A Post Coming Much Late

I'm sure my loyal readers have wondered about my absence.  I am sincerely sorry that this absence has remained unexplained.  A month or so ago I experienced a severe health setback and it turned out to be advanced cancer.  After a hospital stay I came home and am taking both radiation and chemo and my days have not been easy, to say the least.

If I manage to lick this thing maybe someday I'll be back.  Should that not happen I'll thank all of you now who have stuck with me for so many years.

Much love and warmest regards.

Dearel Friend

When Two Right Wing Nuts Saved The World

                                                                   

In the fall of 1974 a group of independent scientists were puzzled over an ozone hole above the earth that seemed to be expanding. They began to study it a little. Then, by the early eighties, they saw that the ozone hole had grown larger. Yet they had no explanation for it. So they sent flying lab planes down to Antartica and began flying directly through that ozone hole. What they discovered was that 35 percent of the earth's ozone layer had been eaten away, exposing the earth's inhabitants to a global warming and skin cancers and various other ills that would soon destroy life on earth.

They learned that chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) were the villain. Seems the very freon that was keeping our air conditioners cooling was actually destroying the only protecting shield that protects us from the sun. 

Worse than that, it seems that some 200 plus sectors of the world's industry depended on CFC's to operate. The problem was so wide-spread it seemed nearly impossible to solve the problem. 

Leaders from all over the world met to discuss the problem. Though the science was undeniable very few nations, including the larger nations, seemed willing to sacrifice their economy and their treasure to try and come up with a replacement for CFCs in so many segments of the economy. So the leaders walked away from a conference and did nothing.

Then George Schultz, President Reagan's Secretary of State got involved. He listened to what those scientists were telling him, weighed the scientific proof, then came to President Reagan with some dire warnings.

And, yes, President Reagan listened. He got on the phone to the CEO of the Dupont Corporation, the largest makers of those CFC's. Reagan told that CEO that he had better find a free market fix to come up with a replacement for CFCs damned quick. Remarkably Dupont responded with a Manhattan Project type effort....to stop production of CFCs and come up with a replacement.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher listened to the CFC evidence. Fortuitously she had studied chemistry so the learning curve was short and swift.

So, in 1987, President Reagan sent Secretary of State George Schultz and a team of American scientists to Montreal for a world wide meeting of the world's leaders. And, while Schultz was jaw-boning France and Germany and other world leaders, Miss Maggie got up on the stage, led those leaders through the science, pledged economic assistance by the west for the third world, and convinced the world's leaders that "no" was not an option.

So in 1987 the Montreal Protocols were signed, each nation pledging to rid their industries of those CFC's. In the years hence, scientists make their trek to the Antarctic every year. They found the sharp reduction of CFCs stopped the ozone erosion. Then it began to heal. Scientists now say that, in 20 years or so, the Ozone layer will become completely healed.

Yes, we still have many climactic problems that comes with 8 billion people inhabiting our planet. But those same scientists say we would not have had a planet to worry about had not President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher led the way in healing the ozone layer that would have been gone today, all of us burning to death, our protective shield gone forever.

Two right wing nuts, leading a market-driven, scientific fix, even as the far left made fun of both of them and warning of "global cooling".

Note: I was inspired to read up on this by a PBS special that aired this week. It must have been hard for liberals to watch as two "right wing nuts" worked to save our planet.

Ladies, Just Stop It!

                                                                   

In just the last few months I have seen an unending parade of 55 plus models and movie stars displaying their "wares" in bikinis.....and even less. Selma Hayak, Christie Brinkley, Brook Shields, Elizabeth Hurley......the list goes on and on. And their female fans just love it!

I can find no more definitive example of objectifying women than these photos, many of the women posing being bonafide members of the MeToo Movement.

So why are these senior women doing it? Could it be for the same reasons they pay to have their chests transformed into cantaloupes? Or sport lingerie, meant for the boudoir, on the red carpet? One would think that, if women want men to take them seriously, they wouldn't self-objectify their legs and boobs.

What the hell is wrong with senior women of all sizes and shapes just standing before the camera, fully dressed, happy in just being generally healthy? Anything else is a huge insult to the women who bear birth marks and mastectomy scars and all manner of scars disease has wrought.

Perhaps the worst of all this flesh peddling is the vast difference in lifestyles between these Hollywood types and the average woman. These wealthy women can afford plastic surgeries, personal nutritionists, fitness trainers, and daily massages on demand. Sadly, the average woman cannot afford that life lifestyle, yet learn to look like Liz or Christie or Brook.

And on a final note, most of these iconic women just happened to win the lottery of good genes..........something they have no business taking credit for.

All I can say is that many women, both the famous and not so famous, are responsible for a culture that values sexiness and the grand flesh peddle. Stop blaming men for your MeToo woes and assume a little responsibility for the casting couch invites and office come-ons. Women are proving to be their own worst enemy.

So stop it, ladies. Your hypocrisy is gag worthy.

Our Gas Pump Quagmire

                                                                       

Know this; every time you depress the handle of that gas pump you are pulling the trigger and killing a Christian or Islamic "non-believer" somewhere in the world. Don't believe that? Consider this. Until the late 1940's Middle East Muslims kept their wars regional, now and then a tribe of Shites driving their camels into a tribe of Shias in an effort to prove one version of Islam was preferable to another.

Yes, there has always been a war between Muslims and other religious sects. (Did you forget the Crusades?......or why India and Pakistan had to break up?) Islam, by its very nature, demands conflict whenever religious principles clash. The Muslim "bible", the Koran states that "there is no god but Allah and there is no other religion acceptable". And if one must kill a few million, or many millions of nonbelievers to make Islam the only religion, well that's okay too.

One should also note that, in a culture that finds first cousin marriages preferable to any other, one can expect some frightening mutations in the old gene pool.....which I believe explains a culture that believes mass killings of innocents will win you those 72 virgins and a seat at Mohammed's table.

It was not until the west developed a great thirst for Middle East oil that the Middle East began to have the ability to subsidize conflict throughout the world. Hell, some of America's "best buddies", like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, funded the waging of wars against Israel during the last fifty years. Libya, Iraq and Iran were and still are the terrorist's best banker. That oil also funded the mad Khadafi, the insane Hussein, the two attacks on the World Trade Center, innumerable Muslim attacks on all the world's continents.

So, yeah, it's been Middle East oil that brought out the crazies. Oil and a hell of a lot of political leaders who haven't read the Koran and will never understand why, wherever Muslims live, violence and conflict with western beliefs will always follow. Just read what those Muslims are doing to once peaceful and serene European nations after they were allowed to immigrate there. Or, here at home, take a look at how many of those Islamic conclaves in Michigan and elsewhere are living under Sharia law, and not the laws of our land.

After having lived and worked in the Middle East for ten years I learned a few essential lessons. A Muslim, no matter how kindly, will always choose a fellow Muslim over a "non-believer"...doesn't matter how despicable that Muslim is.

So what do we do about this mess? After all, three fifths of the world is already under a Islamic fiefdom. Well, first of all, let's all ease up a little on the gas pump. (Yes, you really did pull the trigger and kill a Christian when you depressed that lever!) And let's frack the hell out of oil shale. And let's find a sensible, market-driven solution to solar rooftops and electric vehicles. And since the U.S. is now the number one producer of oil in the world, let's use our excess and put those Middle East oil producers out of business.

Can we stop those Middle East Muslims from warring? Hell no. They've been doing that for a thousand years. But we CAN stop them from exporting their hate to the rest of the world.....simply by denying them the petro-dollars that fund their terroristic madness.

You all might think about that when you depress the lever on that gas pump.

A Place Where Johnny CAN Read

                                                                       

Hundreds of Phoenix area parents began camping out in front of the Sunnyslope High School administrative offices, awaiting a 7AM opening. They've been there since 6PM Saturday night. Their goal? To score one of 30 slots available for their out of district children.

As the local reporters began threading through the crowd this morning, interviewing hopeful parents, the crowd was festive.

I find it sad. That long line of tents and sleeping bags speaks volumes about our public schools.

The allure of Sunnyslope High School? They simply teach. Ranked 1,300 of 13,000 schools nationally, the school has a modest physical footprint. Yet the relatively small campus turns out some 6,000 students annually who regularly score well on national achievement tests. 53 percent of Sunnyslope graduates have already earned college credits. The school teaches, in addition to the basics, to marketable career fields.....the arts, education, the sciences, animal husbandry, veterinary services, medical, carpentry and, yes, even auto and wood shop for those willing to surrender white collar for blue and pull in $100,000 a year.

In an era where many public schools offer history, geography, civics, math and languages as an option, at Sunnyslope they are mandatory.

So what do those long waiting lines over the weekend really say about the rest of the public school system? And though Arizona leads the nation in the number of charter schools it looks as if we need to build more...if only the teachers' unions would stop fighting them.

Sadly, Sunnyslope seems the "little education engine that could" in an America where the only answer to our 50 percent illiterate high school graduation rates, who seem prepared only for burger flipping or pursuing a college major specializing in the demonization of our white founding fathers.

Oh, and did I mention that Sunnyslope's demographics is largely minority?

Sad. Damned Sad.

Madness!

                                                               

Could we all just set aside our political preferences this morning and cast a rational and objective eye toward a few national headlines? Thanks in advance to those willing to do that.

Let's first look at President Trump's order to take out that long time Iranian military leader, Soleimani. 

I just read a news article this morning that said the American military has wanted to take out Soleimani as early as 2007. The Iranian general had been directly responsible for thousands of American deaths during the Iraqi Freedom campaign. He and his Shite proxies planted IED's, engaged snipers, funded, served as proxies, and deployed rocketry to kill our own young men and women. Were that not enough the Iranians have stirred up trouble in Africa, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, and have used Yemen as a surrogate for terrorism throughout the Middle East.

This Iranian mayhem was going on long before American troops arrived in force in 2002. And their trouble-making has gone on whether in peace accord with the west and without.

Now let's get back to that moment in 2007, when American commandos had a bead on Soleimani and could have taken him out. Sadly, and incredibly, General McChrystal (under higher orders?) ordered them to stand down, afraid that taking out Soleimani would stir the anger of the Iranian Mullahs. That "stand down" stood all during the remaining Bush and Obama years......the Commanders in Chief of the mightiest military on earth deathly afraid of one general and one bad-acting third world country! How is that even possible, even as our own military was dying by his efforts!

So once again we have President Trump doing something that previous Presidents were too scared to do! And we have Hollywood's latest "liberal darling/unappointed ad hoc Secretary of State, Rose McGowan apologizing to Iran, saying "please don't kill us......52 percent of us are being held hostage by a President we don't support." Is that not madness? Does Hollywood even understand that Iran has been the regional bad guy for some 40 years now? Did she not follow Iran's firing on western oil tankers just a few months ago? Has she not followed Iran's legacy of terrorism across five continents for over these many decades?

But let's forget Hollywood's "foreign policy ignorance" for now. We know their type and are not surprised by anything Hollywood does or says. What is truly astounding are our previous leaders treading so softly around a stone-age third world country who chooses to do us harm whether we leave them alone or not. And so many times has!

So, okay, we all can say what we want about President Trump. And yet, here he is this week, taking out a bad guy whom no one in the west was willing to touch, even as western diplomats and America's far left quake in their boots about what Iran might do to retaliate! 

Madness!

America In 2020

                                                                   

More than two new generations of Americans have been born since President Ronald Reagan took office. Nearly forgotten now was the mess America was in back then, both spiritually and financially. It now seems incredible to contemplate Reagan's inheritance of Jimmy Carter's 20 percent annual inflation rates and mortgage rates at 16 percent, making home buying nearly impossible for two thirds of our citizenry. President Carter made a national address, warning us that the world was running out of oil and any American who denied that fact was both ignorant and selfish.

On the foreign front the Russians considered Carter a lightweight and Iran was holding American hostages from the American embassy in Tehran.

President Reagan promised he would restore our military to full strength and, were our hostages not released, would bomb Iran into the stone age. On the first morning of Reagan's presidency the Iranian hostages were released. Those Iranians knew Reagan was sincere in his threat. 

It would take President Reagan more than two years to wring inflation out of the economy, implement policies that spawned the growth of new business (Walmart, Home Depot, Apple and Microsoft are just a few of the new American behemoths that got their start during the Reagan years).

Perhaps most important was what President Reagan did for our national morale. In enjoying low unemployment, and stable interest rates, and our new national pride around the world, we all felt that our futures were indeed golden again after the miasma of the Carter years.

In 2016 we elected a far less moral, less articulate man that the one who took the helm in the spring of 1981. America elected President Trump because they had an almost intuitive sense that America was headed in the wrong direction. Weary of wishy-washy politicians, and social designing Democrats, the American people shook the dice and rolled them.......saying "Trump cannot be worse than what we now have".

And on this first day of 2020 we know enough to see the results of our last electoral efforts. Though the way has been more stormy than we'd like, we do have two new conservative Supreme Court justices, we have an economy rolling along at 3 percent GDP growth rates (something Obama could not achieve in his entire eight years), low interest rates, we have the lowest unemployment rates in more than half a century, we are now the world's largest oil producer (take that Jimmy!), we have a China on notice that America is no longer the whipping post and discount outlet for their prison made products, we have nixed that horrible Obama Iran deal, and, despite the Left's best efforts, we have a President who is serious about enforcing our national borders.

In 2020 we will have to decide between "Morning again in America" or a transformational change to a socialist state.

No one knows what we will become. Our future will be decided at the ballot box, the large national question being "are there enough morning believers? Or will they stay home on election day and witness the election of a political party hell bent on confiscating our guns, our wealth, and, most important our constitutional freedoms?.

2020 will be the watershed year when we decide who we are and who we want to be. If the "morning people" stick together, and gather at the polling stations, the horizon is infinite. If, offended by a less moral and less articulate man than President Reagan, and we stay home, we will witness a socialist transformation not seen in our 220 plus year history.

As it always has been, the decision is ours.