SIGNALS OF INEXORABLE DECLINE

Barry is a high school senior, a mulatto, and a football player. He was given a conditional offer of a football scholarship at a university in his state, and the fact of the condition shows he is not entirely phenomenal; if he were, of course, there would have been no strings attached and "Come to us, Barry, Baby."

The condition was that he complete the school year with no grades lower than "C." Soon after, Barry inexplicably took rather a nose-dive in the ambition department, neglected to submit a number of English assignments, and was given a "D" in it!

End of scholarship, right? Wrong. Barry's mum hied herself to the English teacher, pled the case of the invaluable, freebie education to be lost, and VOILA! the teacher elevated the grade to a "C." Another American success story.

To me there are three explanations possible here
1. We have no standards.
2. What we call "education" revolves about football, basketball, or whatever is the regional craze: lacrosse, crew, hockey, or what have you.
3. Affirmative Action still dominates the treatment and appraisal of African Americans or partial ones.

You decide. The bottom line is that an inferior student received preferential treatment. Possible conclusions; select any combination.
1. No standards
2. Laughable education
3. Racial discrimination

Y.C.

P.S. Barry's sister, also academically less than stellar, and no sort of athlete received a full scholarship to a border state university 2000 miles from her home. Regional quotas? Racial quotas? Tell me, please.

WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING?

In Libya, I mean. As nearly as I can understand "news" reports, we are dropping bombs on people in order to save lives. Qadafy - choose your transliteration; there must be a hundred of them - is admittedly a jerk, but does that suggest we bomb him? We aren't bombing Cuba or Syria, and they're operated by jerks.

I have two hypotheses. One is that B.O. the N.O. & Co. have most everything in a shambles at home, so, taking a page from Klintoon's book, they'll engage us in a little war and then fly all over the world telling everyone how he saved lives.

The other possibility is that we're doing this to make sure our great pals and allies, France and England don't get their oil supply interrupted. These are the same allies, recall, that made handsome profits supplying North Vietnam when its soldiers were invading the South, killing Americans, and brutalizing prisoners of war. So far as I know the only times France did anything for us was in the French and Indians war, and that was only to annoy the Brits, and when they gave us the Statue of Liberty. I can't think of anything the Brits ever did for this country. With friends like these, we might as well be buddies with Qadafy.

ENERGY IDIOCY

We have oil, but B.O., the Neighborhood Organizer, and Co. don't want to drill for it. We have immmeasurable quantities of coal, but B.O. doesn't want to burn it. They want green energy, like nuclear reactors, so called, because when they go amok, people turn green. Thus, we sit around here paying a huge price to foreigners for gasoline we could produce ourselves. For decades every government we've had has steered us on a course predicated on the internal combustion engine. Now, are we supposed to run these 10 zillion cars on wind power? Solar? Get serious. Why don't we use our own oil - yes, plenty of it off California's sacred coasts - concurrent with implementing an efficacious program of CONSERVATION? Another good point would be to STOP wasting money on trains, etc. that NO ONE WILL RIDE! If usable ones can't be invented, then to HELL with them!

ZAP IT TO US, OIL FIRMS; WITH BADMINISTRATION APPROVAL

Every time a cloud drifts over a coutry with an oil well, the price-fixing cartel rams a higher price up and down our alimentary canals. Libya, e.g., has zero impact on us, so why did pump prices escalate again? Several reasons

1. The cartel zapped a high price on crude oil - because it wanted to, you dummy!

2. The refiners saw an opportunity to whine about the price of crude and then to gouge the consumers disproportionately. When Exxon, Shell, and the others report quarterly profits TRIPLE what they were a year ago, doesn't anyone suspect foul play? Whatever became of anti-price-fixing and anti-trust laws? Whatever happened to government's protecting its people? "Government FOR the people;" does that ring a bell?

Naturally, at least one other force is at work. The oil world uses the dollar as a currency, and we have a clown government, an inexperienced set of morons, a BADministration, that throws away trillions at a time nowadays. They crank up the presses and print it, see? With more dollars being wasted all over the world, the worth of a dollar drops, and it takes more of them to purchase a unit of anything.

The sky's the limit you think? No, the depths are the limit, and we're approaching them.

NPR

National Pubic Radio has always been my conception of this voice of the Democratic National Committee. (Read that sentence carefully if at first it seems odd.) It's another case of my tax money's being used to promulgate lunatic liberal ideals.

I was amazed when the Repubs controlled both houses of congress for 12 YEARS and failed to de-fund that most biased and bigoted of "news" sources. I attribute that lapse to the unjustified view that if one is conciliatory towards an enemy, he'll return the favor. Ho ho. This is like supposing that if one tries to pet a rabid dog it won't bite.

At any rate the House of Reps. at last has shown good sense in depriving Radio Moscow West of subsidies it doesn't merit.

ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST ...

VIOLENT CITIES, what else? I read that dubious distinction awarded to Camden, New Jersey. Now, what is there about Camden that makes it so? Why have DECADES of work by dedicated individuals and who can count the $ made NO DIFFERENCE? Why is that place, along with other many other of our cities, a violent, crime-ridden cesspool.

Is it the latitude? The longitude? The average summer temperature? What begets such violence and crime? Does it have anything to do with the inhabitants?

As the Germans would advise, Denken Daran.

Sorry to have been absent for a time, but a little travel was necessary.

Yves

SENSIBLE PROPOSALS FROM A GARBAGE DUMP

A friend lives rurally and must transport his refuse to the County Dump. He has two important observations that have derived from that inglorious destination.

1. In addition to the supervisor the only other permanent employee is a retarded man, probably sixty-years-old. He helps people lug their trash to the disposal locations, operates the cardboard box compactor, sorts cans for recycling, greets everyone warmly, and generally makes himself useful. He lives in subsidized housing about a half-mile from the dump, which commute and others around the town he completes by bicycle. He lives alone and apparently takes care of himself.

What impresses my friend and me is that he does useful work in return for the welfare benefits he receives. We wonder why NOT **ALL** ABLE BODIED WELFARE RECIPIENTS ARE REQUIRED TO EARN THEIR BENEFITS WITH USEFUL WORK. Why is it something for nothing instead of something for something, as in this example? Make this novel suggestion to your legislative representatives.

2. The little town also operates a juvenile court, meaning that youthful offenders of minor laws are judged and sentenced by their peers. The dump, particularly odious in warm weather, is frequently specified as the place of penance, and young folks working there are NOT just those whose mothers found them abominable part-time jobs.They also pick up trash from the town streets, rake leaves around public places, and, once again, contribute useful WORK to discharge their responsibility.

DON'T THROW ME INTO THE BREYER PATCH

This Breyer that helps vitiate the Supreme Court must be one, or a combination, of the types below.

1. an illiterate

2. a medium

3. a supremely arrogant son-of-a-bitch

4. hell bent to ruin the country

How else would anyone with even a 2-digit IQ manage to read James Madison's 2nd amendment to the Constitution, written for the common man and woman, and fail totally to understand what it says?

Now, he may have penned a simple guarantee of the right to bear arms, but never mind what he said, pontifical Breyer knows what he meant. Yes, indeed, and perhaps it had to do with a whisky tax or prostitution, who knows?

How can a person be so nescient and get the the S.C.? I'll tell you; it takes a President and a Senate dominated by items 1 - 4 above.