boy can impregnate a thousand girls, and that is just what is happening. And of course, the boy can't support his kids, and the girls drop out, and we the taxpayers pick up the bill or, if not, become the victims of those kids when they grow up - as they grow up by themselves, for the most part, and too often become undesirable citizens. There are those who are still saying "It takes two to tangle," who put equal blame on the boys. True, it takes two, but if one of those "two" is a boy, as is presumably the case, that same boy can be one of the "two" in a thousand more "twos." Put more simply, one boy can tango with 1000 girls.
There are at least two extremist groups who purport to deal with this problem: Planned Parenthood and Abstinants.
Planned Parenthood doesn't understand boys or girls and is primarily interested in getting girls to enjoy the sexual freedoms boys have so long enjoyed. The sexes are equal, not opposite. That is Planned Parenthood's mantra. Planned Parenthood thinks boys don't wear condoms because they forget. It is Planned Parenthood who forgets that boys are bullet-proof. Young men are traditionally the fodder for war for the bullet is always made for the next guy. Sames with AIDS. HIV. You name it. Condoms are for sissys. And Planned Parenthood gives no real attention to girls either, particularly the great number of girls who WANT to get pregnant, to give their boyfriend a baby with a "young soul." The Planned Parenthood model works only if there are an equal number of boys and girls who pair up for recreational sex, none having sex with more than one other and with both equally sharing the consequences of sex. It does not work in the real world, where intentionally reckless boys are doing their best to each put as many notches on their bedposts as possible, and where the consequences of healthy sex are solely born by girls.
And the "abstinence" folks are not much, if any, better. You can't teach kids not to do that which God made them to do! No matter the message, no matter its strength, if it interferes with nature's plan, it will be disregarded by young people. As it has been throughout the ages. A girl and a boy of sexual but not emotional maturity simply cannot be left alone together for long without an unacceptable risk that the girl will become pregnant. That's the size of it.
The sadness is that the Planned Parenthood and Abstinence folks well know better. In both cases, there is a political or religious agenda driving the activity when what is needed is money. Not for condoms. Not for IUDs. Not for Bibles. Not for churches. No. What is needed is money for chaperones. Cost? Yes, cost. Expense. Too many of our kids are raising themselves. No parent exists, must less a chaperone. So, while their mothers are watching Sex and the City, their children are with other kids their age..other kids of the opposite sex. Alone. Doing what unsupervised kids have always done. Before porn. Before woman's lib. . In sum, though, no doubt, we should at least try to get our girls under some kind of control, lets spend most of our money trying to keep young folks of the opposite sex from being alone unchaperoned. Nothing else stands any chance of working in the real world. Sexual irresponsibility is perhaps the most clear and present danger the woman's movement has ever faced. It was thought, as we now know, that women are as smart or smarter than men, and usually better students to boot. They have proved themselves. Best doctors. Best lawyers. Best Indian Chiefs. Girls lucky enough to have parents who care for them are using their freedom as intended....to advance their knowledge and their skills. But far too many, often those who don' t live in the traditional two-parent model home, use their freedom to justify turning themselves into two-bit whores, into, for want of a better word, common sluts, through, frankly, no fault of their own except immaturity. This cannot continue long if we are to remain a civilized society.
May 25, 2008 (Armed Forces) It is good to have time to reflect on the bravery and integrity of America's armed forces. Whether, as now, the country is run by a bunch of incompetent crooks, or whether, as before Bush took office, we were a great nation, the armed forces stick in there and do their job, which is not to decide foreign policy, but to carry it out. Be our foreign policy wise and good, or as now, unwise, corrupt, and evil, they carry it out. That is, and in this country, always has been their job. Our service men and women, like the Roman Legions of old are judged not by whether the policy is good or bad, but on how effective they are in carrying it out and they are very good at carrying it out. Our soldiers are the Roman Legions of today, brave to the core and far more competent than any others, before or since. They do their job well. We can ask no more. We salute them. And we apologize to them for letting this country get into the hands of Bush and his cronies.
May 20, 2008 (Misogyny) Those who say Hillary is losing the race because she is a woman may be right, but for reasons they may want to talk about. At the time the Senate authorized Bush to attack Iraq, Senator Clinton, as well as EVERY other knowledgeable person in the world, knew that Iraq probably didn't have WMD but that Bush would probably strike anyway if authorized to do so by the United States Senate. And, it is said, the reason she voted nonetheless to give him that authority was because she is a woman and she didn't want to be accused of being weak. Now, if keeping women from appearing to be weak is important to her, then can we assume that she will attack Canada, if elected, for the same reason? Certainly, other than turning Shiite Iran's enemy Iraq over to the Iraqi Shiites, its difficult to imagine a more foolish act.
May 19, 2008 (Hold nose, but vote Democratic) Well, we're not biting anymore. The Democrats just finished their State Convention and as usual put a bunch of crap in their platform that turns off most normal Americans. In the past, we have used this as an excuse to vote for Republicans, who are much more reasonable on social issues. But, as indicated, we're not biting anymore. The current crowd of Republicans rode into power on the backs of this Demcocratic foolishness, and then promptly turned on the people, invaded a little country that had never done us wrong, lined their pockets and the pockets of their friends with our tax dollars, destroyed our civil liberties and eliminated the American middle class. If we have to put up with abortion and queers to stop these Republicans, so be it.
May 16, 2008 (Queer Marriage Decision)
The Calif Supreme Court said yesterday that the State must permit a man to marry another man, but can still prohibit him from marrying two women. Due, if nothing else, to the unavailabilty of eligible men, millions of women already are denied the ability to enjoy sex with a husband. The practical effect of this is to further increase that sad number.
And the Fed Supreme Court just approved the giving of tax money to religious groups. Support the Jews or Muslims or whatever or go to jail. Even though establishment of a religion is expressly prohibited by the Constitution.
It is becoming clear that we cannot trust judges. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, as the saying goes. And our decision to give Bush a second term, shows we also cannot trust the people.
The California decision, if nothing else, should renew and energize Nevada's efforts to amend our constitution to prohibit same sex marriage. We best get busy or the court will be soon permit men to marry a chicken (but not two chickens).
May 9, 2008 (bikes on sidewalks) The purpose, we suppose, of laws prohibiting bikes on sidewalks, is to get bicyclists to ride in the street, where they can better be run over. Drive West on Moana Lane from S. Virginia street some Wednesday morning and you will see a busy street and expensive, completely unused sidewalks. Yet should a bicyclist dare to ride on one of those sidewalks, where he would be safe, he is subject to getting a $250 fine. Something is wrong here. Why not provide in the law that a biker can, indeed must, use a sidewalk where it is devoid of pedestrians? And that, if a pedestrian should appear, that the biker must slow to a walk when passing the pedestrian? Save a bit on hospital bills. To their credit, it seems that the cops are using common sense here and citing bicyclists on sidewalks only where the biker is recklessly endangering pedestrians. As it should be.
May 3, 2008 (vote for Obama)
If you think the economy is the main problem, vote for Hillary. If you think we have to fix what Bush broke in Iraq, vote for McCain. But if you agree with us that the main thing needing fixed is America's soul, then vote for Obama. Once we recapture our national soul, once we become Americans again, we can then begin to address our other problems. That's how we see it. We can't believe that the current Congress is so timid that it refuses to impeach Bush. That Congress is content to let that crook walk free in a few more months boggles our mind.
April 28, 2008 (More on Eldorado Children) Texas is teaching us again the wisdom of Tom Jefferson's admonition that we keep church and state separate. But what to do about the sick notion among some fundamentalists that sex with minors and incest is appropriate? Who is mostly to blame for this?
We suggest that, as usual, we are. There is nothing wrong with polygyny itself. Out of every 100,000 white non-Hispanics, at least 5,000 women can't get married or enjoy the benefit of family because there just aren't enough men. 10,000 out of every 100,000 Negro women are forced by our laws against polygyny to suffer the same fate. That about twice as many men as women claim to be homosexuals increases the number of women denied family further. That men are much more likely to be imprisoned, on drugs, or addicted to alcohol further increases the injustice to women caused by these laws.
And when we recall that the laws against polygyny were passed to "protect" women from their own weaknesses, a bygone notion for sure, there is little to recommend them. Surely some women would be benefited by the practice. And they should have the right choose for themselves whether they want that kind of life.
As shown by the recent placement of some 400 Mormon Fundamentalist children into foster-home situations by Texas authorities based on a trumped-up phone call, the leaders of the Fundamentalist Mormons are telling the truth when they tell their members that society at large is out to get them. We force them to go underground and conduct their affairs in secret. Much better would be some sunlight on the sorry situation of these fundamentalists. We could then more effectively and humanely enforce our laws against sex with minors and against incest. Tom Jefferson was right. Whenever a government becomes faith-based, that government, as ours in Texas, as the Zionists in Israel, as the radical Muslims in Iraq, turns on those who don't share its view of what God wants. Violence and tragedy are the inevitable result.
April 11, 2008 (Mormons) It's hard to get reliable information about the tragedy at Eldorado Texas. The mob-like press is having a feeding frenzy. We suspect the call from the teenage "rape victim" was placed by some feminazi. If nothing else, it is becoming apparent that 416 American born children were removed from their American home and are now being held captive in an old Army fort. Their mothers, having been unable to prevent the removal of their children by getting on their knees and forming a human chain which the manly Texas Rangers were able to breach, have, of course, now left the compound to be as near to their children as the police will allow. Texas however is having none of it and says that it intends to put all 416 children in foster homes. This makes clear if there ever were any doubt that the whole operation is being conducted in bad faith. Simply put, these women are losing their children because of their faith. If a man raped them, put the man in jail. One can wonder whether it was more cruel to do as the Nazis did...put innocent women in buses and take them to gas chambers. Certainly, may women would prefer death to losing their children to some drug infested Texas foster home. Another thing to wonder: If these women were, as the press says, "raped," why are they being punished? Apparently a rape victim is not a fit mother. One thing is sure. The women will not be allowed to talk to the press, nor, if they were, would their untold grief so permit. Does our inhumanity to women know any bounds?
April 8, 2008 (Man's inhumanity) Man's inhumanity to man, or, in this case, woman apparently knows no bounds. 60 years ago he was bussing women and children to gas chambers, 2 or 3 years ago, burning Davidians in Texas and now forceably putting them on busses and taking them to town to be dumped. The latest outrage against helpless women and children is by the ever-so-brave Texas Rangers, who are bothered that they have husbands who care for them. The rangers want them indiscrimanately screwing around so that the tax payers can properly support their kids, as with everyone else. "We just can't have these women and children growing up in these great families," said the Texas Rangers. "Other kids have to suffer through divorce and single-mother hood. These kids must suffer too. Plus, we are only arresting the women and children. We are leaving the men alone."
April 2, 2008 (Hillary) So, according to Maureen Dowd in today's NY Times, Hillary didn't make a mistake when talking about landing in Bosnia under fire....she lied, knowing she would be easily and publicly caught, in order to draw fire away from Obama, who was then being bombarded over Reverend Wright. Politics! In any event, Hillary is one tough cookie and Maureen is probably right.....she is doing Obama a favor by toughening him up for the fight against Bush III.
April 1, 2008 (April Fools).
Appropriate day it is to note that though King George told us he wanted the Patriot Act to catch terrorists, he is mainly using it to rid the nation of Democratic Governors, such as Elliot Spitzer of New York. But then, is there anyone left in this country who is surprised by Bush lies? Who cares?
March 30,2008 (Kid turns pro)
JaVale McGee is not much of a human being. But then neither are most of us. In deciding to opt for the NBA draft, he has done nothing other than adopt the general "do anything for money, screw anyone for a buck" mind set that has pervated this country since Bush became president. That being said, we don't have to like it. Lets hope the SOB fails and has a miserable NBA career. And lets start looking again at the draft rules. We have never understood why the NBA allows its teams to raid the universities in this way.
Governor Gibbons, according to today/s RGJ, is a fool. We second that.
March 29, 2008 (Impeach)
We applaud the Reno jury for sentencing Tamir Hamilton to death for his senseless slaughter of Holly Quick. The courage of that jury is to be contrasted with the cowardice of Pelosi and others in Congress who refuse to impeach Bush for his senseless slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi women and children.
Al Neuharth, USA Today founder, argues that John McCain is too old to be president, as he is over 65 (today's RGJ, p 6D). Al would give us George Bush and deny us Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower (second term).
March 28, 2008 (Helpful Resources for Homeowners)
The Nevada Housing Division offers assistance for homeowners and home buyers while
working to help Nevadans facing foreclosure through the Homeowners Crisis Resource Enter (702) 486-7220 (775) 687-2040 www.nvhousing.state.nv.us
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) can also help you contact
counselors or reach out to your lender 775-824-3700 www.HUD.gov
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) can also assist homeowners who have used FHA
backed loans. 1-800-CALL-FHA www.FHA.gov Problems at the Reno Gazette Journal:
The problems at RGJ reflect the problems in society at large. RGJ, a reasonably good paper most of the time, has been taken over by corporate interests. Instead of advertising supporting a basic news gathering and reporting function, the RGJ now uses news to fill in space around advertising. Its basic purpose is not news, but profit. And, being a monopoly, it need not be so commercial. Yet today, it has advertising on the front page, being a pull-off sticker advertising this or that. Pulling off the sticker invariably destroys part of the front page, including news content. And then the ever-creeping ad at the bottom of the front page. And the destruction of the Sunday funnies, depriving the newpaper of any value to kids. Hiding and moving various sections of the paper, so that one has to hunt through ads to find the news. Pretty poor. But then, so is society at large. Too bad the newspaper is part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.
Our government can be pretty silly:
Arlington avenue, South of the river, runs past Wingfield Park and then past some offices before it get to a residential area. Yet the city has posted the area in front of the offices 15 MPH, and the area in front of the residences at 30 MPH. Silly. Why does government always insist on disappointing us? Everyone agrees that Arlington, as it passes through Wingfield should be 15 MPH. Same with the area in front of Mt Rose School. But 15 MPH in front of offices? Ridiculous. It denigrates the whole idea of a 15 MPH zone and, best we can tell, since every thinking person ignores it, exists solely as a revenue source for the city.