Thoughts as we approach a Drennan family reunion

"Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future. We make discoveries about ourselves." -Gail Lumet Buckley


"The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.” -Richard Bach

“Family is essential because we all yearn to feel like we belong to something greater than ourselves.” -Laura Ramirez (www.love-quotes-and-quotations.com)

“The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.” -Erma Bombeck

"He who plants a tree plants hope." - Lucy Laroom

There were/are Giants in the Land

One of the confusing and mystifying passages of scriptures is right in the beginning of Genesis. ⁴This was back in the days (and also later) when there were giants in the land. The giants came from the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men. These were the mighty men of ancient lore, the famous ones.

There they are giants, the product of the sons of God (whoever they are) and the daughters of men. And then we don’t hear of them again. Odd.

Just a little while ago 20 Nobel Laureates showed for the 3^rd Nobel Laureate Symposium. The upshot of their discussion was they concluded human beings are now the most significant driver of global change. The term for this is the “Anthrocene” meaning the age of man. Previous to this we were in the Holocene for the last 12,000 years, meaning the planet was pretty much able to handle anything we threw at it.

Some folk in light of these we need to make every effort to preserve the land, make it like it used to be, otherwise we’re doomed. Others belief we should just embrace the responsibility  to take care of the planet and use our abilities to control it as best we can for the common good.:  ²⁶God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them

reflecting our nature

So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,

the birds in the air, the cattle,

And, yes, Earth itself,

and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”

²⁷God created human beings;

he created them godlike,

Reflecting God’s nature.

He created them male and female.

²⁸God blessed them:

“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!

Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,

for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”

And it goes on about responsibilities. Perhaps there are giants on earth and they are what we have become and they come with incredible responsibility. 

Drennan Clan as of 1979

I'm not sure when this gathering of the Drennan clan took place, but it was in with the slide below,  so I am guessing it might have been when we gathered at Lake Red Rock. Oh, just looked at the old slide I made this from, it was in July, 1979. At least now we know when, if not where.

Cousins of Drennan Vintage

I'm not sure of the date of the picture but I think I know who we are:

back row left to right: Lewis, Harry Drennan, Bill

front row left to right: Hugh, Rachel, Marcia, Lynn, Russell

Using Tornado Disaster for Progress

In Light of the the destruction caused by tornadoes this year this is an incredible video of hope and opportunity. The link takes you to the Wall Street Journal and you have to wait for the commercial to end, but it is worth the wait. Just click on the link below.

http://online.wsj.com/video/going-green-in-obama-greensburg/DB8F931F-1009-4D80-BE01-4F5E4588469D.html

Perfect Boats and Perfect People

The perfect boat would be one so well shaped that it would slip through the water leaving no wake at all. 

My brother will laugh at this point because I used to say it a lot. 

But also that perfect boat that leaves no wake would influence every living and inanimate thing in God’s world.

All of us lead perfect lives in God’s plan. Our wakes…well that is an entirely different matter.

·          

You're Weird Uncle Hugh

Roman 12.2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect.


The common epistle lectionary reading for today is Romans 12. 1-21. I just picked this verse. I'd suggest reading the whole passage.  When I grew up in a small town, 1000 or so, like most small towns there were clicks. There were the athletes, the musical types, the farmers, and some that just didn't seem to fit anywhere. I think I belonged to all those groups and to none of them. Sociologists call that marginalization. While the pressure to conform is so strong among the young and I certainly felt it, I'm also pleased with the role a played. I was also very lucky in that by the age of 19 I knew what I wanted to do in life; serve God as a pastor. Even then I knew that would set me apart even more (which is also a definition of holy (set apart); it gave me a great deal of comfort. I think perhaps I understood my calling better at that age better than I do now and also worse. But non conformity to the world has always been a strong conviction for me. It is not just to be different for difference sake (thought that may play a part), it is a great deal of conformity just seems wrong. Common values were not particular Christian values but conforming values to be popular, the be successful, to be powerful, to be important.


At that young age I knew I had bitten off more than I could chew (the young tend to be more honest that way.) and I knew I needed help and I knew that help had to come from God, so I made a prayer. That prayer was for wisdom. At root wisdom means to stand in awe of God, to know there is something, someone so much bigger than ourselves. And, like most folk called to a ministry I knew I had a very strong ego, I also knew it had to be held in check.


The point I guess I'm trying to make is that we need to continue to heed Paul's advise to his friends in Rome, to not conform to worldly values but to try to discern what God wants us to do and then do it as best we can. Be different, it is a good thing, search for a higher road to travel and travel it. Be perfect, knowing full well you will never be perfect and will screw all of this up constantly. It's okay, God's knows about that, about us and love us absolutely to death anyway.


One of my favorite memories while I was in seminary and living with my brother and his family on weekends while I served a church on the weekend was one day my niece Kathleen looked a me and said, "Uncle Hugh, you're weird!" It seemed a loving statement to me and I liked it. Still do.


Humm, much be gearing up for preaching next month.

From the Good News site

Incarcerated Teens Build Solar Boat, Learning Life Lessons

By Good News Network Saturday, May 21, 2011

Family Life - Kids

The math and social studies teacher at Camp David Gonzales, a juvenile probation camp in California, worked tirelessly with a group of incarcerated young men to turn a kit of wooden planks into a solar-powered boat, able to compete against vessels built by high school students from across Southern California.

In the Ninth Annual Solar Cup boat race, the scrappy teen underdogs exceeded expectations.

(READ the story in the LA Times)

In Case You Didn't Know

Mary had a Little Lamb was published by Sarah Hale (1830)

French town stages world's first electric Grand Prix

Just found another good news webside: www.globalgoodnews.com

French town stages world's first electric Grand Prix
by Olivia Bordenave and Nicholas Phythian

Reuters    Translate This Article
23 May 2011

PAU, France, (Reuters Life!) - The French Pyrenees town of Pau, which staged the world's first Grand Prix nearly a century ago, raced into the 21st century as it hosted the world's first electric car Grand Prix over the weekend. 

Although electric cars may be the future vehicle of choice, they remain out of reach of most drivers due to their scarcity and expense. Electric car races on tarmac are an even greater novelty. 

'You need to give it time to develop but I think we're giving things a helping hand with the car races,' said Luc Marchetti of Exagon Engineering, who is convinced the electric car will one day take pole position both on the race track and on the road. 

Some spectators watching the 12 racers had mixed feelings. 

'It's pleasant—and odd,' said Aude, who watched the races with her husband and baby. 'It's a change but it lacks the charm of F3.' 

But others found the low-pitched whine, akin to the sound of a jet engine but much quieter, a pleasant change from the ear-splitting roar of the traditional racing engine. 

The 2.8 km (1.7 mile) course in Pau, which winds through the picturesque town, hasn't changed much over the decades. 

Pau hosted the first event to carry the name Grand Prix in 1901, although the event was a one-off, and an annual Pau Grand Prix was not inaugurated until 1933, with its winding route through the town earning comparisons with better-known Monaco. 

The resort in southwestern France, just 50 km from the Spanish border, has proved a testing ground for future Formula 1 world champions on Formula 2, 3 or 3000 vehicles. 

But for the die-hard motor sports fans raised on the roar, smell and sheer power of high-powered petrol engines on full throttle, electric car racing might seem a little tame. 

'It's worthless!' scoffed Marcel, a Grand Prix regular who said the cars took too long to lap the track. 'It just wasn't exciting.' 

Mounted on tubular chassis, the cars' Siemens' engines can reach speeds of 180 km per hour (113 miles per hour). Marchetti acknowledged it might take time for fans to develop a taste for electric car racing. 

'I think there needs to be an evolution in mentalities,' said Marchetti. 

The first electric car races in 2009 were driven on ice, not tarmac. 

Saturday's Grand Prix featured Nicolas Prost, the son of France's Formula 1 World champion Alain Prost, as well as Fabien Barthez, the former goalkeeper who helped France win the World Cup in 1998. 

But it was Mike Parisy, a local driver with minimal experience racing electric cars, who won the race in front of thousands of locals. 

Scumbags Unite

A church in central Florida got into all types of troubles lately because the put up a highway bulletin board that said, "
Scumbags welcome!"

Let's see, that is sound theology, has a sense of humor about it, and definitely gets attention. Since when did Christians have to be dull, promote goodytwoshoes theology and get the public eye. Oh, that's what we have been doing and it's worked so well fewer and fewer are coming to church. And those who come to the churches of what's popular now get fed feel good drivel or it's equally popular counterpart: those who are like us are really bad and evil.

I say we scumbags should unite. If we only allowed good folk to come to church, unscumbags, nobody would be there at all.

While I'm gripping about religion it just annoys the hell out of me that most of the media attention goes to dudes or dudessses that got their divinity degrees on line for 2 bucks or at a community college type of bible school. While those of us who attended college, preferably not majoring in religion and then get advanced degrees are pretty much ignored by the press. Newspaper and magazines always used to have religious section where well educated lay and clergy spoke about serious religious issues. Those departments have almost all closed. But then serious discussions on almost anything today seem to be out of style.

Blue is Pink

If you had 10,000 people look at a painted block of wood and asked them what color it was and they all said it was blue; you would likely think it was blue. If you took that piece of wood to a science laboratory and they tested it with spectral analysis repeatedly and concluded that it was blue; you would think it would likely be blue. If you went to several countries with that same block of wood and they all concluded it was blue in whatever language they spoke; you would think it was blue.

However, if you ask people about health care and whether it should be profit based or a social benefit to be overseen by the government, and the vast majority found that profit based health care was more expensive, and less effective for the majority of people and government overseen health care worked better in those countries that had it, and those people generally liked it better and it more effectively treated the overall population. What would you conclude?

Blue is pink seems to be a popular opinion here.

I remember as a child running around the farm barefoot and stepping on a nail. My parents called our doctor in the town 12 miles away and he came and gave me a tetanus shot.

Today I have to schedule an appointment with a specialist 3 months in advance and at a time and place the is convenient to them, generally at a hospital which is laid out in an indecipherable labyrinth far enough between places you have to be that would exhaust an Olympic athlete. There I will find that the doctor will listen on an average of 10 seconds before making their conclusion as to what I have and what should be done about it. But they are specialists and can charge exorbitant prices for the expertise; but they have been trained to do one thing well*, in contrast to my old general practitioner which had to do lots of things.

Don’t you just love profit based health care.

*I probably misspoke there, most have excellent training in investing their money.

Another radical suggestion: all assisted living centers and nursing homes should be taken over by churches as tax free ministries. This might work better than an industry that demands a 30% profit margin in or to bother running the place. And the care would likely improve exponentially.

Thinking Critically vs. Critical Thinking

In my home town there was a guy, Gloomy Gus who just complained and complained all the time. The weather was lousy, his family were no-good-niks, the community was dying, the economy was collapsing and the sky was falling in.

Then there was the other person, Polly Ponder, who looked at the weather a figured wheher it would be a good day to work in her garden or to do office work. If she saw her children struggling with homework, she would stop and help them understand it. If there was contention about something in the community she would work with others to try to amicably solve the problem. She didn’t buy stuff unless she could afford them, except for major expenditures like buying a house in which case she would look for the best interest rates and reliable bankers. And she understood national economics didn’t work in the same way personal economics did. She didn’t believe the sky was falling in.

Critical thinkers are those folk who put their intellect and analytic skills to work to solve problems. Critical is not a negative but a positive method of doing things productively.

But it is a lot easier to just complain and scare others with frightening thoughts. Sadly I believe that is the nature of politics today. We have a vast number of fear mongers who try to frighten the population saying unless things are done their way, all will end in disaster, with practically no explanation of why what they want work.  Booga booga politics. And because of a media system that works most often superficially and also uses booga boogaism to sell its news that type of thinking is what we are most exposed to and buy into.

When I read The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama I found profound work in critical thinking. I felt this man is really smart, has done his homework, has a workable plan for the good of the nation and most of all he was hopeful and positive. However, when I ask, most people tell me they haven’t read his book but he is a no goodnik anyway. And, unfortunately, as President dealing with all the fear mongering that goes on and dealing with the problems he inherited, he has less and less chance to work on his politics of hope. I am impressed with his ability to remain on point in spite of the media and the nay sayers.

And I think there are also very good critical thinkers in the Republican parties. Unfortunately because of the extremism and criticizers that seem to have taken control of that party I think they have little chance to get their points across, or even stand up for principles they believe in.

I know on my bad days I think the sky is falling in and I become must one of the mob of criticizers. But on my good days I know God is in heaven and all is right with the world, or that God has given us the ability to make the world as right as we can, and that hope will win out and I work on my critical thinking skills to make things better. Even if it only means writing my ideas down in a blog.

Things that interested me

I just found out via the Washington Post, the the Dead Sea Scrolls are being digitalized on put on the internet for anyone to read. I think this is really exciting...others of you may find it less so.

I've got to recommend a book I'm reading, Simplicity: Zen, Taoism and... by Kahuzo Okakura. It think I got it free on Kindle. Even if you don't know squat about Zen, Budhaism, Toaism, or even tea rituals from the 500's to the present, I think you might like it. But then consider who's talking.

Nice Folk and Buttinski Politics

Doreen is a much nicer person than I am. The more I think about it, almost everybody I know is nicer and more thoughtful than I am. They remember birthdays, anniversaries, think of things that people need and want much much better than I do. Oh, I think of these things during the course of the day but invariably I will forget about them before I get around to doing anything. I think I do have lots of skills in helping people and spent a lifetime in a helping profession and have those professional skills. I but I don’t offer them unless I’m asked, because I also know that unless asked those unasked for pieces of advice are largely ignored and often resented; butinskiness I believe in the technical term. Sad but true, most people are just much nicer than I am. So now I’m writing a blog giving out lots of unasked for advice and information, butinskynessing it with the best of them. Seems odd doesn’t it. But I just can’t seem to help myself. Go figure.  [ed. This is probably where this article should end.]

All this butinskiness is prevalent in politics. One of the parts of butinskiness is people professing great knowledge when they don’t know buttkiss (I’m really driving my spellchecker nuts here.) I remember in the last election Ron Johnson proclaiming he was the only manufacturer running for office (conveniently  forgetting all the businessmen there) inferring he was the only guy with real knowledge how fix the economy, or he was a micro economist claiming that entitled him to be a great macroeconomist. It’s rather like have a guy who is a great foot doctor saying that qualifies him to do brain surgery. The argument against his opponent, Russ Feingold was that he was there too long. That is akin to saying folk who have been trained for and have good job experience and have done a good job ought to fired for due diligence. Has anyone heard of what Ron Johnson has done since he got elected?

Now to a real question, how is it that all these people who are much nicer than I am have turned into such meanassed, hateful, name calling, ignorant jerks when it comes to political debate. I have not doubt that many, or at least some mean well, but I think as a whole we are scared to death about what is going on in the economy and since we don’t have a clue how to fix it, we yell at each other and play chicken with the nation’s economy.

Will the debt ceiling be raised? Of course, it has to be or the economy collapses. But the nice but clueless politicians will do what they’ve done for the last 100 years, they will raise the debt ceiling and then let the next generation of politicians yell about it. But where are the serious discussions about our problems taking place? Better yet, bipartisan problem solving debates?

I think they are taking place but we just don’t hear much about them as at media has just become part of the problem by just selling sensational new rather the productive news. I have recommended this blog site before but let me do so again. www.demandsideeconomics.net  True, you won’t hear the supply side economics arguments which has failed over the last 3 plus decades, but you will read about real thoughtful bipartisan thinking going on. It’s a heavy site, and you might have to study it a bit to try and understand what they are talking about, but it’s worth it.

Got to Love those Golfers

This came from the goodnews blog

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — K.J. Choi is giving $200,000 from his win at The Players Championship to help victims of the tornados that ravaged the southeastern United States.

Choi says that while winning The Players was a defining point in his career, those affected by the tornados are going through a low point. He wants the victims to know that their troubles are not being ignored.

The South Korean won The Players in a sudden-death playoff over David Toms for his eighth career victory on the PGA Tour. He earned $1.71 million.

Choi often will give a percentage of his earnings from a PGA Tour event to a local church in the area. This time, he is giving his money to tornado victims through his K.J. Choi Foundation, which he started four years ago to help unprivileged children around the world.

Read more: http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,2072378,00.html#ixzz1MoNSRME4

The Good Old Days...

POINTS OF VIEW VIA GENERATION: short overview of politics and economics from the 30’s to the present

When I was golfing in Florida and I was the kid on the block at age 68 it occurred to me that age really changes our viewpoints on things. Those were small, but those between my grandchildren and I are pretty large. As a result when we talk about politics and economics, which this article is about, there are real experiential differences. I will try to bring out some of those differences in what follows in the hope that greater accord and understanding may take place.

My worldview goes from about World II to the present.  So when I think of politics and politicians  I, in essence begin with Franklin D. Roosevelt and go to Barack Obama. And in my reflections I see distinct differences, especially in the Republican party from the pre-Reagan era to the post-Reagan era. Now to some history.

For instance, most all of us have experienced recessions but very few have ever experienced a real depression. Following WWI (1914-1918) a good deal of folk made significant war profits and when soldiers returned there was a lot of excess workers. Thus in 1929, when the stock market collapsed the upper part of 1% of the country owned and or controlled over have the wealth of the nation. And 25-50% of the workforce were out of work with no sources of support. Franklin Roosevelt was president (1939-1945) during this terrible time and he initiated a program called The New Deal. The government hired lots and lots of folk to work on programs to benefit the nation. This program was supported by Franklin’s party, the Democrats, as well as many of the Republicans. A lot of laws were enacted at that time to help people well being, child labor laws, how low folk could work and agriculture was protected. The programs were continued and expanded by his successor Harry Truman.

The time of my youth, the 40’s and 50s, especially the 50’s were an affluent time in our country.  We were a  very united country; fighting wars do that. The Cold War continued that esprit de corps. Dwight David Eisenhower (republican) became the president following Truman (1953-1961). It was a quiet time yet civil rights were becoming known as a social issue in the country as other injustices came to light. But folk had money to buy cars, houses, TV and learned how to buy on credit (credit cards into use at this time.) When you here older folk talk about the “good old days” this is generally the time they are talking about and through the 70’s. Folk moved to the suburbs, gas was cheap and Eisenhower wanting to develop the nation’s infrastructure, and created the interstate system, which was supposed to be followed by enhanced rail, water and air systems. The labor forced changed from primary blue collar workers to white collar workers. Unions became strong, women worked outside the home etc.

Some wanted Eisenhower of dismantle the New Deal but he saw the wisdom of continuing these programs the improved the overall wellbeing of the nation and its citizens. There were three recessions during his administration but the government used their power appropriately stimulating the country to get the nation back on track each time. I believe this was a fiscally responsible and pragmatic time. However, they were 35 million American living in poverty (defined as an income under $3,000 then) and immigration issues developed. It was a time of the birth of Rock and Roll and “Father Knew Best” at least in a TV show.

On  personal note, when I think of the values of the Republican party these are the years I think about. Republican and Democrats were civil with each other even when the disagreed and debate was used to find the best truths that would benefit the country and it citizens. This I believe continued up to the Reagan era.

John F. Kennedy became president (1961-1963) following Eisenhower.[e.d. He defeated Eisenhower’s VP, Richard Nixon whose VP candidate was Henry Cabot Lodge. Lodge I believe was one of the greatest statesmen this country ever produced.] It was a close victory but the country was optimistic under this new a vital president. His administration was called The New Frontier. The Vietnam war began with limited USA involvement, civil rights movements gained strength, minimum wage was raised to $1.25/hr, and the Peace Corp was begun; all of this with a congress dominated by southern democrats and republicans (read conservatives for both.) The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed and we when to the brink of war with the Cuban Missile crisis. Kennedy in my opinion, was a great statesman with a vision very helpful for the country; It was also known as the Camelot years, all cut short by his assassination, yet it was an incredible 1000 days.

Lyndon Baines Johnson took office after Kennedy’s assignation. He was a very effective president able to work with both parties promoted what he called the Great Society. He worked for new social programs, declaring a war on poverty, and established the Economic Opportunity Act, Job Corps, Head Start and VISTA (an at home peace corp.) He ran for another term and was elected defeating Barry Goldwater (ed. whom I voted for; go figure.) Despite an overwhelming victory and pushing through a good deal of legislation (Civil Rights at of ’64, ending segregation with the 24^th amendment and ended poll taxes. All of this however, was overshadowed by the unpopular war in Vietnam. In light of this Johnson did not run for president again.

Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974) became the next president. His presidency was noteworthy in terms of foreign policy established formal relations with China after 20 years. He also developed closer ties with the Soviet Union. He called domestic policy the New Federalism seeking to limit the federal government. Nixon withdrew our troops from Vietnam. The Watergate Scandal forced his resignation in 1974 when he was succeeded by Gerald Ford who pardoned him from all possible crimes. The economy then became the main issue; energy crisis and long gas lines.

Democrat Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) was the next president. Not regarded as a strong president he has had a great deal of influence in peace keeping efforts following his presidency.

* * * *

Now comes, what I believe, is a major shift in political economic structure of society with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). At the end of the 20^th century the cold war escalated ending with the demise of the USSR. The so called Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition became major political influences.

Ronal Reagan, I believe, will be best known for his advocacy of supply side economics (popularly known as trickle down or voodoo economics.) Reagan believed and promised the public he could cut inflation, increase government spending (particularly in the military (100 billion during his first term, mainly to fight what he believed was a evil USSR; he also instituted what was popularly known as Star Wars/.Strategic Defense Initiative [which violated the Salt I provision] ), cut taxes and balance the budget all at the same time. Apparently he was believed. [Demand Side Economics or Keynesian Economics was the dominant theory of my youth. I believe I have written about it in another blog. It essentially means the government needs to exercise reasonable control of a free enterprise society or it will run amuck.]

The Economic Recovery Act was passed in 1981 which cut personal taxes 25% and reduced the maximum tax rate from 70 to 50% and lowered the capital gains tax. He also cut $30 billion from social programs and began deregulating businesses throughout the country (i.e. airlines, savings and loan companies, communications, etc.) Also the government reduced enforcement of regulations in many places. He also loosened air control requirements, restriction of the use of public land and motor vehicle safety regulations.

During Reagan’s second term political scandals and problems with Wall Street were revealed. The US sold weapons to Iran which enabled them to also fund arms for the Contras of Nicaragua, all of which was illegal. The stock market which had risen so greatly dropped more than 500 points in one day. These problems would be passed on to Reagan’s successors.

Following Reagan was George H.W. Bush (republican) 1989 – 1993. Bush was more comfortable with foreign than domestic issues. These economic issues plagued his administration. He essentially continued in Reagan’s supply side economics. He had to deal with the savings and loan crisis which had been deregulated and had been involved in high risk investments. Hundreds of these failed which cost the USA taxpayers between $300 to $500 billion. Bush continued the mantra of “Read my lips: ‘no new taxes.’” But he had to raise taxes and cut defense and social spending.  This brought about a serious recession. Unemployment increased to 7%, companies downsized, those in poverty increased by 2 million.  Bush plan was to give a middle class tax cut, help families buy their 1^st house, and lower capital gains taxes. Social ills also plagued the country. Too many to go into here.

Bill Clinton (democrat) became president from 1993 to 2001. Despite a colorful background Clinton new the major issues facing the country were economic. Congress balked at his $30 billion stimulus policy but passed it. His worst setback was an inability to pass health care reform.  Clinton established a free trade agreement with the USA, Canada, and Mexico (NAFTA), which displeased the unions. He also got passed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade lowering trade barriers around the world.

The economy rebounded while the republicans gained control congress.  The new leader of the House, Newt Gingrich, labeled their legislative program Contract with America which included a balanced budget. Clinton is credited for doing more of the improvement of the economy due his more moderate positions of several key issues. Which led to his second term. Unemployment dropped to 4% (in essence full employment), and from a budget deficit turned into surplus of about 80 billion.

The Clinton presidency, while effective both domestically and of the foreign level with a congress of the other party will always be marred by his personal peccadilloes.

From 2001 to 2009 George W. Bush (republican) was president. After a very close election Bush continued with the Reagan economic policies. I won’t go into much detail here because all of you should have a pretty good idea of his president.

Again we have an accent of reducing taxes with three rounds of tax cuts between 2001 and 2003. The highest tax bracket now is 35% (the lowest in my lifetime.) On the positive side we have support for Medicare Part D helping with an out of control health care system. And on the economic side we have the second most expensive war in history based upon bad intelligence.

Finally we have our current president Barack Obama. In my opinion President Obama is the best educated and prepared president we have had since John Kennedy. I believe he has the qualities of statesmanship of the like of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin,  Eisenhower, Henry Lodge Cabot and John Kennedy, to name of a few. I believe he is a man who indeed looks towards the common good for all Americans. I also believe that he has had the most difficult presidency any American presidency has ever had.

Since Ronald Reagan took office and began his supply side economics the middle and lower classes have suffered greatly. Our quality of life has diminished rather than increased in this incredibly wealthy nation. Our profit based health care is a total disgrace. The amount of Americans in poverty is a total shameful. And the subsidation of the ultra rich at the expense of the poor (socialism) is a scandal.

Our campaigns make our national look like spoiled stupid children reduced to name calling and just plain cheating. Since the Reagan days the Republican Party has become more and more extreme and the government has just plain be bought by the ultra rich. Once again in history we find ourselves where the upper 1% of the upper 1%; 11,600 people own and over half the wealth the nation. That is scandalous. We have seen supply side economics in action for over three decades and it just plain doesn’t work. Or, it doesn’t work for the vast majority of the people of our country.

It was not always like this, and is certainly not what the founding fathers of our democracy intended.

I further believe that until we have national reform on the election process our nation will continue to downwardly spiral and democracy will be a relative short term experiment that failed.

Until that happens we will be unable to return to the good old days (the 50’s-70's) when republicans and democrats can and did have reasonable debates about how to best care for our country, ensure the common good, and prosper economically, social, and spiritually.

There are serious politicians and I believe also statesmen of both parties out there to lead our country. But they are hard to locate and even hear in the din of today’s media and the multitude of extreme name calling political debutantes.

Republicans do you really want to be known as the people who follow and was to be led by Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh,  Donald Trump and the Tea Party puddinheads? I want Barack Obama to remain president because I believe in most of his policies. But I want him to run again responsible opponents such as Mit Romney, Mike Huckabee, David Petraeus, or Colin Powell. And then have a congress that can work together as statesmen acting like what they are elected to be public servants.

Say It with Pictures

Here are the piggy banks of most Americans

In comparison to the ultra rich's piggy banks

Just so you know

Thousands of Muslims Form "Human Shield" to Defend Christians From Terrorism

By Good News Network Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Inspired - Religions

On New Year’s Day, a devastating terrorist bombing at a Coptic Christian church in Egypt killed 21 people and injured 79 others. It was assumed the culprits were Muslim extremists, intent on targeting those they saw as heretics.

The following week, as Egyptian Copts attended mass at churches across the country to celebrate their Christmas, “thousands” of Muslims, including “the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak,” joined them, acting as “human shields” to protect them from possible terrorist attack. 

The Muslims organized under the slogan “We either live together, or we die together.”

Just What Is the Republican Agenda

I sometimes become totally confused as to what the Republican agenda is about. What do they want? Do they want the economy here and abroad to get in worse trouble. Do they really want to do away the Medicare and social security? Do they really want to stomp onthe poor more and more. Do they really want to have such an incredible imbalance of wealth between the ultra rich and the rest of the country? I just don't get it. The following comes from the Christian Century Blog and I thought helpful.

CENTURY BLOG

More bluster from Boehner

May 11, 2011 by Steve Thorngate       

House Speaker John Boehner said Monday that an increase in the federal debt ceiling won't get past him and other Republicans without a whopping $2 trillion in budget cuts to sweeten the deal. He's bluffing, as Jonathan Chait explains: Boehner hopes that by playing tough on the debt ceiling, he can force President Obama to make a deal that gives Boehner cover to enact unpopular cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

What Boehner won't do is actually force the federal government to default on its debt. That would be catastrophic for the U.S. and global economies, and the Republicans--with the possible exception of Michelle Bachman--know it. Federal Reserve officials worry that even if the debt ceiling is eventually raised, all the brinksmanship could cause a lot of economic damage of its own. So far this doesn't appear to be happening, but it could.

Like a lot of economic subjects, the debt ceiling is easy to exploit politically in part because it lends itself to voter-friendly analogies that sound great but happen to be exactly wrong. If your personal finances are out of control, one good solution might be to cut up all your credit cards. But if the federal government immediately stopped borrowing money altogether, we would have a nightmare on our hands.

"Just don't borrow any more money" might sound like a perfectly responsible path--and one that follows naturally from support for reducing the deficit. But it's important to keep in mind the difference between a budget deficit and the national debt.

So here's a different analogy: Let's say the federal government is a car, driving from point A, a debt-free existence, and just about to reach point B, the debt ceiling. Deficit budgets keep the car headed in the same direction; a surplus budget would turn it around. A balanced budget means the car is stopped.

The various deficit-reduction plans all have us slowing the car gradually to a halt, some less gradually than others (and, to stretch the analogy, some more insistent than others that the car's poorest passengers should have to pay for the brake job). The Republican Study Committee's plan--that's the far-right one, designed not to pass (though it almost did!) but to make House budget chair Paul Ryan's draconian proposal look moderate by comparison--would balance the budget by 2020. Ryan's plan wouldn't stop the car until 2030.

Refusing to raise the debt ceiling, however, wouldn't mean coasting or even braking to a halt. It would mean throwing the car into reverse at highway speed and hoping for the best. It's a ludicrous idea--but if the driver can convince his passengers that he might really do it, he can get them to do just about anything to stop him. That's Boehner's play--and as Chait says, Obama would do well to call his bluff.

100 Mile Garage Sale

How to spend Mother’s Day, participate in the 100 mile garage sale. For those who are blissfully unaware of this event, it is an annual event where crazed bargain hunters from all over the bloody country descent to this area to seek out the junk other folk have so they and make it part of their collection of junk. For the past few years it has become a family tradition.

This year Anne, Jay and Laurie (if you don’t know who I’m talking about refer to an early post described the family,) came for the unblessed event. We start this madness way before God gets up (that’s 9 a.m. in case you didn’t know.) Fortunately, the most thoughtful person in the world, Anne, brought dinky donuts, so I was reasonably happy for that part of the day. Doreen, recovering from her back surgery, and the girls take off in one vehicle while Jay and I depart in another. Of course marvelous treasures were found at bargain prices and stuffed in the respective vehicles. Fortunately one of them was not the biggest Moose head I’ve ever seen, who seems quite happy considering he was dead and his head was hanging on a garage wall having been demoted from the house. Why don’t we do that with our departed family members, such thoughtful reminders; but I digress.

Now important things were found, namely four putters. Anne found the first, think I found a couple and Jay found another on the second day when he soloed it. I’ve turned ond into a belly putter (Anne’s finding), painted another white as I have done with my driver, and three hybrid clubs. [White is the new in color in golf clubs with Taylormade Drivers going for about $400 (I turned my old driver white for $4.58 of Krylon paint from Wal-Mart; cheaper that way and folk are duly impressed if they don’t look too closely. I have shortened the one Jay found to a size the meets my stature and added a oversize grip. It will be the one in my bag for now. All golfers seem to have multiple putters in their garages, however each one theirs cost approximate 100 times or more the price of all of mine together. I think that must make me 100 times smarter if not a better golfer. I mean, after all, it’s a stick attacked to a flat thing.

Now all of this was followed by another dubious family tradition where we make mint juleps and watch and bet on the running of the Kentucky Derby. Our bets were placed in a container last year as no one won, and now it has more money in it as no one picked the winner this year either. Then the family flees and Doreen and I lapse into commas.

On Monday Doreen had a follow-up visitation with Gunderson Hospital about her surgery. Splendid report but they instructed her to quit the Scottish tradition of tossing poles, she’s limited to 10 pound lifts. Her scar is ugly but healthy and she is feeling better. Good news as within the month I expect her to be back adhering to my every beck and call.

It’s a beautiful day outside so I should go mow the lawn for the first time unless I can figure out something of greater urgency, such as scratching my left ear.

Government: Good or Evil

Members of the Tea Party and other seem to consistently depict the government as an evil organization that pries into their affairs, steals their money, and steals their innate freedoms, among other terrible things. Thus they tell us the best government is the least government or perhaps best of all would be no government: oops that anarchy and frontier justice which meant no justice and the guy with the quickest or more likely sneakiest gun won the day, which meant the bad guys generally put it to the good guys, despite what westerns movies and TV depict.

My guess is that all of us spend more time complaining about taxes rather than thinking about all the benefits we receive from those taxes. At the top of my list is education. A democracy is dependent upon a well educated populace. A well educated populace benefits the entire nation. One of my students commented to me no long ago saying, “I can’t believe the trust that parents give me to help raise and teach their children.” We hear a lot about bad teachers than are hard to fire because of  the power of unions, but they are a minority. And do unions overstep their authority, of course, along with everybody else who can get by with it. So, fix the system don’t condemn the whole process. Our current movement of shackling teacher unions lays the framework for poorer and poorer teachers. We need the very best, and in education as in most things, you get what you pay for.

I’m glad with we have highways, railroads, shipping and all those other things that enable us to get products from one part of the country to another. In the name of lower taxes (of the rich) our infrastructure in the country is sadly out of date and in need of repair. President Eisenhower saw the need for the interstate program which was to be followed up with improvements in other places. So what happened to the railways system while we have semi dominating the highways. Not smart.

Without government I doubt that we would have many parks and playgrounds in communities that we enjoy and need. I think most of us like lighted streets to see and help protect us at night. These things cost money.

I’m glad we have social systems that help protect the poor and those who are in need, often at no fault of their own. It is the mark of a civilized society to take care of those in need, not just condemn them for being lazy, even if they are just unfortunate. As a senior citizen I’m pleased with the rewards we receive now that we are on fixed incomes and can no longer take care of our needs as well as we once did.

I am pleased that we have police, firemen, members of the military, paramedics and the like to come to our need when we are in danger, who will give up their wellbeing and lives for our needs. All these cost money, but we are so often indifferent to the scars and needs those folk have after serving us.

This list is just a tiny tiny part of the things we have as a benefit of government in our lives. It all costs money but think what they would cost if we had to provide for those things individually? We couldn’t. Taxes are a good thing. And taxes should be shared by all, but particularly by the most wealthy that have receive the most from our society. Taxes were intended to come mainly from the rich; progressive taxes. Or, as I have said before, in the biblical maxium, “from whom much is given, much is required.” But for over 3 decades not we have reversed that principle so that the tax burden has fallen more upon the middle and lower classes at higher rates and the rich are being subsidized by those who have the least.

We are an incredibly rich coun cable about of taking care of the needs of everyone. We may look down our noses at those so called socialist countries with very high taxes rates, but the data shows they have the happiest citizens. We have within our power to provide high standards living for all, but our recent history shows the opposite taking place for middle and lower classes.

The main reason for all of this I believe in that the government has literally been bought by the ultra wealthy of our country. They have contributed most to the campaigns of those who will support their vested interests. It is their lobbyists that write most of the legislation that cause these imbalances.

The only solution I see is for us to reform election laws so that campaigns are only funded by public funds and no others. This is the people mandate that our congressmen should be hearing from on a constant basis. The original Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation and a similar thing is happening today. But the current Tea Party members, by arguing for less government, stand counter to that original ideal. We need more government to create and enforce the laws that keep the ultra rich from taking more than their fair share of our resources. Representation has been taken away from the middle and lower classes and given to the ultra rich. That is taxation without representation. When the over half the wealth of the country is in the hands of the upper fraction of the upper 1 percent of the country, we see that democracy and poorly regulated free enterprise has got awry.

Write your congressmen and demand for fairer election practices.