My Publisher Released Me from My Contract.

Well I will take a look at the manuscript again later in the week and see what my next step is.  This is the publishing world.  You do what you need to do.

Motown Turns Fifty

I watched the BBC America story on it today.  Motown turns fifty.  The music is great, Gordy Berry was one heck of an entrepreneur and all kinds of people were able to enjoy the music.

Diana Ross, Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, and the Temptations.  Those are a few of my favorite groups.

Tucson Citizen Police Academy, September 17th, 2008

     I was so into this, I forgot my sister’s birthday.  She is on Long Island, so three hours ahead of me, I will call her over the weekend.  Three kids and a 120 mile round trip commute make for a busy life.

     I will begin this post with the first time I ever heard of Tucson.  There was a prolific Belgian mystery writer named Georges Simenon.  He had many novels about a Paris police detective named Maigret.  One of these, Maigret at the Coroner takes place in Tucson in 1950.  So it is funny how parts of one life converge, Police in Tucson, Arizona.

     Last night, we learned about police high speed pursuit driving.  Forget about shows like Cops, where we were told, many of the cops are violating rules like mad.  When do you break off a chase to not risk lives?  How do you keep from being so pumped up, you cannot turn the adrenaline off?  You are not just driving after someone, you have to be on the radio, describe the vehicle, get a license plate and stay with the chase safely.  In other words, multitasking on a major level. 

     First, we got to go in police cars with an instructor driving the course at the Police Academy.  The police cars have been taken out of active duty and are driving at the academy until they are dead.

     The course has 2000 cones, a skid patch and a NASCAR style curve.  You have to drive the course in under a minute thirty.  The record is a minute seventeen.  You are thrown all over the place.  I do not normally get carsick, but I was queasy.

     I tried out the police simulator.  It was adrenaline pumping, that is for sure.  You have to control the adrenaline to stay in control of the situation.  It is like playing American Football.  You have to be willing to “calm down” when the referee whistles the play dead.    If you are chasing someone, your gut is “when I catch this so and so…”.  You can’t do that.  You have to remain in control the entire time.

     I can safely say I have an understanding.   As corny as it sounds, I salute you folks.  I am glad you excel at this and you are out there protecting us.

Senator Obama’s Safety.

     Since many have wrapped him in the mantle of Lincoln and JFK, I hope nothing ever happens to any candidate, but especially not Senator Obama.  If it does, this country is in even graver trouble.

    I was going to keep my concerns to myself, but decided not to.  I KNOW, I am not the only person out there to think of this.

Baseball Pennant Races 2008.

     This past Sunday, I watched the Mets-Phillies game.  It was the first time in weeks I watched a baseball game.  Very atypical for me.

     With the Olympics and all this political stuff going on, except for reading the box scores and standings I was out of the loop.

If So and So is Elected.

     I am just having some fun with what might happen.  Situations change, so I could be dead wrong.

I will start with the Republicans.  There is much to admire about John McCain.  The Economist hit the nail on the head two weeks ago.  If you are looking for certain symbolism, vote for Senator Obama.  If you are looking for what someone has done, vote for Senator McCain.   Senator McCain has bled for the United States (literally).  My cousin was in the Hanoi Hilton with him, so I have personal stories.  He is my Senator. 

     That does not mean I don’t have concerns.  I enjoy Senator McCain being the maverick and taking on certain interest groups.  On Foreign Policy though, he is an old Cold Warrior.  It was old Cold Warriors who got us in trouble in Iraq, when Afghanistan is the place we should have been concentrating.  Then again, the bullies of the world were afraid of President Reagan.  That helped kill the Soviet Empire (though Putin is doing his damnest to bring it back.  He wont succeed, Russia has too many other problems, but that is for another posting).  Maybe they will behave with a President McCain.   Then there really would be a new sheriff in town.  (Hey, I live in Arizona and could not resist the Western analogy).  The Sheriff, has a new deputy, ya know.  You think HE’S bad?  Talk about bad cop and very dangerous bad cop!    With Gov. Palin, at best, Putin will be sent to bed without supper.  No milk and cookies for him.  Bad Putin!  At worst…To paraphrase the guy about be stoned in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “worse, how could it be worse?”  I’ll let me readers let THEIR imaginations run wild.   I’d behave too.

     Senator Obama’s story is different.  He rose in politics from being a neighborhood organizer.  More like the old fashioned big city machine politics.  (Many wonder if he has corrupt Chicago politicians behind him).  He knows working for certain domestic issues, but foreign policy?  Would he be JFK to Putin’s Khurschev?  Maybe not, only because Putin does not have the power Khurschev had.    Will the bullies of the world be salivating, thinking Senator Obama is too nice (translation weak)? 

    Senator Obama has Senator Biden, who even with plagerizing, I think genuinely believes in public service and might help to keep a President Obama grounded.

     Do y’all see a pattern here?  I am picking on both sides.  I am not sure either ticket is up to what really ails us.  I am partly being silly when I say I think I know what is going to happen in a given administration, but like any Futurist, I can only make educated cases.  I can be way off base.

     Whichever ticket is elected, I would love to be proven wrong.  I would love to have someone say you goofed and everything worked out well. 

We shall see.   Until the debates.  For now it is interrupting my baseball pennant races.

Bullwinkle Needs to be Worried.

For older Americans, there is the cartoon Rocky and Bullwinkle.  I am trying to imagine the idea of Bullwinkle confronting Sarah Palin instead of of Boris and Natasha.

Governor Palin raises her 30.06 Bullwinkle looks @ her quizzically.  He is only used to Boris and Natasha.

In real life, I have to admire her though.  Moose are common in the Northeastern United States and Canada.  Years ago, my buddy George and I were driving to a Toastmasters conference in Nova Scotia.  It was getting dark as we were in Eastern Maine on Route 9.  George said “Wouldn’t it be cool if we saw a moose now?”  The idea of hitting a moose with a Toyota Tercel  at 55 MPH was a little distressing.

“George, if we see a moose now, it’s the last thing we’re gonna see!”

If you hit a moose with a car, you will be an accordion, it will brush itself off, look at you and maybe charge again for good measure.   Bullwinkle is THE nice moose.  The rest would make a football defensive line cringe.

So Bullwinkle better go on the assumption Gov. Palin is more likely to get her moose than Boris and Natasha and vamoose!:-)

More silliness from me.  I swear it is contagious.

Jacob Weisberg Slate.com on Barack Obama

      I read this in the current Newsweek, but this was originally published on Slate.com.   The basic theme of the article seemed to be if Barack Obama is not elected President of the United States on November 4th, it will be 100% due to white American racism.

      I want to take the opportunity here to point out where he is wrong but also where he is correct.

     Yes, you might think after what has happened in this decade, Senator Obama would be way ahead leading a Democratic charge.  This is not happening though.  There are several factors out there.

     Only someone who is very naive would say there is not some racism involved.  It is incumbent on Senator McCain to publically repudiate anyone who is voting for him solely on the basis of race.   If you are bleeding to death, do you care if the doctor who treats you is black or white?   A McCain repudiation would be good strategy as well as the right thing to do.

     Mr Weisberg asked if we would be able to see our history (he called it legacy) of slavery, segregation, and racism in the rearview mirror if Obama is elected.  Not necessarily.  A quick study would be South Africa, with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994.  The more racist Afrikaners just hunkered down on farms out in the Veld.  What would stop parts of Appalachia from becoming like that?  (Not picking on Appalachia, just an example).   There are more extreme African Americans who do not see Obama as one of them, because his ancestors did not live through American slavery.  Look at Jesse Jackson’s off color comment on what he wanted to do to Senator Obama.  Jesse Jackson and his congressman son had split over this, (they have since reconciled).

     (Ironically, ancestors on Senator Obama’s Mother’s side are linked to Jefferson Davis.  You may have heard of him, the President of the Confederate States of America).

     Mr. Weisberg also mentioned the Jerome Corsi book.  Allegedly the footnotes are accurate and the Obama camp has not denied the book.  I have the book on my “to read” list.  Many people become angry if the issue of convicted financier Tony Reszko buying Obama’s house is brought up.  Newsweek in a separate article stated those people consider those questions, irrelevant at best, malicious and inappropriate at worst.  Don’t we have the right to ask questions of anyone?  It is still the United States after all.;-)

     Mr. Weisberg states an Obama defeat signifies equal opportunity is a myth.  We don’t know that.  We don’t know what might have happened if Colin Powell and or Condi Rice ran and won.  Neither was interested, so it will have to remain a hypothetical.  Shucks, does Mr. Weisberg have the right to “de African-Americanize” those two highly intelligent dedicated public servants?  (This is whether you agree with them or not, you cannot take what they have done in their own way for this country away from them).   (I hate those terms, African-American anyway.  We are all Americans.  We as a nation cannot move on until we eliminate those labels.

     The world judgement?  Are we supposed to elect Senator Obama because the rest of the world thinks we ought to and will see us in permanent decline if we don’t.  When the U.K. France Germany and Slovakia elect black, Turkish and Roma heads of state, come back and speak with me.  Journalist Anne Applebaum mentioned this in another article on Slate.com

     Don’t vote on the “pigmentation” of the person, but on whether you think the Democratic or Republican tickets are the best to solve your problems.

John McCain and Miranda Lambert (2)

     Don’t u go accusing me of starting something LOL!  This is just Python style silly, although, maybe Miranda Lambert and Governor Palin could end up a heck of a pair.

This blog has info about her and Blake Shelton and concerts.

http://dailytrends.net/id-miranda%20lambert%20blake%20shelton.html

More on Sarah Palin John McCain and Times of London.

Allow me to add some more links.

Pure Genius or John McCain’s Mad Gamble.

Of the four top of the ticket people, Sarah Palin is the only one with administrative experience.  Being a governor does that.  Is it genius?  If he wins, yes.  If he loses, his campaign was already in quagmire.