Street Jazz, Arkansas Times

The Jar on the Counter: Begging Customers to help with medical bills

Richard Drake — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:53:00 -0500

Whenever conservatives get together and talk about the Yesteryear That Never Was, the image of communities coming forth to help folks when they are in financial straits is often invoked, as if somehow the example of folks coming to the aid of George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life occurred on a daily basis around this country.

No one was ever allowed to go bankrupt, or into the poor house (real or virtual) and that churches, scout troops and junior high school bake sales would help whenever the rare occurrence of cancer came around.

In fact, I think we all remember the battle cry of FDR: “We really don’t need to help anyone, but my bosses in the Kremlin expect this of us,” when he campaigned for those who had been brought low by life’s cruel circumstances.

I thought about those smug, well-fed, financially well off folks and their Walton’s Mountain (the cool Waltons - not the Wally World Waltons) vision of America when I stopped in at a fast food place to get a cup of coffee last week.

On the counter was a large plastic jar, with a note underneath it, explaining that it was there for donations to help a long-time employee who had suffered a medical catastrophe, and whose medical bills were overwhelming his family.

I put a dollar into the jar.

Fact is, every time I pass the place now, I stop in for a cup of coffee and to put a dollar in the jar.

I think the employees of this establishment are to be commended for putting the jar on the counter. There is no hard-sell - such as when you are at the grocery checkout, and the clerk asks if you’d like to contribute a dollar to a particular charity. The jar just sits there, with no one bringing attention to it, and yet it still manages to have dollars dropped into it.

On the other side of the coin, it is abominable that we must go begging for paltry sums to help offset huge medical bills. It is abominable that so many who claim to be “pro-life” in this country can’t see past birth.

It is abominable that well-fed folk will pontificate that we have “the best health care system in the world,” without even giving a nod to the reality that for many, that health care will always remain just out of sight.

Even without crippling accidents or cancer, many ordinary families must go to doctors who are one step ahead of a lawsuit, or ration their visits to the doctor.

Or treat any and all medical problems with extra doses of Alka Seltzer.

I think about all of this each and every time I drop a dollar in the jar.

******

The Plaintive Battle Cry of the GOP: Democrats just want voters . . . yeah, so what? Don’t you?

One of the more plaintive snarls one might read in letters columns or on Facebook is that “Democrats just want voters,” as if there is a certain purity in belonging to a political party which seems to have less and less public approval, and seems to go out of its way to insult anyone who might think just a little differently.

I was never a Political Science major, but it occurs to me that it is pretty much the job of the Democratic Party to attract more voters, just as it is with the Green Party . . . and even the GOP.

Claiming that the other side just wants voters (the very same voters you would insult into oblivion) seems a little idiotic to me.

At this rate it won’t be long before conservatives of all stripes, upon losing an election, will claim that they were only running an “education campaign” anyway - the swan song of many losing political campaigns.

*****

Quote of the Day

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! - Maya Angelou

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Congressman Steve Womack teams up with pro-business forces to change the face of overtime - forever

Richard Drake — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:34:00 -0500

Why Those Who Punch a Time Clock Should Pay Attention to the News - Chapter 906

The Scowling One, ever the champion of the working class, has informed his constituents about H.R. 1406, the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013. The House of Representatives passed this piece of legislation last week, and no doubt has high hopes that Democrats in the Senate who take corporate donations will roll over their constituents and vote for this as well.

According to Steve Womack, this simply amends the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) so as to allow private employers and employees to establish agreements that for compensatory time off instead of monetary overtime compensation.

This “option” is already available for those who work for federal, state, and local governments.

Gosh. That’s okay, then. Nothing to see here, folks. Everybody move along, now.

Well, maybe not so much . . .

I imagine that there may be two main reactions to this. The first will be from armchair philosophers who may or may not have punched a time clock for an appreciable period in their lives.

The other will come from those activists who have worked for years in factories, mini-marts, motels or wherever folks work. Their reaction may be loud and strong.

It has been a long time since I have worked for an hourly wage, but I dearly loved overtime pay - even when I hated working the overtime hours. Overtime work means time and a half pay, which can bolster your paycheck in uncertain times.

If it weren’t for overtime, many workers across this country wouldn’t make it financially.

The Democrats in the House, at least, had it right when they referred to this act as the “More Work, Less Pay Act.”

Basically, passage of this act could replace overtime at the time and a half figure with comp time off that a worker might be able to use later, most likely at the employer’s discretion.

The strong supporters of the working class in the GOP (and their paymasters in the business community) claim that this is something that workers actually want, because it would give working women (you know, folks the GOP traditionally falls all over itself to worry about) to get more time off. Also, those who care for sick loved ones will have more time off - but just not quite have so much money to spend on taking care of them, perhaps.

It’s a win-win scenario, damn it!

Well . . .

There are those - who can’t quite grasp the innate love and care for working men and women that went into this bill - who claim that it will also empower employers to require workers to work over their regular 40 hours, without any financial consequences for the employer.

Ah - we never worked overtime for the money anyway, we worked it for the pleasure of hanging out with our fellow employees . . . and our boss.

True, the bill does give workers the right to sue an employer if they feel “intimidated” - but don’t even think about going to the Department of Labor (outside agitators, anyway) for help.

Ellie Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority, had this to say about the bill, “The Republican Working Families Flexibility Act is a fraud and anything but working family friendly. The act simply works to kill overtime pay and allow flex time only to meet the employer’s needs.”

While the White House has spoken out against the bill, the Obama administration has been markedly MIA when it comes to workers’ rights over the past few years. Just imagine a scenario in which President Obama caves on this, as part of a deal to appease Republicans over budget and tax issues.

There are still a few stalwarts in Congress who remember that America is made up of human beings, and not simply campaign contributors, but unless we all pay attention, and keep their feet to the fire . . .

Any guesses on how Mark Pryor might vote on this?

******

Once again wearing the Shroud of Chagrin: why I deleted yesterday’s blog

Believing that Life is a Work in Progress, I almost never (I can’t recall the last time I have) delete a blog, but yesterday’s entry was such a screw-up on my part that I deleted it last night.

Why am I wearing the Shroud of Chagrin today . . . so soon after removing it?

In my blog on the TV series Gavin and Stacey - both the BBC original and new Fox version - I wrote about the leads, and how young and sexy they are compared to the BBC version, where the leads were appreciably overweight.

But I was wrong. I was looking at folks in the supporting cast, and not the two leads. The two leads in the British version - as in the American version - are not how I described.

Putz.

I like to blame things like this on my cataracts, but I just screwed up royally (that’s a weak pun, since I am writing about a British show) and Mea Culpa seems to be the only thing I can utter around the house today.

Which is sort of inconvenient, it being Mother’s Day and all.

I got several emails on the subject, including some from England (which I read this morning) asking me about the blog. And I will tell you this:

The people who are fans of Gavin and Stacey seem to be the nicest people in the universe. I’m not sure that Steptoe and Son fans would have been so nice, when pointing out such an error on my part.

Special congratulations (and thanks to pointing me in the right direction) to former Arkansas Times intern Ashlie Atkinson, who will play the role of Nessa on the American version.

*****

Quote of the Day

Winter is not a season; it’s an occupation. - Sinclair Lewis

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Channeling Timothy McVeigh: telling survivors and family members of victims of shootings that they should “get over it”

Richard Drake — Sat, 04 May 2013 12:50:00 -0500

And here’s the other thing that drives me crazy. They trot out the victims. And I have something I want to say to the victims of Newtown, or any other shooting. I don’t care if it’s here in Minneapolis or anyplace else. Just because a bad thing happened to you doesn’t mean that you get to put a king in charge of my life. I’m sorry that you suffered a tragedy, but you know what? Deal with it, and don’t force me to lose my liberty, which is a greater tragedy than your loss. I’m sick and tired of seeing these victims trotted out, given rides on Air Force One, hauled into the Senate well, and everyone is just afraid — they’re terrified of these victims. - Bob Davis, radio host/former Republican candidate for governor

As I listened to the unrestrained rant by radio host Bob Davis which has made him a household word - at least for this week - I flashed back on the documentary which Rachel Maddow produced some time back for MSNBC on Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. Mcveigh, who succeeded in killing a number of innocent children in his infamous bombing, told his interviewer that he had no sympathy for the families of those who had been killed in the blast, and that they should “Get over it.”

Frustrated that the so-called “Newtown Effect” lasted more than the hoped-for few weeks, and at a loss to understand it, their argument that the grieving families of those who have been killed by gun violence are being used as unwitting political props falling on deaf ears - except on those already predisposed to believe it - they are now using a new tactic . . . gun owners and defenders of liberty in this country are being bullied by the families and survivors of shootings.

Particularly harsh words have been thrown at former astronaut Gabby Giffords, who also served her country in Congress - two achievements most of the flying monkeys who are scrambling to attack her will never achieve.

James Taranto, of the Wall Street Journal, dismissed an op-ed Giffords wrote for the New York Times, and criticized her for practicing “incivility and unreason.”

Kevin Williamson of The National Review showed much greater courage than Taranto when he wrote, “It should be noted that being shot in the head by a lunatic does not give one any special grace to pronounce upon public-policy questions.”

Just get over it.

A calm approach was urged by Alaska Democrat Mark Begich, when he told the New York Times, “It’s dangerous to do any type of policy in an emotional moment, Because human emotions then drive the decision. Everyone’s all worked up. That’s not enough.”

One can only imagine Comrade Begich taking to the floor after Pearl Harbor, offering this sage advice.

Begich offered no clue as to whether or not he was ever emotional upon getting his “A” rating from the National Rifle Association . . . or their coin.

Attacking the victim has long been a game in America, only now we have moved from attacking just victims of sexual assault to victims to killers. Now the families who will have an empty chair at the dinner table every night and dare to speak out are smeared as “bullies,” and told to get over it.

Those whose bodies have been ravaged by bullets are best kept out of sight, unless they can just be seen as inspirational stories of human endurance. If they dare to speak their minds, to exercise their rights as Americans, they are dismissed as “bullies.”

Poor gun owners, cowering in the night, never knowing when a victim of a shooting might show up in their town, might show up and speak at a public meeting in their community.

In 1976, a good friend and his father were burying their guns in their field, sure that Jimmy Carter would confiscate them once he took office. In 1996, gun shops were warning about Bill Clinton’s anti-gun “agenda” during his second term.

The only answer to such a threat is buy even more guns.

Ironically, this is something that rarely gets covered on the news. Perhaps more guns are being bought, but in many cases, the same people are buying more of them. A local television station is going to offer a “news” segment on gun ownership in the coming weeks, including the number of guns being bought from gun shops.

I suspect they will gloss over this fact.

But I digress (but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll digress if I want to), so back to Timothy Mcveigh’s advice to the families of those he murdered.

“Get over it.”

Morally, those who are venting their wrath on those who have suffered at the hands of gun owners are filling in for Timothy McVeigh, through his very own words, in a manner too creepy to even consider when he himself uttered them before he was executed.

******

True, McVeigh did renounce his NRA membership, but guess what?

Much is made of the fact that McVeigh was a member of the National Rifle Association, but he also renounced the organization because he considered that their support for gun rights wasn’t strong enough.

Would he renounce his membership today?

*****

Quote of the Day

We are more inclined to regret our virtues than our vices; but only the very honest will admit this. - Holbrook Jackson

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Torture: Are some really concerned with obtaining information, or do they just want torture used as a form of punishment . . . even before a trial?

Richard Drake — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:22:00 -0500

Human history is filled with stories of prisoners, every ounce of information being wrenched out of them, who were tortured still . . . because it amused their captors. From the torture chambers of the Inquisition to the scream-filled rooms operated by Central American dictatorships, the story is an old one.

People torture others not so much for whatever information they might glean, but because they well and truly enjoy it.

The torture groupies among us, who get such a thrill from the thought of people they hate being tortured, will in turn torture the English language, in an effort to make the gullible believe that what is happening in the rooms we should never see is just “enhanced interrogation,” and that this is the new normal, so get over it already.

There seem to be two camps in the “Torture is the New American Normal” debate. One, the professionals who have actually gotten information from suspects, dismiss the use of torture, and the torture groupies, those who enjoy sitting in front of cameras and flexing their patriotic muscles, all the while denying that torture is anything but torture.

There seems to be a sort of agreement in the media that the words “enhanced interrogation” will always be used, unless it is on the rare occasion when they interview a critic of torture.

Does the fact that torture is openly debated on TV, radio and in newspaper columns make us better than dictatorships which practice it, or creepier? At least those regimes had the good grace to deny that torture was ever taking place.

In this country, the torture groupies - and those in the government who lack the spine to stand up to them - are making the American people accomplices in their horrors.

So, are those who clamor water boarding - and whatever else might be in a torturer’s arsenal - actually interested in any information which might be gotten from a suspect, or are they so vengeance-driven that the punishment must begin now, even without resorting to a trial?

In the rare event that answers are forthcoming, would they be content to let the torture stop there, understanding what the suspect might be guilty of?

Again . . . Does the open debate on torture in this country make us better than those other countries which have engaged in it, or creepier?

Does it make us better as a people, , or a whole lot creepier?

******

Quote of the Day

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. - George Carlin

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So, while American TV news was mesmerized by the Royal baby bump and the paintings of George Bush here is what happened on planet Earth . . .

Richard Drake — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:06:00 -0500

If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves. - Howard Zinn

Someone pointed out to me that North Korea has been awfully quiet this week, all things considered. Or, at least, our crackerjack news networks haven’t seen fit to cover them.

True, we have had two major events happen in close succession - the Boston bombing and the plant explosion in Texas. Oh, and how our “lawmakers” sprang into action when airline profits were threatened by the government budget battles.

Other than that, though, what else (other than stories about the Boston bomber) have we learned about?

We have seen endless footage of the Royal “baby bump,” with anxious Americans being informed of the child’s role when it comes to succeeding the current Queen of England - roughly, a few thousand supermarket openings and other photo ops to go, kid.

We don’t actually know anything about the oddly-bland made for TV Royal couple, other than what press releases tell us . . . but then, modern journalism lives on press releases.

The opening of the George Bush Presidential Library, which featured fawning reporter after fawning reporter talking to the former president about his new found love for painting.

Som yes, Wagnerian Reader, one might possibly be forgiven for thinking that nothing else happened in the world this week. Except for . . .

I picked up a copy of the New York Times yesterday, just to see if there might have been one or two stories the networks might have let slip through the cracks, and here are some of the nuggets I found:

North Korea Issues Threat At Ceremony For Military - North Korean generals warned that not only were their forces ready to launch ICBM attacks against this country, but that the North is “ . . . one click away from pressing the launch button.” The claim was made that pilots, instead of loading up with fuel for a return trip, would be prepared to launch “kamikaze-like” attacks against this country.

Venezuela Says U.S. Citizen Plotted Unrest - Timothy Hallett was arrested on accusations that he was working with right-wing groups hoping to promote violence, and possibly even a civil war.

Cuba: U.S. Bars Raul Castro’s Daughter from a Forum - Castro’s daughter was to attend a gay rights conference in Philadelphia next week, when she was to receive an award. No explanation was given for the decision to bar her from the conference.

South Africa: Lawmakers Pass Contentious Secrecy Bill - The South African government approved a highly criticized bill would increase the government’s power to restrict access to information.

Agency Halts Trials for AIDS Vaccine - A trial of a possible Vaccine against AIDS was halted because it appeared not to be working, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Cancer Specialists Attack High Drug Costs - More than 100 cancer specialist from around the globe met to take what has been described as the “first step” in banding together in the hopes of persuading drug companies to bring their prices down.

Wouldn’t it be nice if “lawmakers” who get campaign donations from drug manufacturers also felt such concern?

And if this wasn’t bad enough, it takes the excellent HBO documentary series VICE to lay open just what is happening in Europe, while on American TV news all we hear is that folks are in an uproar due to “austerity measures.”

I still cling to the old-fashioned view that knowing things (real things, not conspiracy drenched crap) is important to our culture, and to ourselves as human beings. It sets good example for our friends, and for the young people in our lives, while being pig ignorant, on the other hand . . .

Maybe it’s too late to expect anything of local and national news, but we can expect more of ourselves, and it only takes a few minutes a week to stay informed.

******

And here is one bit of news a local anchor and weatherman twisted out of all proportion

A local anchor and weatherman were practically giving each other high fives a few days ago, because “the drought is over.”

This headline from the New York Times:

In Midwest, Drought Gives way To Flood.

Deep, deep sigh.

*****

Quote of the Day

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. - Carl Sagan

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Fayetteville’s Fiesta Square: Destined to be an empty field once more?

Richard Drake — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:55:00 -0500

It wasn’t so long ago - at least in carbon dating terms - that the spot upon which Fayetteville’s Fiesta Square shopping center now stands was a drive-in movie theatre, with a wooded area behind it.

Many will tell you that, yes, they knew a Walmart once occupied the site, but that was also a long time ago. What people really know Fiesta Square for are Hastings, the movie theatre, and Harps grocery. Each of these has helped to make Fiesta Square what it is today.

The news - “covered” by news organizations that can’t look beyond corporate press releases - that Hastings will be closing in June is sad news to everyone who has enjoyed coming to the store over the years. No one I have talked to is happy about the news. Employees, of course, are keeping a stiff upper lip . . . but to shut the store down after so many years, after just a few bad months?

And keep another location open in Northwest Arkansas which is considered inferior in so many ways? This is called corporate common sense.

This week I learned just how much Hastings pays in rent per month, and I was taken aback. My first thought, honestly, was:

“Stores pay this much rent and the parking lot is still this bad?”

But after Hastings shuts its doors in June, it won’t be the only empty store front in Fiesta Square. There are already a handful of empty places now.

The Postal Center will be shutting its doors in October, because the owners are retiring.

One more empty store front.

Harps, which may be extending itself a little too far and wide these days, may not lavish as much attention on the Fiesta Square Harps as it used to, which is sort of odd, considering the part of town it is in. But with the West Fork store perhaps not meeting their expectations, might Harps do the unthinkable and shutter the Fiesta Square facility?

And the movie theatre . . . deep sigh.

Actually, I’m not sure why anybody still goes to this theatre anymore, considering the one up by Wally World. I can’t help but think about the day it might follow the path of the old Malco theatre which used to be across the street, and just showed movies for a dollar - the sort of movies which now go directly to DVD, or you watch when no one else is in the house.

What’s gonna bring shoppers to Fiesta Square once Hastings shuts down? Okay, Harps, but what else?

The bank? Hardees?

Big Lots?

Not to worry, though. As each place shuts its doors, the folks on the news will dutifully read the corporate press release . . . and then show you this cute dancing rabbit which is all the rage on YouTube!

******

Quote of the Day

“Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say ‘This is my community and it’s my responsibility to make it better’.” - Former Oregon Governor Tom McCall

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How I got a Mandate from the People: Or: Losing three elections isn’t as easy as it looks

Richard Drake — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:44:00 -0500

I wrote this a few years ago for the Arkansas Free Press (formerly Little Rock Free Press) about my sad forays into electoral politics. I may have lost, but I learned a lot about how small campaigns are run, and to have the greatest respect for folks who get involved with such races, either as a candidate or as part of their team.

How I got a Mandate from the People
Or: Losing three elections isn’t as easy as it looks

1988: Into the Fray

Though I had long had an interest in politics, it had been pretty much restricted to reading about politics and writing many letters to the editor. But then, one day, as I was working in the parts cage at Mexican Original, a man came up and introduced himself to me.

He told me that he had read many of my letters to the editor, and suggested to me that perhaps it was time for me to evolve. I can’t recall his exact words, but “evolve” seems like a good description for our discussion.

A few days later he introduced me to a friend of his, a man who had led the often lonely fight against Fayetteville’s plan to build a solid waste incinerator. He had managed to galvanize the public and this had led to a public vote, in which a majority of voters said, “No thanks” to the proposition.

We became friends, and he began educating me about the ins and outs of Fayetteville politics. I began accompanying him to meetings and met people whose names I had only encountered in news articles and letters columns.

In August of that year I decided to take the plunge - as long as I was “evolving” - to run for a seat on Fayetteville’s city government. At that time Fayetteville had a city manager form of government, supported by a Board of Directors, which elected a weak mayor.

I still remember how cocky I was. “Blood will flow,” I told the City Clerk when I picked up my application forms. Too bad I didn’t realize the blood would all be mine.

As luck would have it, I found myself in a four-man race. I don’t think it will spoil your suspense if I tell you now that I came in last. Of course, at that time, ward races were city-wide. After a while, I just gave up trying to get to all parts of the city with my campaign literature.

Still, as learning experiences go, it was a wonderful thing. I hadn’t yet had any experience in front of a camera, so my performances were pretty stiff, and I said some pretty silly stuff, a lot of which I can’t remember, thank God.

I do remember one of the all time worst political radio spots I’ve ever heard, and it was put on by folks who supported our slate of progressive candidates. The film Good Morning Vietnam had just come out, and so imagine, if you will, a voice bellowing out of your radio:

“Good Morning, Fayetteville!”

With no practical political experience, even I thought this ad was a terrible idea. I didn’t say anything at the time, though. I was still the New Kid on the Block.

I also learned that once you announce for office, you are fair game for every group out there that wants to send you a questionnaire - whether it be newspapers, political groups, or fringe outfits.

Abortion and traditional marriage seem to matter an awful lot to some of the groups who send out questions to candidates. In the beginning I filled them all out, but after a while I just started throwing some of them away.

Even though I came in last, I still managed to get enough votes to make me think that this running for office stuff might have some kind of future for me.

1990: The Year I joined the Republican Party- well, sort of

Anyone can lose one election. Even Bill Clinton managed to do it. But 1990 gave me an opportunity to climb on the horse yet again.

Of course, no one makes the decision to run with the intention of losing in mind; it’s just that sometimes you find yourself in a truly unwinnable race. And so it was that year, as I took on Lyell Thompson, a Democrat who had held a seat on the Washington County Quorum Court since the time of Methuselah.

Well, not quite that long. But long enough that he was firmly entrenched in the seat. Not only that, Lyell was (and still is) a very popular man. And, added to that, I was running as a Republican in a firmly Democratic area. What could have been going through my head?

Well, the man who had persuaded me to run for city board had been sitting on the Washington County Quorum Court for the past two years as a Republican. He wasn’t really much of a Republican, but he never got much support from the Democratic Party when he was fighting the incinerator battle several years before. He thought he could do some good as an elected official, so he ran as a Republican

After a couple years, making motions and never getting a second from anyone else on the court was starting to get to him. In the summer of 1990 he came up with what seemed at the time like a cunning plan.

“Come join the Republican party,” he said to several of us. “You can help liberalize it from within. You can make real changes.”

At least two of us fell for that. We paid our filing fees as candidates, and began attending party meetings. The race was on. Only this time, things were a whole lot different. I’m not saying that the new crowd of people we were hanging out with weren’t nice people - most of them were - but we weren’t exactly among friends.

Some things you learned to keep your mouth shut about. Abortion was off-limits. You didn’t talk bad about Ronald Reagan, or George Bush the elder. You sure didn’t praise the governorship of Bill Clinton.

Possibly the oddest moment during the whole campaign came when I attended the governor’s debate between Bill Clinton and GOP opponent Sheffield Nelson and was honor-bound to sit with the GOP side. It just didn’t feel natural.

And the deal was that nobody really accepted the pseudo-Republicans as anything but Klingons in sheep’s clothing. In fact, the Republican Women’s group, which doled out money to candidates, even voted not to give money to some of us.

But the late Leland “Tiny” Hamilton, who was a good man and a good friend, came to our defense and convinced them to write us some checks. Hamilton, who ran several losing campaigns himself, was often dismissed by reporters as a “gadfly,” but he was much more than that.

But that’s a story for another day.

I enjoyed going door-to-door this time around. I enjoyed talking to people, and when someone wasn’t there, I left my flyer. Of the three times I ran, this was the most fun.

Election Night I hung out at the Hilton with other candidates to watch results come in. This is always pretty nerve wracking, even when you are in the lead, which I wasn’t. No matter how tough you are, it’s hard to restrain tears when the results come in, and all your hard work has gone for nothing.

All that self-serving crap about running an educational campaign, and it not mattering whether you win or lose is just that - unadulterated crap.

Still, I garnered over 40 percent of the vote, which was pretty good. My best showing out of three races, actually. But today, looking over my campaign flyer for that race, my eye fell on one paragraph:

“Our environmental integrity must be protected. Twenty-five years ago we began living in what we foolishly called ‘the disposable society.’ Today, those mountains of trash are beginning to tower over us. We must seize the initiative and safeguard our children’s future . . .”

No wonder they didn’t trust me.

1992: The Race for City Council

June of that year saw the end of a hard-fought campaign to change the form of government in Fayetteville from City Manager/Board of Directors to Mayor/Council. Many things helped to bring about the change, including the bitter public access war that had taken place over the previous winter and spring, in which public access television itself was almost gone from the screens of Fayetteville viewers.

There were many other criticisms of the city manger form of government, of course, but the main argument in favor of change boiled down to this: the new form of government would be more responsive to the people. Voters just weren’t all that keen anymore on the idea of a figurehead mayor, with managers running the show behind the scenes.

It was that summer that I decided to make my last - to date - foray into electoral politics. I felt like this might be my year; aldermen didn’t have to campaign city-wide, but only in their own ward, and I was a little better known this time around. At the very least, I had been doing an interview show (On the Air with Richard S. Drake) on Fayetteville Open Channel for over a year, and was writing a column for Grapevine, an alternative newspaper - which I felt gave some name recognition.

Very little name recognition, as it turned out.

Somehow, once again, I found myself facing multiple opponents. Four, this time around. Please God, don’t let me come in last this time.

So I got my campaign literature ready (and it looked pretty sharp), got ready for my TV debates, and began going door-to-door. But it was different this time around.

My heart just wasn’t in it. Half-way through the election season, I realized that I was bored.

And not just bored the way you are on Sunday afternoon when you are too lazy to leave the house and there’s nothing good on television, and even reading is a chore. I mean really, really bored.

I was bored with the election, bored with the process, and bored with myself as a candidate.

I realized I was becoming one of those politicians, who, like Pavlov’s dogs, begin salivating at the clang of the chime beginning the election season. I had known enough of those candidates, and had written about quite a few of them; now I was becoming one of them.

I still went through the motions; I filled out all the questionnaires (even the insane ones), I participated in television debates, and answered questions for newspapers. There were even issues that I cared very strongly about.

Maybe the last two elections were still too fresh in my mind. Or maybe, as more than a few people pointed out, I was having more of an effect writing about issues, and interviewing people, than I would be as an alderman.

Maybe the voters picked up on that, because I didn’t win that election, either. But I didn’t come in last, which does still count for something. No, I came in next to last.

So I have concentrated on writing about politics, and learning about local government and history, and discovering where the bodies are buried. I interview news makers on my little talk show.

I write books. Life is interesting.

I learned a lot in those three elections. I learned how even tough guys can cry, and how pretentious some people can get. I think that running for office gave me a unique perspective on covering local elections, and I’d recommend it to almost anyone who wants to write about politics.

I learned that ordinary men and women can make a difference, which, while a cliche, really is still true. And win or lose, the sun still comes up after Election Day, and your friends are still your friends. Everybody is your friend if you win, but your real friends are there when you lose.

And I learned that you don’t join the Republican Party in an effort to “liberalize” it from within.

Richard S. Drake is the author of a novel, Freedom Run, and a history of Fayetteville, Ozark Mosaic: Adventures in Arkansas Alternative Journalism, 1990-2002.

Arkansas Free Press - December 2007

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Batman and The Brave and the Bold - 40 years later

Richard Drake — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:15:00 -0500

Last year I picked up one of those large collections of comic stories in the DC Showcase series, this one featuring stories from The Brave and The Bold, which featured the Batman teaming up with a special guest hero every issue.

Many may only know The Brave and Bold as the lighthearted Batman series which ran on the Cartoon Network for some years, but anyone who appreciates Batman should check out this collection, which runs from B&B #59, April/May 1965 (the first time Batman made an appearance in the comic) to B&B #87, December 1969/January 1970.

I began reading The Brave and the Bold in the Spring of 1969, when the Teen Titans (“Punish Not my Evil Sun”) made an appearance. With art by the famous Neil Adams, it is included in this collection.

It was interesting to catch up again with those who helped the Caped Crusader after so many years in this black-and-white collection. Black-and-white seems to suit the Batman better, especially in the later stories.

Included are some real gems, including a dandy story with Green Arrow (“The Senators’ Been Shot!”).

Most of the stories were written by Bob Haney, with the exception of a Batman/Wonder Woman story by Mike Sekowsky.

What’s particularly intriguing to read in this collection are the various interpretations of Batman through the years, from the straight but lighthearted approach in 1965 to the more dramatic stories of the early 1970s.

And in the middle are the ABC TV show years, when one can almost imagine Adam West himself saying the lines as written. In fact, there a couple of not so sly references to the TV show, just as when Metamorpho tells Batman, “Be seeing you on the TV, pal!”

Well, I’m sure it seemed cute at the time.

My personal favorites are the later stories, including the stories where Batman teams up with Sgt. Rock, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out how this guy in the 1970s ever had a mission behind enemy lines in World War II.

Bob Haney, who wrote most of the tales, had a long career in comics, co-creating the Teen Titans and Metamorpho, among others. But it was his 1965-1979 tenure on B&B which many remember him for.

As evidenced by this collection, Haney was able to switch story telling styles when the times demanded it - straight, camp, gritty.

And with the right artists - especially Neil Adams and Jim Aparo - his writing really shone.

Like many comics writers, though, Haney had woman trouble, meaning that he just didn’t know what to do with them once he had them in a story. Most of them are motivated by a teenage girl type of puppy love for Batman, including an embarrassing story (“In the Coils of Copperhead”) where Wonder Woman and Batgirl compete for some Batlove.

Even when women are heroes, Haney seems unsure of himself. Part of it may be due to the sexism of the period, but it also seems as though he never read the comics these women headlined, where they were heroes in their own right.

Over all, though, this first volume of The Brave and the Bold has much to recommend it, and I have just finished the second volume, when The Brave and the Bold teamed Batman with the popular series, The House of Mystery.

To the Batlibrary!

******

Quote of the Day

We seek a thousand reasons to accuse vice in poverty, but two thousand to excuse it in prosperity, - J. Petit-Senn

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Why State Representative Nate Bell should resign

Richard Drake — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:56:00 -0500

It is easy to be brave from a distance. - Aesop

Arkansas State Representative Nate Bell, who has never seen fit to wear the uniform of his country, nevertheless passed judgement on the courage of others when he Tweeted the following “joke” yesterday:

I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? #2A — Nate Bell (@NateBell4AR) April 19, 2013

Despite the fact that many seemed to agree with Bell, it must have dismayed him that so many felt repulsed upon upon reading his words.

Perhaps, unlike Bell, they had actually been paying attention to the news this week, and taken in not only the memorials to the killed and injured, but the many stories of heroism, when folks who were not police or emergency personnel stayed to comfort the afflicted, and carry them to safety, even though they did not know if another bomb might go off even as they were helping their fellow human beings.

Nate Bell wasn’t there, not were most of those on the Internet who approved his message. The folks in Boston were.

Maybe Republican Bell had forgotten that a small child was among those who had been killed.

But at any rate Bell, who felt comfortable making a crude joke about the courage of others while he was chortling safely away here in Arkansas, soon felt compelled to issue an apology on Facebook . . . of sorts.

I would like to apologize to the people of Boston & Massachusetts for the poor timing of my tweet earlier this morning. As a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense, I expressed my point of view without thinking of its effect on those still in time of crisis. In hindsight, given the ongoing tragedy that is still unfolding, I regret the poor choice of timing. Please know that my thoughts and prayers were with the people of Boston overnight and will continue as they recover from this tragedy.

Nate Bell is sorry about the “timing” of his joke. In saying so twice, he makes sure that the grieving folks of Boston know he still feels contempt for them; he just shouldn’t have been so excited by what the voices in his head were saying that he had to share what they said with the world quite so quickly.

Like the bully in the bar, Nate Bell wasn’t “thinking” about those his stupid remarks may have offended. He was going for the cheap laugh, to get the approval of the other lurkers in the back of the bar, back there in the dark.

Perhaps Bell, who touts his involvement with the National Rifle Association, felt that this would take some of the heat away, but the damage has already been done.

Not only to Bell, but to Arkansas as a whole, which has already been suffering blows to its national reputation of late due to the hard work of the Men with Bad Haircuts in the state legislature, of which Nate Bell is a proud member.

I suppose it is sort of understandable, in a way. Prior to being elected to this office, Bell’s only other elected position were his three terms as Potter Township Constable.

And nobody pays much attention to what a constable posts on Twitter.

Still, even a former constable might know better than to make such a stupid, monstrously insensitive, joke at a time like this.

But maybe Nate Bell doesn’t know any better.

No doubt he is smarting from all of the media attention (damn media) and comments left on his Facebook page (do politicians ever actually read the comments people leave on Facebook?) but the fact that so many other folks have chortled along with the NRA supporter may have bolstered him emotionally.

He may just decide to wait this out, and read things through three or four times before actually posting them online for the foreseeable future.

If there is any cosmic justice, and if Nate Bell has a modicum of self-awareness left at this point, he should resign from the Arkansas legislature.

I’m not holding my breath, though.

******
Quote of the Day

Man is least himself when he talks in his own voice. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. - Oscar Wilde

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Coming to work to die

Richard Drake — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:13:00 -0500

In the several decades I spent punching a time clock, I saw many horrific examples of what can happen to a human body, but no one ever died where I worked, thanks to whatever saints still watch over the American worker.

True, there were stories of a man crushed to death by one of the large industrial robots at a wheel plant I once worked at, but it was before my time.

Even so, 4500 of us were killed on the job in 2010, which was up three percent from the year before.

Last night, scores of our working class brothers and sisters were killed in an explosion in a fertilizer plant in Texas. The sheer number of dead boggles the imagination.

One can only pray it was over in an instant for most of them.

Supposedly, there was a strong ammonia smell last night, and in fact, despite the paranoid rantings of the conservative crowd about OSHA, the plant had not been inspected in five years.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/18/1886991/west-texas-fertilizer-plant-hadnt-been-inspected-in-the-past-five-years/

In fact, due to the deliberate under-funding of OSHA (how many workers have to die?) a fertilizer plant such as the one which blew up last night might face an inspection only once every six decades or so.

At some point, sheer moral repugnance must overcome petty political beliefs, and folks must come to the realization that the lives of those who produce our goods and services simply need to take priority over profits.

Over convenience.

We can not call ourselves a “pro-life” culture if we don’t honor the men and women who work in this country.

******

Why it is perfectly all right to make a political issue of worker safety - especially at a time like this

There are those armchair philosophers who would decry any move to “politicize” the deaths of those who worked and died in the Texas plant, but now is exactly the right time.

For years, people who aren’t working class have made issues of their paychecks, their benefits, their health benefits . . . and yes, their safety on the job. They quote Ayn Rand as though she actually knew anything about humanity.

They quote millionaires.

But for any of them to offer their shopworn opinions now, today, this week, would make them the intellectual and moral equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church.

*****

Quote of the Day

There is more than a morsel in the saying, “He who hates vice hates mankind.” - W. MacNeile Dixon

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Really want to get “real” about what goes on in the bathroom? Put some men in those commercials

Richard Drake — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Offhand, I suppose you can’t get more real than what happens in the bathroom, and yet a prominent toilet paper manufacturer is urging us (or rather, a series of beautiful women in pristine settings) is telling us that it is time to get “real” about what happens in the bathroom.

I can only assume that this is what happens when you stop teaching Health Class in school, so that students can spend more time studying for tests - even basic human plumbing becomes as mysterious as anything found in Shangri-La.

Leaving these Lost Souls behind, however, and getting back to the reality of the bathroom - and more specifically, shopping - one might well confront the myth that this commercial (and others like it) help to perpetuate - that men either do not shop, or have no idea how to shop, save for shaking cans of carrots, trying to figure out the water content.

Oh, like you haven’t done it yourself . . .

When have we not seen men in grocery stores? And not just bachelors, or the boorish husbands, trying to hurry their wives along, because shopping is somehow beneath their sense of masculine pride? Isn't it a little late in the day to go back to 1950s style sexism in TV commercials?

Guys have always shopped, and yes, Vacant Reader, they have been buying toilet paper. True, sometimes for price, though that is a decision one makes rashly (oh! A bathroom pun!) but the smart shopper soon wipes those that product off his list.

Instead, he will learn, as everyone else does, to select a toilet paper for the reasons that everyone else does - because . . . well, just because. But price is the least of our concerns when it comes to the reality of the bathroom.

I’ll believe in the “reality” of these commercials when they include a few guys.

******

Five Seconds to Air: Broadcast Journalism Behind the Scenes - Bob Losure and the early days of CNN

Bob Losure's story of his time spent in broadcast journalism - both radio and television - opens with an exciting sequence during the beginning of 1991’s Persian Gulf War. Cable News Network (CNN) had worked diligently for some months, using its not inconsiderable clout, to convince Saddam Hussein to allow the installation of a four-wire telephone system in Baghdad’s Al-Rashid Hotel. Because of that effort, CNN was able to broadcast from “behind enemy lines,” and report on what was happening in Iraq when the American air strikes began. In Five Seconds to Air - Broadcast Journalism Behind the Scenes, he tells the fascinating story behind all of that.

CNN was able to leave all other networks in the dust, and claim a place in broadcast history, as three CNN correspondents, in a city subjected to the power of the greatest air power in the world, told the world what they saw and heard. Back home in Atlanta, Headline News (CNN’s sister network) producers and writers broke a long-standing rule and didn’t bother to send their messages across the large newsroom by computer - they literally shouted facts and updates across the room.

Across the globe, eyes were glued to CNN and Headline News for their information. To some degree, it has been true ever since.

Anyone wishing to learn about the early days of the world’s first truly global news network will find Losure’s book fascinating. But it isn’t just a history of the public glories and off-camera dramas which propel this book. Rather, it is the story of a hard working, ambitious young man determined to make his mark on the world. The account follows Losure from his early days at a country western music station, to radio traffic reporting to Tulsa’s KOTV, and finally, Headline News.

Losure recounts tales both tragic and comical, and there is nary a sign of any “aren’t I wonderful” blather so often encountered in other works by journalists.

In addition to his professional life, we become acquainted with his wives and friends over the years. Possibly the most affecting chapter has little to do with the news business, but his battle with testicular cancer in the mid-1980s. He leads the reader though his various surgeries, and chemotherapy regimen, until his victory over the cancer.

t was while he was recuperating that he made the decision to leave Tulsa and head for another arena. Watching television, he couldn’t help but notice that his on-air replacements were doing good work at the station. Sources at the sation told him that they had signed contracts and wouldn’t be moved out of anchoring positions anytime soon. Accordingly, Losure contacted his agent, who began a job search. CNN Headline News had an opening - would he be interested?

The rest, as they say, is history. Five Seconds to Air tells the story of what it was like, creating a network from the ground up. The book relates the days when Ted Turner, CNN’s owner who lived in the on the premises for a time, wandered the building in the mid-morning hours in his bathrobe.

Losure also gives his views on the state of modern television journalism, with its over-reliance on focus groups and consulting firms. Losure left Headline News in 1997, and now makes his living doing corporate videos and taking on speaking engagements.

He has some criticisms to make of the current direction CNN has found itself in, and his views can make us take just a little closer look at the news business.

*****

Quote of the Day

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. - Woody Allen, "My Speech to the Graduates"

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The Great Billy's Bar & Grill Fight: Should anyone - let alone an off-duty police officer - be carrying a concealed weapon when they know that drinking is on the night’s agenda?

Richard Drake — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:22:00 -0500

“If they can’t protect me from their own police who’s going to? I mean I’m worried if I’m going to get home to see my three children and then I find out the person who pulled the gun on me was a person of the law.” - Witness Ronna McAlister, interviewed by Channel 40/29

http://www.4029tv.com/news/arkansas/northwest/Two-officers-on-leave-after-fight-at-restaurant/-/8897460/19742414/-/wdsh47z/-/index.html

Billy's Bar & Grill could have been the site of a stupid tragedy a few days ago, when two off-duty police officers (one from Little Rock, the other from Prairie Grove) got into a public fight in a Fayetteville pool hall. During the scuffle, one officer pulled his weapon, and was whirling about in circles, covering the crowd.

After Fayetteville police officers were called to the scene, everything settled down - but no arrests were made.

Evidently, the two officers - who have since been suspended by their respective departments - are allowed to carry weapons in an establishment which serves alcohol.

Of course, sit in any restaurant, and the civilian sitting next to you may well be packing heat, ever watchful, ever waiting, should his services be required. They might even be knocking back a brewski or two, to help with their concentration.

But why the hell would cops feel the need to mix alcohol and guns?

Witnesses at the scene were upset that the cops were allowed to walk, and with good reason. At least for the sake of propriety, and to assure the public that everyone in Fayetteville is treated equally under the law, handcuffs should have been put on, and it could all have been worked out at the station.

Just try getting into a fight in a restaurant even without pulling a gun, and see where you might spend the night. Try waving a fork around, for good measure.

Just because the Men with Bad Haircuts in the Arkansas legislature seem to feel that an armed society is a polite society, is no reason for folks to hitch a wagon to their rapidly tarnishing star. Sometimes that thing called common sense should creep in, and you should think twice about slipping that gun into its holster before going out for a night on the town.

Especially if you are a police officer.

You can’t drive when you have been drinking too much, but you can carry a weapon, and wave it around like Barney Fife at a bachelor party? With no immediate consequences?

Okay . . .

******

Quote of the Day

Most of us would be far enough from vanity if we heard all the things that are said of us. - Joseph Rickaby

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Fayetteville Public Access Television studio: tanned, rested and ready for action

Richard Drake — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:58:00 -0500

In the two decades (yet while hardly aging a day - go figure) that I have spent producing with public access television in Fayetteville, I have seen many changes - many of which I have written about, and will continue to write about. One thing which has never changed is the passion and commitment of those in the community to reach out to others, to share the diversity of our life here with others.

While the passion and creativity of the folks who use public access has never wavered, the technology has changed radically over the years. This is in no way a dig at the “Old Days” - when I was taught the bulk of my skills - when you had to think fast on your feet, but rather appreciation for the money which has been spent on the cameras, editing equipment and studio facilities over the years.

In particular, I am impressed with the new studio - which is still highly user-friendly.

Often, one hears someone say, “I’d love to get involved with public access, but the thought of learning all that equipment just scares the hell out of me!” Well, truly, if I could have learned to do it, so could you, Ulcerated Reader, and probably a lot easier than I did.

This is the point at which I pull out my short speech about my I revere public access so much, so hang with me.

When I was serving on the board of directors of Community Access Television (CAT), the name Fayetteville Public Access Television used to go by, I happened upon a collection of quilts hanging in the Northwest Arkansas Mall. On one I found a small patch honoring public access television, which was completely surprising, particularly as no one at the station knew anything about it.

Reflecting on it, I realized that public access - for over 30 years - has been Diversity in Action for our region. Not only do men and women of all ages, and from all walks of life come together to make programming, but the very fact that this programming airs on television (and now the Internet) means that we can not only tell others about our lives, but that we can learn about the lives of others, in ways that regular television, newspapers and upscale publications will never touch upon.

Name any important local event in the last 30 years, and public access producers have probably been there, documenting it for others to see.

And as I say - wow - newly refurbished studio!

For information on how you can learn about public access, call 444-3433.

Tell ‘em the guy at the bus station sent you . . .

******

Today’s Soundtrack

Today’s blog was written while listening to the CD Eden, from Sarah Brightman.

*****

Quote of the Day

If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it. - Ray Bradbury

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A World of Madonnabots: A fate worse than death?

Richard Drake — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:49:00 -0500

I have figured out the perfect job for myself. Part life coach, part nag, it would be my role to tell folks in public life when they have left this plane of existence behind and slipped into that dank existential dungeon where intellects are unfettered by the bonds of rationality. Yes, it would be my job to say, “This doesn’t make a damned bit of sense.”

Politicians, actors, rock stars - the world is full of potential clients.

I was thinking about my fantasy job this week as I read various reports of Madonna, who is making sure that none of her “Material Girl” stuff is left behind as she exits dressing rooms. A special team evidently worked to make sure that none of her DNA was left behind in dressing her rooms during a recent world tour.

Okay, this is Madonna, who reportedly required “journalists” interviewing her to maintain eye contact at all times, and to have their questions memorized, and, oh yeah, here’s a list of what you can’t ask.

You’d gotta figure that would be an interview that wouldn’t be worth trying to get, but I figure some did; she’s so newsworthy, and all.

But the DNA business has me intrigued, what with reports of “sterilization teams” - Holy CIA, Batman! - which skillfully remove any and all traces that she may have left in a dressing room before anyone else is allowed in.

Maybe she is terrified that a lock of her hair might end up online?

But is there a more insidious reason?

What do they do with all this stuff they have swept up, and vacuumed out of the Madonna Cave each time she uses it, never to return? Incinerate it?

Or, and just work with me here, Tabescent Reader, what if Madonna is collecting it all, and handing it over to yet another team of specialists with the instructions:

“Make a new Me! Make a whole bunch of Me!”

The Madonna clones could be kept in cold storage until they are needed, like for spare body parts, or an extra head, in case she suddenly gets wildly paranoid about plastic sturgeons. Not that Madonna would get paranoid about anything . . .

Maybe one could go on tour, so the original could stay at home and catch up on eating Toblerones and drinking milk shakes all day, just tottering out on occasion to check on the progress of her various teams.

Or, should her megalomania reach unchecked levels (after all, I’m not she has anyone like me working for her yet), her Madonnabots could be sent out into the world on all sorts of nefarious missions.

Yes, I know - as a life-long reader of science fiction I know there is a world of difference between clones and Madonnabots.

But does Madonna?

******

Quote of the Day

There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it? - Kin Hubbard

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I’ll miss Annette Funicello more than Margaret Thatcher: The whitewashing of historical figures cheapens us all

Richard Drake — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:11:00 -0500

"We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person. Life is waiting everywhere, the future is flowering everywhere, but we only see a small part of it and step on much of it with our feet.” - Hermann Hesse, German poet and novelist

Both Annette Funicello and Margaret (“There is no such thing as society”) Thatcher died this week. One brought smiles to the lives of millions, no matter what their status in life, while the other comforted the comfortable and heaped scorn on the less-well off.

With few exceptions, there was the general junior high school (sorry if I am insulting any junior high history textbook writers out there) overview of Margaret Thatcher yesterday. Most news reports only seemed to find folks walking the streets who had nothing but the highest regard for her. Then again, it sort of makes you wonder how far they traveled from home base in order to get those glowing tributes.

I didn’t see that many members of what might be considered classically working class - not that you much of them on American TV, either, unless they represent the victims of some terrible catastrophe - or are the well-paid (yet remarkably toothless) catchers of animals who whose days would be a whole lot better off if these yahoos and their camera crews weren’t invading their territory.

How not well-loved was Comrade Thatcher amongst her own people? According to The Guardian, when the Citizen’s Theatre of Glasgow featured a pantomime featuring the Wicked Witch of the South, there was absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind who the witch was.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-hard-to-mourn

A woman who seemed to view the less fortunate as a political annoyance at best, her policies helped to put millions out of work

Something else you may not see on our nightly news - which has turned adoration of the modern Royal Family almost into a sexual fetish - British police have been making arrests at impromptu street parties, celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/police-arrests-thatcher-death-parties

Annette Funicello, who I will miss, simply because she seemed so cheerful (and so damned nice - something I’ll never accomplish, at least not in this lifetime) began with The Mickey Mouse Club and graduated to the beach movies with Frankie Avalon. I think I must have seen all of these, because American Forces Television kept running them over and over again on the weekends when we were stationed in Germany in the early 1970s. They were corny movies, but sometimes they made me laugh.

Something Margaret Thatcher never did.

Now, as I await the inevitable political cartoons featuring Ronald Reagan greeting her at the gates to Heaven (see if I’m wrong) it might be a good time for us all to actually educate ourselves on what sort of effect she actually had on her people, and not the bumper sticker version we have been given over the years. This is, after all, why God gave us the ability to read things longer than, say, just this blog.

Find out for yourself how divisive a Prime Minister she was, the effect she had on ordinary Britons, who were not as enraptured by her. I found an interesting blog written by Jenny Anderson, which came out when the film about Thatcher was released some time back. Here is the opening salvo, for any men who would point to Thatcher as a proof of a conservative feminist icon:

“This weekend saw the release of Phyllida Lloyd's much-anticipated film, The Iron Lady, based on the only ever British female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Unable to open a magazine, newspaper or even ride a bus without an image of the iron lady staring me in the face, the age-old question, 'Is Margaret Thatcher a feminist icon?' has once again, along with the red carpet, been rolled out. The answer to this is simple, no. Margaret Thatcher is not and was NEVER a feminist icon. To me she is the embodiment of everything that feminism is not; selfish, rigid and intolerant.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jenny/margaret-thatcher-feminism_b_1196544.html

Folks might do well do read some of these pieces, and meet the real Margaret Thatcher for themselves.

******

Why one Roger Ebert is worth a thousand of these free republic Bozos

Reading and listening to good reviews is one of the ways in which one can learn to think critically; it doesn’t require you to agree with the reviewer, as the folks from the infamous free republic website seem to think. You didn’t have to agree with Roger Ebert to enjoy his writing.

But then, in their dank dungeons, unfettered by the bonds of rationality, live those . . .

Every so often I check out the free republic website whenever a major event happens, just to see what magic (and bad grammar) falls from their fingers. Try as they might, all too often, there is undisguised glee when someone whose politics they disagree with dies - and sometimes from a particularly horrible death.

Yet to a man (and most of them are men, save for the occasional woman, though like sex chat rooms, that is debatable) they would no doubt proclaim their staunch Christianity to you.

Roger Ebert’s death has given many of them a chance to vent their spleens on a society in which too there is way too much liberal values, actually knowing anything about film when you write about it, gun control, idiot liberals, leftist/homo/anti-American/anti-capitalist messages, and feminists.

It also may well be the only website on the planet in which anyone has actually brought up Cotton Mather, in reference to Roger Ebert.

Fun for the whole family . . .

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3005389/posts

*****

Quote of the Day

"Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures." — César Chávez

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Sports, school or the workplace, we should either get serious about bullying or just surrender our souls to the loud-mouthed enablers

Richard Drake — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:21:00 -0500

What’s the difference between a well-paid basketball coach who physically and emotionally abuses players and a cowardly man who punches a defenseless woman in the face for free, or the people in a workplace who prey on fellow employees for fun? The number of enablers they have - nothing more.

Every few years we will have a laughable national debate on bullying - often after some horrendous event which has shocked even the most jaded among us - with mental health experts making the rounds on television talk shows, with advice on what we as a nation must do. The hosts will nod their heads, and ask grave questions, and sometimes we will hear from victims of bullying. Cut to commercial break . . . and ads for the new Bruce Willis action film, Die Hardly: Where the Hell is my Vitamin E?

Business as usual.

How many times (especially since Columbine) have we heard about bullying in schools, and what to watch out for? And how to help those who are being bullied? End of problem. We can all go to bed safe at night now, our consciences clear.

With the storm over the Rutgers’ basketball coach, who got his jollies by both emotionally and physically abusing his players, the clouds are over us again, but the enablers, those who are quick to assure us that this is all just a tempest in a tea cup, and this is how things ought to be in this great country of ours, have been working loudly overtime this week.

Like the National Rifle Association, the enablers of bullying are getting quicker each time at rushing to the microphone to defend anyone, anywhere, who is accused of bullying - especially if they do it for money.

I have written before about being bullied in my early years in school, so I don’t need to go any further into that.

But I have also seen bullying in the workplace - from fellow workers as well as bosses. There is bullying in the military. Hell, I have seen it on Facebook, the great social network, where people who are all meek and mild in reality get hateful when they can hide behind their tiny little smiling picture.

What happens when people get bullied - aside from the fact that bullies get some cheap amusement?

At the very least, there is depression. And sometimes, someone snaps and decides to do something about it.

If we have a legal defense for those who have been abused in a relationship, and they strike back at their abuser, might not one day there be a similar legal defense for those who have been bullied?

Would those who take such great satisfaction in being their enablers today, grinning like loons whenever the subject is brought up, finally sit up and take notice then? Might it penetrate into even their minds that bullying is wrong?

******

Quote of the Day

The most important thing about a vacation for many people is the fact that they can brag about having been on one. - Brendan Francis

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You need to understand how government works before you criticize it - you’ll sound more coherent that way

Richard Drake — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:28:00 -0500

There is a great line in the Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan, when James T. Kirk explains to a junior officer that, “You have to understand why things work on a starship.” I’m not too much of a snob to admit that I used that analogy myself when I have served on various boards or committees; it is just as true on earth as it is in space.

Each and every day, be it in letters to the editor, Twitter, Facebook (sigh . . .) factory break rooms, bus stops, diners or any of a thousand one other places in this country, someone will expound on what is wrong with the government, and what they would do, if they were “in charge.”

If you were to suggest to most of these potential problem solvers that there is an excellent way to not only find out about how government is run, but also perhaps have some influence, they will begin backing away.

“Some of us have jobs to do,” will be the eventual reply of many, as if implying that only the dangerously underemployed would seek out such opportunities, which is now, as it has always been, utter and complete bilge.

Most of the folks I have known who have thrown themselves into the public arena, either as candidates for public office or as volunteering to serve on committees have also had work and family responsibilities.

True, one can run for office (I have myself, losing three times - earning a mandate from the people), but there are other, just as exciting ways to not only learn about government, but to have an influence in your own community.

Most cities have opportunities for citizens to volunteer to serve on various committees which advise their various city councils. Speaking as someone who spent several years on Fayetteville’s Telecommunications Board, I can tell you that this is an extremely valuable service to the community - plus, you learn a great deal.

There are all sorts of volunteer opportunities available to just about anyone.

If not government, then on bodies which also serve the public interest. Perhaps you are interested in the issue of free speech? Many public access organizations actively seek new board members, as do literacy councils, or other non-profits. Becoming involved with such groups, even if only for a short time, can provide invaluable experience, and can dispel many of the myths which so many enjoy spreading.

And, of course, you help your community. It’s sort of a win-win situation, all around.

And then, should you still want to write letters about the evils of government, at least you’ll have some solid frames of reference to draw back on, instead of the same talking points passed from hand-to-hand.

******

Quote of the Day

I think crime pays. The hours are good, you meet a lot of interesting people, you travel a lot. - Woody Allen, “Take the Money and Run” (1969)

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The Guns of Heaven: An expedition to a gun show

Richard Drake — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:31:00 -0500

I wrote this back in the 1990s, after a friend invited me to go along with him to a gun show. Little has changed in the gun shows I have attended since then, except for the increased paranoia, and offensiveness of some of the material.

Poetry lovers may appreciate the efforts of the Militia of Washington County, a couple of lines of which I have reproduced here. This is included in my book, Ozark Mosaic.

The Guns of Heaven

Recently it was my pleasure to attend a gun show at the Washington County Fairgrounds. Though I have not had a gun in my home since the early l980s, when I almost shot a man, I still enjoy target shooting, and appreciate well-crafted weapons. This was the first time in my life l had attended such an exhibition, however, and it was somewhat on the surrealistic side.

As a society, we have differing views of gun owners, and most of them are based in reality. There is, for example, the average owner, concerned about the rising crime rate, and the dangers becoming more apparent in daily life, who owns a gun for protection. The majority of these men and women are responsible individuals, and so are not the ones we read about in the newspapers.

Then there are the serious collectors, those for whom gun owning is a rather expensive hobby. l have seen some of these collections, and they can be impressive, though sometimes disquieting. And then, of course, there are those who are actively preparing for the breakdown of society, and the coming of a "dog eat dog" world.

At the gun show, I saw all three types represented. Most seemed to be like myself and the friend who accompanied me, merely curious. As a culture, of course, we have a fascination with weapons of all kinds, and our popular culture depicts wild-eyed, sweat drenched men and women, designer clothes askew, clutching those hot, hard, metal rods, seeking the next recipient of their molten load.

But some obviously lived on the fringes of rationality, only visiting civilization for victuals and ammunition. As one dealer admitted to me, he was "making money off people's paranoia." And paranoia seemed to be the order of the day, as booth after booth offered handguns with laser sights, swords, bayonets, and your basic back yard army set.

Books and pamphlets warned of the encroaching "New World Order,” a scheme cooked up by Satan, the United Nations, and those gremlins from the Kremlin. And, of course, the ever growing power of the federal government in people's lives. (It may be interesting to remember that, prior to Bill Clinton's presidency, most liberals encouraged people not to trust the government. Since then, of course, they can't seem to understand why people would entertain such thoughts.)

Want to know how to make a bomb? Check out the next gun show coming to your town. Want a recipe book, so that your meals don't get boring out there in the hills while you're making those raids on United Nations troops holding American cities hostage? Want to buy tapes from Mark Koernke, mad guru of the short-waves, warning of the infamous New World Order?

Have we got a show for you!

An interesting pamphlet called "The American Christian" reveals to us that the "true Christian image" is not the traditional angel, wearing a peace symbol (?) and surrounded by goofy word balloons uttering that dangerous phrase, "love," but rather a stalwart fellow pushing a plow with one hand and clutching a flintlock rifle with the other. lt also features the "Anti-Thought-Control Dictionary," which tells us that the word love has been corrupted to mean, "Sexual attraction toward (and/or sexual engagement with) another person, regardless of sex, race or age."

This issue of race was of serious concern to some of those who had tables in the hall. I was able to buy a bumper sticker that proclaimed, "Work - it's the white thing to do." Hey, goes without saying. Further down the aisle, I saw a plump fellow with a scraggly beard, wearing a t-shirt announcing, "Property of KKK athletic department." If they were all built like him, the only Olympic event they'd qualify for would be the 50 yard buffet dash.

I saw a young black man ushering two small children before him down an aisle, and I felt ashamed.

The high point of the day (after handling a handgun affixed with a laser sight - that infamous red dot you see in the movies doesn’t always appear, by the way) was my encounter with the gentlemen from the Militia of Washington County, who were represented by men who seemed very nice. For the princely sum of three dollars, I bought their handbook, which details their aims and motives.

The militia claims the duty to "restore" the Constitution, which has been stolen by socialist enemies within the government who threaten the churches with unjust laws (a reference to the Reverend Jay Cole's troubles some years ago?), unlawfully aborted children, and legalized perversion of all sorts. Environmental protection is also one of the evils the government has put upon us.

The militia tells us that it will not be disarmed under any circumstances, and that any "conspiracy" will be met by force. In bold print is the following:

Warning!

10. The Militia shall consider any attempt by members of City, State, or federal government to disarm the people to be a Provocation, an act of Rebellion, Insurrection, Treason and War against the Free People of the United States of America . . .

Three to five thousand rounds of ammunition should be considered minimum for any .household concerned with civil unrest or the possibility of a foreign government taking over our shores. A letter from the Militia to law enforcement officers of Washington County proclaims that the "patriots" in the militia will begin reclaiming and enforcing Constitutional rights by “Armed Force of the Militia" if necessary. Like many throughout history, the Militia seems intent on obeying (and enforcing) only those laws that they approve of, and to hell with the rest.

Not to be confused with those brutish thugs who would inflict their own brand of law upon their fellow Americans, those in the Militia also have a soft, sensitive side. Wayne Fincher, author of this weighty tome, also writes poetry, though not about anything as unmanly as loving your neighbor, or trees, or those confusing forks in the road. No, the Walt Whitman of the Militia of Washington County, in his poem entitled "Tyrants Beware" (and literary critics too, I suspect) wrote the following verse:

And from our schools, all knowledge of our God and Savior must go,

replaced by a socialist, New World Order, ruled by the thugs of NATO.

Referring to those damned English, no doubt.

Of course, it is always possible that these men and women, intent as they are on exposing the gay socialist environmentalists who have taken over our country, are simply a couple cans short of a six-pack.

Not quite in the militia category are those one issue voters who are also concerned about gun laws. Though law-abiding, many seem consumed by their passion, and totally uninformed about anything else. These are the people who really think that the wealthy republicans elected to office last November are somehow part of a populist reformation.

Leaving the exhibit hail, I passed a table where a man was selling swords. Most were copies of swords that had helped make history. One in particular caught my eye, and as I hefted it, I asked what it was modeled on.

“It’s a Klingon sword from Star Trek III,” the dealer told me proudly. I began looking around for the much vaunted Klingon Bible, but it was not to be seen.

It kind of makes you long for the day when Fayetteville has its own exhibition hall, doesn't it? We can have militia members and KKK athletes roaming our streets in broad daylight, hawking their enlightened ideas and making a buck in the process.

Ozark Gazette - June 26, 1995

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Upping the ante: the ever-increasing level of violence in crucifixion scenes on film

Richard Drake — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 12:41:00 -0500

Whenever I watch a documentary or movie about Robert F. Kennedy, and we are drawn ever closer to his tragic shooting in that California hotel, I am sick with anticipation. I always know how it will end, but I am drawn in, and I am emotionally wounded as he lays on the floor of that kitchen, dying.

The same holds true for presentations about Abraham Lincoln; I know that John Wilkes Booth lunges in and shoots him in the back of the head, but I am still overcome with emotion.

I respect these men, and their deaths at the hands of cowardly assassins will never fail to move me.

When the cop played by William Petersen is suddenly killed in To Live and Die in L.A. (Sorry if you haven’t seen the movie yet) I was taken aback with shock.

I was emotionally invested in this movie, as I have been with other films when a major character has died. In Brian’s Song - a true story - I did not need to see the specifics of how cancer ravaged the body of football player Brian Piccolo to be drawn into the story. This is what good storytelling is all about.

The same holds true for the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross, a particularly vicious form of execution devised by the Romans to both punish and terrorize. When I was growing up, I saw Christ’s trial, his beatings, his carrying his instrument of death through the town, and finally, being put upon the cross in many films . . . and I was almost always moved - unless it was a badly made film.

Christ’s death upon the cross, though, as horrific as it was, is not nearly as important as his Resurrection three days later, or his teachings, which were so radical that they threatened the political power structure - and over which people still argue today. Many is the political activist who has been drawn to try to make a difference based upon what they learned in church.

But his death?

Some years ago Mel Gibson produced The Passion of the Christ, with its sadomasochistic set piece, which in turn “inspired” local productions of the Easter story (including the Eureka Springs Passion Play, according to some reports) to dramatically increase the amount of violence in their own plays, as if somehow the increased whipping would make one feel closer to God.

Instead, it makes the viewer one with the crowd, those who stood by and enjoyed the crucifixion for altogether different reasons. The rationale for attending may be different, but the blood lust is the same.

The History Channel production of the The Bible (with the Irish Moses) has upped the ante with even more beating and whipping of Jesus - almost as if this is what the whole thing has been leading up to - for therm, at least.

Well, at least we can be grateful - given the fact that this did run on what is still laughingly called the History Channel - that no “ancient aliens” made an appearance.

Has religious faith reached a point where subtle film-making and the impulse not to draw in the video game crowd are cast aside, and the faithful are expected to experience every lash, every blow? And for what? How is the emotional experience truly any different than watching King of Kings?

And it illuminates what - other than the lack of imagination on the part of part of the producers?

The truly radical parts of the life of Christ are his teachings, and, of course, the Resurrection.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I have attended church on a regular basis (though in another life my ambition was to become a priest) but I’m pretty sure that the reason that Christ was crucified was because of the things he was saying to folks.

Ideas which are still pretty radical today. Rabble Rousing Reader.

Just imagine the uproar if a producer had said, instead of going for the least common denominator, and satisfying the blood lust of the crowd, had instead announced that a series about Jesus would be about his teachings.

It just sort of makes you wonder what will be in store for the next production of the death of Jesus Christ, and how over-the-top the violence might be then.

******

Yeah, and about that “sexy Jesus”

Is there a universal rule that news anchors must read off everything with goofy grins on their faces, and not go, “You know, this doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.”

Google was made for these poor lost souls.

After days of hearing the drivel about the new “hunky Jesus,” it seriously makes you wonder how bad not only our national IQ has become, but also our collective memories.

Hell, Christian Bale (Batman, for crying out loud) has played Jesus.

Jeffrey Hunter, first captain of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, played him.

Jim Caviezel (The The Count of Monte Cristo) played him - in the Mel Gibson movie, no less.

Hunky Jesus - what a load of self-serving PR crap. Of course, that’s what news anchors are for, half the time, to serve as PR flacks.

*****
Quote of the Day

‘Tis a sad but sober fact, that most men lead flat and virtuous lives, departing annually with their family to some flat and virtuous place, there to disport themselves in a manner that is decent, orderly, wholly uninteresting, vacant of every buxom stimulus. To such as these a suggestion, in all friendliness - why not try crime? - Kenneth Graham

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Shocked, I tell you, shocked! When television “ghost-hunters” profess shock and awe at what they encounter

Richard Drake — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:04:00 -0500

If there is one thing I have learned over the years when trying to convince people I might be good at a job it is this - it is important to exude confidence, and to take everything in your stride. This will in turn inspire confidence - false though it may be at times - in your employer that they have settled upon the right person for the job.

This bit of advice has never seemed to trickle down to the various “investigators” of the paranormal that we see on cable TV, invading barns, homes, restaurants, office buildings and even old prisons on occasion, in their quest for the supernatural.

No, I’m not talking about those pretentious people with a bunch of letters behind their names, and weighed down by too much book learning, but by the boots on the ground, so to speak, the self-professed psychic warriors, demon hunters, exorcists and all-around challengers of those who would go bump in the night.

There is a sad sameness to these programs, as if they are dictated to by folks who claim to know what people like, and so they must not deviate from their format.

Family buys/leases/rents a house (though I did see one episode where a trailer was haunted), and mysterious things begin to happen.

Spooky things.

Family goes to the Yellow Pages - or online, as the case may be - and looks up the local “paranormal” investigative group, who come to house, all wearing matching T-shirts. I have been watching these shows long enough to realize that the choice of clothes is half the battle, when it comes to ghost hunting.

Along with them will come their “resident psychic” (what? She lives with you?) who will go from room to room, and reveal the emanations she is feeling. Often as not, a child is involved. Tears will flow.

A prayer meeting is called. But wait! What’s this? Something far more malevolent is behind the seemingly innocent psychic happenings in the house! “Voices” are caught on tape, usually with just one message:

“Get out!” This is probably the landlord.

Ghost hunters are in a state of open terror.

Yeah, there’s none of the Bill Murray “We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!” Ghostbusters stuff on display here.

Time to call in the heavy guns.

Morton Salt by the truckload is poured around the house, candles are lit, and the ghosts/demons are told to leave. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes . . . they come back.

But through it all, the stalwarts from the Yellow Pages, far from exuding confidence, are almost literally jumping out of their skins - even if they have been called out several times before, they will still act like rubes taken to the Big City for the first time.

And when it is all over? When the demon is exorcized from the teenager or unhappily married woman?

“We finally have proof that something is out there,” one hunter will say, on their way out the door.

No. No. No.

You’re supposed to say, “Why yes, we deal with this stuff all the time! Lucky you found us when you did!” Honestly, these folks need a little of the Bill Murray in them, rather than the Chicken Little - perhaps they should finally admit to the folks paying them good money to investigate this stuff that they have absolutely no experience, and that most of what they know comes from watching cable TV and reading old issues of Phantom Stranger?

Ghost hunters in shock at actually experiencing psychic phenomena? Poor dears. What do they do when the prices go up in the grocery store? Faint?

******

The Lone Gunmen - yeah, I’d enjoy the nightly news more if these guys were in charge

Spin-offs are kind of a hit or miss proposition. For every Maude there is an After-M*A*S*H*, or an Enos. Spin-offs occur when producers take minor - but interesting - characters and see if audiences will connect with them in a deeper way.

It’s all a crap shoot.

One of the better experiments was The Lone Gunmen, a spin-off from The X Files, which featured the conspiracy buffs/computer hackers whom FBI agent Fox Mulder was constantly consulting. Over the years, the trio’s popularity had grown to the extent that their own series seemed a natural extension of the parent show.

The Lone Gunmen can best be described as counterculture patriots. Never conventional, they nevertheless often managed to be better informed about the doings of the government than Mulder and fellow agent Dana Scully were at times.

The show made its premiere on Fox on March 5, 2001, in an episode which will probably never be shown on television again, due to its uncomfortable connection with 9/11. In the episode a rogue government agency is plotting to take over an aircraft (via remote control) and crash it into the World Trade Center. They come uncomfortably close to doing so, as well.

Watching it now, even 12 years on, is a little creepy, given what happened only a few short months later.

In the second episode our stalwarts Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike, John Fitzgerald Byers (Tom Braidwood, Bruce Harwood, Dean Haglund, Stephen) are joined by two new cast members. Stephen Snedden plays Jimmy Bond, a wealthy supporter of their newspaper, The Lone Gunman. Jimmy is well-meaning but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

He also has more insight into the human heart than the cynical Lone Gunmen.

The other addition is Adele Harlow (Zuleikha Robinson - Hidalgo, New Amsterdam, Homeland) whose name is an anagram for Lee Harvey Oswald. Though she is their rival, she often helps the quartet out in their cases.

Their cases truly range from the sublime to the ridiculous, as they pursue Nazis, a water-powered car, tango-dancing smugglers and assassins of all shapes and sizes.

Two episodes in particular stand out. In the clever “Planet of the Frohikes,” they come up against an intelligent chimpanzee seeking aid in escaping from a government laboratory. It’s full of Planet of the Apes references, some going by so quickly you’ll have to replay the episode to catch them all.

And in “The Lying Game,” Jimmy Bond is forced to impersonate FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, through the use of some Mission: Impossible style disguise fakery. Mitch Pillegi of The X Files shows fine comedic form here - why is he always stuck playing hard-asses?

Though their adventures on The X Files found them assisting Mulder and Scully against various government conspiracies, on their own series the trio seemed to find themselves battling corporate skullduggery. Which is just fine with me; those who know about such things realize that the corporate world can be just as deadly as government work.

Canceled after 12 episodes (but today, it might only last a week), the Lone Gunmen returned to occasional - though important to the plot - episodes of The X Files. In the final season of that show, they were killed off in the infamous episode, “Jump the Shark.”

Kill off the Lone Gunmen? Chris Carter, are you insane?

To add insult to injury, the two newest agents on the series (Doggett, Reyes) interacted with the trio throughout the episode, with Scully and Skinner only appearing for their funeral. Mulder, being “on the run” - ask your friends, I ain’t got the time - wasn’t in the episode at all.

It was a poor way to treat characters who had helped make the series as popular as it had become.

The characters returned as ghosts in the final episode of the series, in a brief scene with Fox Mulder. Rumor had it that the actors were very unhappy to return in such a capacity.

Extras on the DVD include TV previews, a short documentary, and the episode of The X Files which killed them off, “Jump the Shark” - which, despite my kvetching, is actually a pretty entertaining episode, and ties things up pretty well, all things considered. I would have included the “origin” story of the Lone Gunmen from the parent series, but I’m sure fans all have episodes they feel should have been included.

You can’t call any X Files DVD collection complete without this quirky little series, which actually stands on its own pretty well.

*****

Quote of the Day

Hunger is the silent enemy. It is a thief in the night that steals away the children in ten thousand villages around the globe. While we Americans worry about overweight and reducing pills, millions of our fellow human-beings are fighting for survival. - George McGovern

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“There will be no services.” - Catching up with a childhood friend just a little too late

Richard Drake — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:53:00 -0500

There are those in life who can write off a friendship as easily as they change television channels - I have always felt lucky not be included in that number. One of the truly wonderful things about the Internet is that I have been able to reconnect with old friends I have lost touch with over the years.

Never one to make oodles and gobs of friends, I have always valued the friends I have made over the years, and the chance to reconnect with therm - even at a distance - seems nothing short of a miracle.

How bitterly ironic, then, that I never thought to seek out Kevin Robar, my best friend from first grade through third, until a few short weeks after he had died. Even more ironic, I suppose, is the fact that Platte City, Missouri, where he lived his final years, is only four hours away from Fayetteville.

Kevin, like so many others we know, was taken from this life by cancer.

He has several children and grandchildren who survive him. He loved the mountains of Colorado.

These are things I learned from his obituary.

Since no services were planned for Kevin, there would be no chance for people who knew him to stand and share stories. I would have been there.

I would have told everyone how we were the very best of friends for three solid years, until the Colchester school system in Vermont assigned us to different schools in fourth grade. I would tell all assembled how we were inseparable on the playground, and how Kevin saved me from bullies one day.

We used to share bizarre stories about life on the school bus every day, convinced that what we were saying to each was absolute gospel.

Since I was a shy child by nature, Kevin was not only my best friend, he was pretty much my only friend in those early years of elementary school.

I didn’t have a best friend in fourth grade.

I have thought about Kevin many times over the years, and even told others about my first best friend, but I never, ever thought to type his name into a search engine and see what he might be up to.

Until barely two weeks after his death, that is.

Writing this today will be my memorial to Kevin. I hope you had a good life, brother, and that you weren’t in too much pain as the end approached. I hope that there was someone there to hold your hand, and distract you from the pain.

I’ll see you again.

******

Quote of the Day

The important thing in life is not to have a good hand but to play it well. - Louis-N. Fortin

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The laziness of the Minimum, Wage Class . . . well, not so much, actually

Richard Drake — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:41:00 -0500

Raise the Minimum Wage ??? Hummm?? I think the min wage is and should be low & keep lower than even a unskilled laborer . As it is, The min wage people haven't put much effort into learning a skill or trade to try and improve themselves. I don't buy into this crap that they didn't get a fair shake in life. Everybody has stumbled across somebody somewhere through lift that could have taught them or at least the need to improve themselves. As it is the parent that is making min wage is teaching those two kid something !! Right?? Like it's OK to sit on your lazy A-Keaster and wait for your newly elected to give you another free ride on the hard working people's coat tails who have paid the price of working their way up the money train.. That's Right go ahead and give it to them. But when the job market goes down the tube after all these great new Tax's law's, health care laws, Min wage law's & on & on . We should all be OK,! RIGHT? Because we all know our great minds in office have a plan to save us...Right??

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=6609411d-30af-4004-83d4-cf8a85643b0c

I’m not sure what sort of painting Norman Rockwell might come up with, should the Internet have existed in his day, but I suspect it wouldn’t have been exactly heart-warming.

A few days ago I raised the question on Facebook and various listservs (the few that still exist) about businesses offering discounts - you have often seen them as you traipse your way across town, I suspect.

10% for university students!

Free fries for veterans! Yes, Uncle Joe; you fought in Korea so that a giant food chain could give you free french fries on Veteran’s Day.

15% for ______ you name it.

When I raised the question about businesses offering discounts for those who work for the minimum wage, the reaction was swift . . . and once again proof that on Facebook, like everywhere else, people don’t actually read every word you write.

Some seemed to feel that I was suggesting that government somehow mandate that businesses offer such discounts - much along the lines of raising the question of any sort of gun legislation means taking all guns in America away.

Okay . . .

The more difficult to comprehend were the comments on the various pages where folks offered up the old canard that these are just “starter jobs,” and that teenagers occupy most of them. For such folks, I imagine, the idea of a “minimum wage job” means the kid taking their order at Burger King.

More than difficult to read - and even sad, in their own way - were the posts from folks who suggested in strong terms that folks who chose such jobs were “lazy.”

Taxpayer 1

How many minimun wage earners are not HS dropouts, dumb as peanuts, or HS students

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=6609411d-30af-4004-83d4-cf8a85643b0c

Ever since I have been paying attention, there have been Chicken Little warnings that if we raise the minimum wage, Americans would be laid off by the boatload, and the economy would go into a permanent death spiral. These claims - at least the ones I am aware of - go all the way back to the 1970s.

That such a thing has not happened does not deter those who would warn us; they simply assume that we know as little about history as they do.

Another canard is that people do not live on the wage for very long, that these “starter jobs” - like the famous “starter houses” that Realtors sell us - are for those just starting out in life. The fresh-faced and the innocent, the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the ones seeking experience in the world.

They would have us believe that people do not raise families on the wage, or live on it for years. To which I respond only:

Poppycock!

Apropos of nothing: I told Tracy I felt the need to use that word after hearing it in a movie yesterday.

I guess the progs just want to instill more poverty people in this country, that way when they put the carrot on the stick they will have a feeding frenzy of future slave voters who will keep the big brother government in place.

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/outlawing-jobs-the-minimum-wage-once-more/question-3524613/?link=ibaf&q=&esrc=s

What sort of jobs might one be able to do, and still enjoy the minimum wage? Here are just a few:

Dishwashers

janitorial services

busboys/wait staff

fast food workers

hospital housekeeping

certain levels of security guard work

Certified Nursing Assistant

Child Care Provider

Emergency Medical Technician

Automotive Service Technicians

Income Tax Preparer

Lazy? What sort of intellectual bigot would call anyone who works at any of these jobs lazy?

It isn’t all pocket change, of course; you don’t just salt all of your money away in your sock drawer. You have rent, utilities, food, possibly a car payment - and this just scratches the surface.

Then again, we have smug folks who say, well, folks who have a fridge or stove can’t really be described as “poor” - as if in their naive world view they honestly believe that folks can honestly call up their landlord and say, “I’m poor now. Please take the stove and fridge that came with my apartment away.”

It isn’t so much that folks lack empathy and understanding, I think, as that some don’t want to be over-burdened by it. For them, everything becomes an intellectual exercise, and they forget their ties to the rest of the human race.

******

Recycling political magazines

Sadly, Fayetteville’s public library is no longer among the number which allow magazine exchange racks (not to worry - not all libraries in NW Arkansas are so anal retentive) but even so, there are some other good ways to recycle your political magazines.

I send some off to friends, both in Arkansas and in other parts of the globe, but I also - every time I have to make a visit to a doctor (more often than I like) leave one in their office, for others to read.

It’s all just casting our bread upon the waters, but why not? You never know whose mind you might rescue.

*****

Quote of the Day

As we limit our women, so do we limit our nation. - George McGovern

rsdrake@cox.net

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The Song of the Giraffes

Richard Drake — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:59:00 -0500

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form. - William Ralph Inge

Giraffes are not an animal I think very much about; my only real experience with them has been in various zoos, and I doubt that I have watched any documentaries about them. And yet one night last week . . .

I have always had the most entertaining dreams, going back to my childhood. In fact, if I sat next to you on a bus I could bore you for hours with tales of dreams that I still recall from years past.

Action dreams. Sad dreams. Erotic (well, to me, at any rate) dreams. Dreams of grocery shopping. Dreams of Tyson’s Mexican Original - these are almost always bad dreams, and I wake up in a disturbed frame of mind.

Dreams where I have actually died - so much for that old hokum about how you can’t die in a dream.

But last week, I dreamt of giraffes.

Tracy and I were traveling down North College and I looked over at the spot where the old Razorback Theatre once stood (which is now a gym, I think) and I saw two wire enclosures containing several giraffes - the sort of enclosures primitive zoos once used. Giraffes, walking around on the hot pavement.

And one giraffe had somehow slipped out of its enclosure, and was walking around, seemingly free.

Then, through the magic that only a dream can provide, I was at a height where the giraffes in the other enclosure and I were all at eye level.

This was the sort of dream where all the giraffes, young and old, were the same height, which made things considerably more convenient for me.

I looked into the eyes of the tall creatures, who were only paying attention to their companion from the other enclosure, and a wave of discomfort(even sadness) swept through me.

This one giraffe, who would probably be hit by a car, symbolized for them everything that had been done to them for hundreds of years, ripping them from their homes, putting them in environments where smaller creatures would gawk at them all day long.

There was a sense of solidarity with the giraffe loose in the parking lot, and with the others across the way, still in their cage - but that solidarity didn’t include me, or any other human being.

And then I woke up, with no satisfactory ending to the dream. Only an intense desire to write about it, and I’m not even sure I have done that very well.

I just know I have been vaguely unsettled since I have had my dream about the giraffes, and heard their song in my head.

******

Quote of the Day

Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties. - Doug Larson

rsdrake@cox.net

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Republican Party as 21st Century Shakers?

Richard Drake — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:13:00 -0500

It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem. - G.K. Chesterton

In the 1800s there was a religious sect known as the Shakers. While passionate about their beliefs, they practiced - or didn’t practice, rather - something that may have prevented their sect going well into the 21st Century.

The Shakers didn’t believe in sexual union.

Oops. Not only would there be no new little Shakerites running around, but I’m not sure how much of a selling point that may have been to potential converts. Maybe they didn’t tell you until you had signed up?

At any rate, the only reasons we know about the Shakers now are because they show up in small paragraphs in history books, and maybe as a question on Jeopardy!

It’s okay, though, we may soon have our own modern-day version of the Shakers.

After the election of 2012 - how long ago that seems now! - members of the Republican Party were quick to assure voters that they understood that the mood of the country had changed, and that the antics of the Men with Bad Haircuts would no longer determine the fate of the Grand Old Party.

Well, that was then, and this is . . . still then, way way back then, as it turns out. Though the ever naive members of the national media may have been willing to swallow the line, those whose lives are affected by the rage and resentment which fuels the GOP weren’t quite so naive.

This weekend’s CPAC convention was the icing on the cake, as far as that goes.

Much has been written about Reality Show Governor Sarah Palin and her Borscht-belt performance last week, when she tossed one bumper sticker line after another at the audience - an audience which still doesn’t seem to understand that folks like Palin don’t actually write their own stuff.

The only thing worth mentioning about Palin’s comedy routine is how far her material has fallen since her 2008 GOP convention debut, and how little she seems to have noticed. The good comics get the best writers, Ms. Palin.

Leaving her aside, and CPAC as a whole, one can just look at the Business as Usual attitude of the GOP, whether it comes to providing aid to storm victims, protecting the rights of abused women, or standing up to the gun lobby.

Across the country, the Men with Bad Haircuts (including our boys in Arkansas) have continued to show their contempt for women by passing the most restrictive abortion bills in decades.

If you had to make a guess, Quadratic Reader, would you predict much of a future for the GOP Shaker Party?

This past week, as if suddenly realizing that their most crass behavior was caught on camera and was seen by folks who aren’t actually Republican by nature, the head of the Republican Party had a press conference saying, yeah, we know we gotta change - we gotta bring more people into our little club.

But they’ll be watching you, though. If you don’t laugh at the reality show governor’s jokes - no matter how inane they become in the months and years ahead - you may not make it into the Inner Sanctum.

Then again, maybe you could write some jokes for her . . .

******
Second Amendment News: Man pulls woman off bus, kills her

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, Kenneth Knight pulled Jacqueline Hardy off a city bus, and fatally shoot her in front of several people. He then took a three-year child hostage until a police sniper killed him after a stand-off.

A protection order had been filed against Knight in the past few days, but police did not say who had requested the order.

*****

Quote of the Day

Looking back over our history, it is remarkable how often we honor men who in their own time were viewed as dangerous dissenters. - George McGovern

rsdrake@cox.net

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Anger issues, the death of children and a world of enablers

Richard Drake — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:19:00 -0500

There is an old cliche which tells us that it takes a village to raise a child. But in the case of a parent with self-confessed rage issues, maybe it takes a village to kill one, as well.

This month Travis Fox of West Fork was arrested after he admitted to shaking his baby and tossing it onto a chair, which resulted in the child’s death. A few years ago Mr. Fox lost another son in similar circumstances. Now he will face trial for both deaths. Mr. Fox has “anger issues,” he says.

People with anger issues don’t live in a vacuum. They live in a world in which they exist like a whirling dervish, touching the lives of many they come in contact with - their friends, families, loved ones and complete strangers alike.

Families are torn asunder.

Relationships fall by the wayside.

Spouses and children are battered.

Sometimes the anger issues - oh hell, let’s cut the BS and just call it rage, because that is what it is - are recognized (and feared) by the person who experiences them, and they seek help for them. All too often, though, you’ll hear the snarl, “I don’t believe in that crap,” and they won’t show up anywhere near a doctor’s office.

They may try the self-help approach - if they attempt to deal with their problem at all.

Meditation.

Prayer.

A drink, perhaps, just to “take the edge off.” Something else, maybe, instead of alcohol.

And when they fall off the emotional wagon, and give in to their inner demons again, only to whine that they have rage issues, as if we should soften our glance on them (and too often we do) and give them another chance?

Sometimes we do. But are we doing them, or ourselves, when it comes to that, any favors by looking the other way? By becoming enablers to their rage, even if it is only a mean disposition?

Long before Travis Fox lost his second son, there were probably people in his life who knew of his personal demons, people who weren’t afraid of him, but said nothing. There are family members, neighbors, friends, co-workers, perhaps, who could have told him he needed to see a doctor.

And if he said he “didn’t believe in that crap?”

The only correct response is “I don’t give a damn.”

When we turn our heads, when we make excuses, when we let others wallow in their rage, and then sit by as they take it out on others, when we don’t speak up, we become accomplices to their depredations. We may weep, but perhaps some of the tears should be for ourselves.

Are you your brother’s keeper?

I’m not sure if anyone was Travis Fox’s. Or, more’s the pity, were they to his helpless young sons.

******

Quote of the Day

Progress begins with the belief that what is necessary is possible. - Norman Cousins

rsdrake@cox.net

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