RANDOM THOUGHTS -- SUMMER 2010

FILM

AMC recently presented the 1975 film, Three Days of the Condor, with Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway and Cliff Robertson . It has always been one of my favorite movies. Each time I watch this film I notice something I had not paid much attention to in previous viewings. What struck me this time was that having just watched CNN continue reporting on the BP oil disaster, along with coverage of the Washington Post series "Top Secret America" the film was very timely. The movie gives us a rogue operation within the CIA with scenes set in the lobby of the World Trade Center and a plot based on the demand for oil. Remember the movie was made 35 years ago.

WINE

I recently came across an old and yellowed newspaper clipping from the San Francisco Chronicle. It was written by Herb Caen, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the paper who died in 1997. The paragraph was from his daily column and this one was titled My Kind of Monday. He wrote: "I have a new hero: Kermit Lynch, wine merchant, of 935 San Pablo Ave., Albany. His latest elegantly produced
brochure includes this offering:'1962 Romanee St. Vivant (H. Auddifred, shipper). Cloudy, browning garnet. Nothing to the noise but oxidation. Flat and empty on the palate. No character or depth. Way past its prime. $21.50 per bottle. $232 per case.' ... Imagine what it would cost if it were any good ! (No sales to date.)"


CALIFORNIA

It amuses me that Republican candidate for Governor of California, Meg Whitman, will spend upwards to $200,000,000 of her personal fortune to win the election. At the same time she is preaching that we must cut expenses, not raise taxes and tighten our belts to turn the state around. She is a classic example of "Don't do as I do; but do as I preach!" Seems that having wealth does not necessarily mean one will have wisdom.

WEATHER

Reliable sources report that the month of June was the coldest month for the San Francisco Bay area in 40 years, with temperatures consistently below normal. I now understand why the politically correct term "global warming" was changed to "climate change". Now where did I put my extra sweatshirts?

TELEVISION

Not long ago we received our television signal via the roof top antenna. Today we have a choice of cable or dish reception. There is a problem however in that what we receive is crap and what we used to receive was, in my opinion, a wider selection of quality programs. It seems my cable channels are clogged with alleged reality, insipid attempts at comedy, desperate bitches, and countless reruns of the Shawshank Redemption. Amazingly what we once received for free we now pay through the nose to watch in HD. No wonder Netfix is so popular.


READING

Back in early December of 2009 while visiting Bainbridge Island my good friend, Mary Miller, gave me a Michael Connelly novel, The Black Ice, to read and I was hooked. Harry Bosch is the smart ass, laid back, to hell with authority character that reminded me of Clint Eastwood's character, Harry Callahan. Over the next six months I read all 21 novels by Connelly, most revolving around the character, Harry Bosch. On October 5th his next novel, The Reversal, will be released. In the mean time thanks to another close friend, Gerry Donnelly, I am reading the novels of John Lescroart and enjoying another enigmatic character, Dismas Hardy.

The Great Races !

Which schools won the recent big education races? Yes, there were two races: the Obama Race To The Top and California's Race To The Bottom. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia are semi finalists in the Obama race and one hundred eighty-one schools in California earned the distinction of being the state's worst performing schools. And much like existing education practices both extremes of the performance spectrum will be rewarded.

The semi finalists in the Obama race apparently jumped through the hoops and drank the Federal Department of Education's Kool Aide by revising their curricula, staff evaluations and testing to appease the Feds. Looking at the list of 16 semi finalists it is apparent that this lemming like rush for Federal bucks was most successful east of the Mississippi. Only the western state of Colorado is in the winner's circle. How the District of Columbia got included with the final fifteen states is remarkable. Obama's daughters do not attend DC's public schools as well as many of the school age children of members of congress who reside in DC. The public schools of Prince George's and Montgomery counties are the schools of refuge for these politicians.

In California the 181 worst performing schools will be required to make some staff and/or administrative changes or face closure; but these schools are also eligible for between $50K and $2 million dollars for the next three years to foster improvement. Kind of like the NFL draft in that the team with the worst record gets the first draft choice; but in this case the big bucks. Of course forgotten in all this racing about are the vast majority of schools in the country where students, teachers and parents work hard to see that kids learn and succeed; but rarely win any races or get additional funding.

Equally never mentioned and probably ignored is that fact that California's classrooms have far too many feral children in all grades who would be served better through additional remedial and compensatory parental attention or through the courts and the California Youth Authority. California's classrooms are not only the day care option for too many parents; but have become a placement option for delinquents and a vast array of children with serious social, behavioral, educational and psychological disorders.

The business of education is supposed to be education. Too much time and financial resources are now spent on non educational services like transportation, food services, health , and a vast array of social programs that the schools are ill equipped to provide. Having spent considerable time discussing what is wrong with our schools I will soon offer some concrete, posssibly socially acceptable and even practical solutions and suggestions to the mess in which we now find ourselves. Are we there yet?

Random Thoughts II

TAX FREEDOM DAY

While many Californians were faced with the April 15th deadline to file their taxes there is another significant date on the horizon.... April 20th --- TAX FREEDOM DAY. It is on this day, the 110th day of the year, that Californians will have earned enough money to cover all their respective tax obligations. We are currently ranked 4th in the nation. The residents of Connecticut hold the 1st place position working 120 days, 2nd place goes to New Jersey with residents working 115 days and 3rd place goes to New Yorkers who will have worked 115 days to cover their tax burden.

In another ranking California holds the distinction of placing 47th in the field of 50 states with respect to per pupil expenditure for education. This situation kind of begs the question --- what is the Sacramento brain trust doing with our tax money? We are billions of dollars in the red, both sales and vehicle license fees have recently gone up and property taxes remain firm.

Where are our hard earned tax dollars going? Is it time for a collective shout of "Show us the money"? With the rise in sales and VLF taxes we may beat New York and take 1st place in 2010; but only New Yorkers (and Sacramento) will be celebrating.

HARSH and IRRESPONSIBLE WORDS

In these difficult times when people are losing their jobs and homes the last thing they need to hear are harsh words of criticism. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they are hearing from President Obama’s team. In February Attorney General Eric Holder commented “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and we -- I believe continue to be in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards." He added that Americans are afraid to talk about race. Where the hell has he been since Brown vs. Board of Education? This is just what we need, a thoughtless and clueless Attorney General.

Next, we have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comments on drugs and border violence:”Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians. So, yes, I feel very strongly we have co-responsibility." I would agree that we have far too many drug dependent individuals in this country. However; it is the Federal government’s responsibility to secure our borders and they have failed miserably.

VIOLENCE

Recent events seem to indicate that we have an epidemic of violence and lawlessness in the United States. Four police officers gunned down in Oakland, CA. and three killed in Pittsburgh, PA. Small children abducted and killed by people they should have been able to trust. Far too many nightly drive by shootings and far too many youths who feel slighted and disrespected and then resolve these alleged conflicts by using a gun. Our courts, prosecutors, prisons and parole and probation system seem overwhelmed. The public having lost confidence in the ability of the police and courts to protect them have opted to arm themselves. Guns, guns and more guns …. But are we actually safer?

PIRATES

The Pirates of Somalia made the news and made a big mistake last week when they seized an American vessel and then held the Capitan hostage. For most of us the pirates’ ages, specific nationality, level of education, former occupations, and religious beliefs were secondary to the fact that they are outlaws … pirates. However; David Gergen, CNN’s senior political correspondent, chose not to refer to the aggressors as pirates; but Muslims. He said: “The natural temptation is to want to go in with military force and clean out those nests of pirates and just demolish them for even touching an American in the way they did, but there are some complications. Anderson (Anderson Cooper of CNN), in this case this is complicated by his (President Obama) diplomatic outreach to Muslims. He's done a good job laying the groundwork, reaching out in Turkey as we saw a few days ago. If he over-responds to this, if he uses force against Muslims in what seems an excessive way, it could totally undercut his own efforts.”

A pirate is a pirate … is a pirate … is a CRIMINAL regardless of religious affiliation. This country’s response to a criminal attack to one of its merchant ships must be weighed from a military point of view and only a military point of view. Whether the pirates are Catholic, Protestant, Jew or Muslim is irrelevant … they are criminals! Must we be politically correct on the high seas?

CLASS CLOWNS

Over the past month there have been many public figures who, as a result of their public comments and/or actions are a source of head shaking and laughter. To name a few: The financial shenanigans of Senators Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, San Francisco’s smarmy Mayor Newsom and his bid to be California’s next Governor, State Governors Palin, Blagoevich, Jindal and their suspension of logic and common sense, and finally there are two weasels from the Bush administration who now suffer from the dual affliction of having constipated brains and diarrhea of the mouth. Carl Rove and Dick Cheney are on a crusade to salvage the Bush legacy. As in their past being truthful is not important to Cheney and Rove … getting their way is.