The View From the Outback© 2000 Richard C. Rhodes
A great deal of what we read in newspapers, magazines, and books, and what we see in the movies and on TV is written and produced in New York City or Los Angeles. Much of the "political wisdom" comes from the PR machines of the White House, the Congress, and from the Washington media corps. In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood. I am now a senior citizen. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 13 years. Every couple of weeks I will attempt to post a new set of musings from the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic. An AP polls says that the FTC's Do-Not-Call list is working. People are reporting getting less phone calls. That is, except from the pea-brain pollsters who called to ask if you were getting less calls. I don't think Matt Drudge is playing with a full deck, perhaps only about a dozen cards, and none of them Hearts or Diamonds. I check his Web site for the links to news and columnists. On 2-19-04 he reported that Reuters had circulated a photo of Sen. John Kerry where he appeared to be in "the bullseye of a sniper's periscope." A periscope is what a submarine uses to take a peek on the surface when it is submerged. A few minutes later, when I went back to print that sentence for posterity, Drudge had changed the language to read "in the bullseye of a sniper's aim." The photo shows what look like "cross-hairs" on a telescopic sight. It was from a TV appearance where the "cross-hairs" were from a camera viewfinder. And Drudge, Kerry is not in the "bullseye" of a sniper's aim. The bullseye is that round area in the middle of a paper target. Never send a boy to do a man's work. The version which contained: "in the bull's-eye of a sniper's periscope!" in still in the Recent Drudge Headlines section. There have been "sniper periscopes" in military use since at least WWII and probably beyond, and some no doubt exist today. But the common understanding of what a sniper normally looks through is a telescopic sight, not a periscope. Since Matt Drudge may never have fired any kind of sniper rifle, he was no doubt parroting something he read or heard about a sniper "periscope." Speaking of "posterity." We once had a beautiful office worker in a company where I was employed. One day, I asked if I could take her picture for posterity. She replied, "I don't think I have ever seen that magazine." Honest. Could I make that up? A computer snafu allowed the true names of anonymous book reviewers on Amazon.com to be revealed. Good! I have alway thought anonymous postings anywhere on the Web are cowardly. There is also too much room for fraud and manipulation. Book authors praising their own books. Other authors trashing a competitor's book, and so on. Anonymous reviews of music CDs and DVDs are always suspect. People with vested interests in products post rave reviews on opinion sites. Also anonymous writers, say on a news forum, quite often tend to be downright vile - even terrorist - in their comments. Say that to my face, you @#$&**$. You'll be looking in the Yellow Pages under Reconstructive Plastic Surgery. One book review I wrote on Amazon.com in true name prompted the author to telephone me to say it was one of the best reviews of his book (a very big seller) he had read anywhere. We have kept in touch in the interim, with comments back and forth about one of more of his upcoming books. I am happy to report that in the two post offices where I checked, the AOL disks (which the Postal Service was obligated to display through some tie-in) are gone from the shelves. It semed to me that some days none were picked up and then there would be a whole bunch missing on one day. Perhaps some people took my advice and grabbed a handful at a time and threw them in the dumpster. Actualy what I said was to grab a handful for your friends, and then posibly have a change of heart. What a terrible thing to do to a friend. Come on guys, send some more AOL disks. There are still plenty of empty dumpsters. NBC Evening News ran some segments about Sky Marshals. In one, they said that the Sky Marshals "board before the passengers." And "... they look over passengers filing on." This was either a purposeful bit of disinformation, inteneded to confuse highjackers, or one of the most irresponsible pieces of reporting I can remember. If the Sky Marshals really do board before the passengers, then a potential hijacker would know who they are - or at least be suspious of persons who did not board with the rest of the passengers. Did I miss something here? Afghanistan is now alleged to be the world's leading producer of heroin and opium. I hope that the presidential candidates, including President Bush, will be grilled on what they intend to do about this. We "own" Afghanistan, given the sacrifice in lives and money it has taken to free the country from the Taliban - and our continued military presence there. How pathetically inept we are that our government has allowed the opium poppy to flourish once again. The US is preparing to cut the number of troops stationed in Europe by up to a third. It is about time. Please go back and read "The Projection of U.S. Military Power" in the Outback for April 21, 2003 (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac79.html) Here is just a tiny quote from that piece: Martha Stewart comes across to me as a haughty, arrogant, bitch. But, her indictment and trial are nonsense. If the public only knew how many billions of dollars are made each year based on inside trading, they would be outraged that the prosecutors decided to pick on Martha, whose crimes, if any, pale in comparison to the really big players on Wall Street. When I was a young Federal agent in Philadelphia, a few of my skills were lock picking and bugging. A neighbor, who was a stock broker in a large downtown Philly brokerage house, approached me with a proposition. If I could bug the inner office of the senior partner, we could become privy to all kinds of insider information which was bandied about only among the elite. We could possibly get rich. I rather featured myself as someone who was engaged in important and honorable work, and I did not take my friend up on his offer. Plus, I had no interest in going to jail for 20 years, as I was then only in my thirties. So, the Martha Stewart trial is all very sexy, except from Martha's perspective, but there are lot of guys and gals who are living in mansions and flying private jets - gotten from the gains of insider information - who are laughing their asses off at poor Martha - the sacrificial Lamb. One of the hardest words to spell in English is "rithum." If you can spell it correctly, you are a genius. I have only one note taped to the base of my monitor. It is the correct spelling of "rithum." Without the note, I cannot even come close enough so that a spell checker can make a guess as to what I was trying to spell. Who came up with that spelling? Why do women almost universally clasp their cupped hands over their mouth - or nose and mouth - when they are surprised, shocked, and even delighted? I posed this question to a famous female anthropologist and author. Here is part of her reply: If a woman sees a horrible scene, or wins a car on "Wheel of Fortune," or someone throws a surprise birthday party, the cupped hands almost always go immediately to the face. I have suggested to my anthropologist contact that now that I have raised the question, she and her colleagues will be more alert to the phenomenon and will probably come up with additional theories, which I would like to hear. Especially since it is men, not women, who are said to hide their feelings. Huuuuum. It is a good question. The "Made in China" - and anywhere but the U.S. - phenomenon continues. My latest pair of walking shoes were made in China. They probably cost $4 to make. I paid $59.95, plus tax. Earlier, I mentioned that my most recent TV was made in China. I noticed that the power supply "wart" for an HP inkjet is made in China. The HP printer is made in Malaysia. I bought a Black & Decker electric can opener. Made in China. Good Grief, Charlie Brown! My new Wolfgang Puck table-top grill is made in China. That makes me mad. Wolfgang, you cheapen your name. My Mr. Coffee maker, by Sunbeam Products, Inc, is made in China. All of the companies who used to be revered names in the U.S., and are now getting things made in China, ought to adopt a new brand name: Chinese Less-Than-Minimum-Wage, Inc. Our trade imbalance is enormous. Part of the reason is that we make so damn little in this country anymore, we have little to trade. The U.S. imports an enormous amount of goods from Communist China. Yet, we still have an embargo on Cuba. Why is this? Because a string of presidents and the Congress have had their head up their butts. Oh, and there is the matter of the anti-Castro lobby in Florida. Forget the NRA and the Mafia. The anti-Castro lobby is one of the most powerful organizations in this country. With the president's brother needing the Cuban vote in Florida to stay governor, and his brother in the White House, what chance do we have to adopt a sensible trade and travel policy with Cuba? Where does Sen. Kerry stand on this? You hear that a lot of people cannot find work. Years ago, and it may still be true, Vietnamese immigrants opened liquor stores in many large cities, Korean immigrants opened grocery stores and other businesses, and now we see an influx of immigrants from Cambodia opening donut shops in Texas. At one donut shop, the owner's new Lexus SUV is parked next to the building. Somebody needs to study these immigrants and find out how it is that many arrive with only the clothes on their back and in short order own a store, a home, and a nice car. I know part of the answer. These immigrants are willing to work long hours and work their asses off. In one liquor store where I used to trade, the whole family worked in the store - and in the beginning they all lived in the back of the store. In the Cambodian-owned donut shop I visit, everyone is scurrying around at high speed - baking and taking care of customers. They are not talking on the telephone to their friends, running errands, coming in late, leaving early, shopping on the Internet, downloading porn, and taking smoke breaks. Based on what I have seen up to about Feb. 5th, 2004, I would put my money on a John Kerry and John Edwards ticket. (Feb. 15, unless the Kerry intern thing gets out of hand. Then, try Edwards and Dean on for size.) It has been a long time since the Democrats could field as formidable a team as the probable team of John Kerry and John Edwards for prez and vice prez. Kerry has the experience and stature. Edwards is one smooth and smart sumbitch. I like him better than Kerry. President Bush will be up against the wall. For all his talk about fighting terrorism worldwide, many, if not a majority, think that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Many think he purposely lied to us about WMD, although he may have honestly believed the faulty intelligence reports. But, lies and obfuscations by presidents and administrations are as common as weeds in my yard. Presidents lied to us about the progress of the Vietnam war. President Johnson, if one can believe most historical accounts, used a non-existent North Vietnamese torpedo-boat attack on one our naval ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, to convince the U.S. Congress to pass the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution." This lead to increased bombing by U.S. forces and a massive buildup of our forces. Eventually over 50,000 of our troops were killed. Here is one sentence from the "Tonkin Gulf Resolution":
Do those words seem vaguely familiar? Read the wording of the resolution of the Congress which gave President Bush the authority to use force in Iraq. Let's give Bush the benefit of the doubt, that he started the war based on faulty intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and posed a threat. That he did not purposely deceive us. Compare this to the horrific sacrifice this nation made in lives and money when we escalated the Vietnam War, probably based on a phantom attack on one of our ships - which L.B.J. used to obtain what amounted to a declaration of war from the Congress. There is no doubt from my reading of history, that L.B.J. knew he was using a lie to achieve an aim, the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Here is an excerpt from the Outback for January 12, 2002:(www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac51.html) For the election in 2004, the Democrats are floating the following names: Daschle, Gore, Gephardt, Edwards (he is a Senator in case you don't recognize the name), Lieberman, Kerry, and Al Sharpton. What a crew! All are intelligent men, but if that were all it took, Bill Gates might run. Senator Gephardt has no charisma. He comes across as mean-spirited, disingenuous, slick - and a little reptilian. Sen. Edwards is too young and has done little to distinguish himself. Rev. Al Sharpton gives religion and black leaders a bad name.* For him to run for President is an insult of monumental proportion to the public and black people. Sen. Kerry may be the pick of the litter at this time. Here are some excerpts from the Outback for December 12, 2002: (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac71.html) Now that Al Gore has said he won't run for Prez, the Democratic beehive has opened and the drones are flying about - getting ready to start stinging each other. In an earlier Outback ("Sen. Tom Daschle for President - How Absurd," January 12, 2002), I commented on how little chance Lieberman, Daschle, Gephardt, Edwards, and Sharpton had to become president, regardless of the Republican opponent. A poll seen on NYC TV asked who would be the favorite of Democrats in NY. Lieberman 23%, Kerry 20%, Al Sharpton 14%, Gephardt 11%. If I were Dick Gephardt, I would drop out of consideration right now. Beaten by the Rev. Al Sharpton in a poll? What a disgrace. If you are unfamiliar with Al Sharpton's record and method of operation, do a little research. He is another Albatross around the neck of black Americans. Maybe Dick Gephardt should consider not even running for re-election to the House. Beaten by Al Sharpton in a poll? Goodness gracious. Here are some excerpts from the Outback of January 7, 2003: (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac74.html) Democrats Desperately In Search of a President Here is an excerpt from the Outback for January 8, 2004: (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac86.html) Howard Dean almost had me convinced that he was the savior of the World, with insights into economic issues, foreign policy, and so on. Then, I noted an article that pointed out that Vermont, where Gov. Dean enjoyed a good reputation for getting things done, has a population of 600,000. They are 49th in population, beating out only Wyoming. Both are lovely states and are inhabited by solid citizens with good sets of values. But, the Mayor of Dallas has more responsibility than the Gov. of Vermont, including working in a city that is at least half minorities. Her budget is probably bigger than that of Vermont. On second thought, Howard Dean appears more like a kid who was high-school class president who says that qualifies him to be governor. Don't be surprised when the voters figure out that Howard Dean is all hat with no cattle, as they say in the Lone Star state. It should be a very close election and I have a gut feeling that President Bush may be heading back to Crawford to cut brush at the ranch. The mess in Iraq, unless it is miraculously transformed, will be his undoing. The decision to invade based on WMD, which nobody can find, will not be as large an issue as the screwed up aftermath of the war. Democracy, my ass. The government is run by special interest groups on both sides - largely through their lobbying and campaign contributions. You and I can vote for whomever we wish, but it will be the same old baloney coming out of Washington. Just one example from "Food Politics," by Marion Nestle (read this book!). About 42 percent of sugar subsidies go to 1 percent of the growers of sugar beets and sugarcane. One family of sugar-cane growers gets about $60 million in subsidies in a year. They contributed $350,000 to both political parties. A good return on investment. Why are we subsidizing sugar in the first place? Sugar is actually too cheap, and since it has calories but no nutritional value, our sweet tooth helps contribute to the obesity epidemic in this country. Let the market set the price, or put a "sin tax" on sugar, like we do on cigarettes and alcohol. Anytime someone in Congress tries to kill the sugar subsidy, it never seems to get anywhere. I wonder why? There are thousands of lobbyists, greasing the skids to make sure their clients get a nice chunk of the pie. You and I may get a crumb from the crust, once the fat cats have finished the pie. Burp! In the 1992 congressional elections, 40 percent of defeated House candidates became lobbyists. Fromn 1998 to 1993, 42 percent of Senate committee staff directors and 43 percent of staff heads in the House became lobbyists. One of my idols, ex-Senator Bob Dole, made $19 million dollars in lobbying fees in 1997. Man, does he have clout on the Hill. Some of the lobbyists come back into government in high-level positions related to the area in which they were lobbying. Many later leave and lobby for clients in the very area in which they governed. Very smooth. Conflict of interest? Who me? Please don't insult my integrity. Excuse me, my Lear jet is waiting. Politicians are among the lowest form of human life, right up there with drug dealers and telemarketers. First, they try once again to crucify George Bush about his service in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam era. Now, somebody (I wonder who?) is trying to scuttle John Kerry's presidential bid by saying he had a two-year affair with an intern. What hypocrisy. As David Letterman says, "Do you all remember Bill Clinton?" Yes. He hid out in England during the Vietnam war under the guise of working on his studies with his Rhode's Scholarship (the Rhodes family wants a refund, Bill.) What a clever ploy. Nobody could accuse him of missing any National Guard drills. And then there was the Paula Jones affair, and the lady who said Clinton fondled her in the White House, and an alleged rape, and the pretty solid evidence that he did more than inhale weed, and finally dear, sweet, cherubic, Monica. And lying under oath. But, we as a nation elected this guy twice! Not once, but twice! So, knock off all the cheap crap about Kerry leading anti-war protests when he got back from Nam and throwing his medals over the wall (I read that they weren't actually his medals but substitutes). And knock off the crap about Kerry and the intern. And knock off the crap about how many drills Bush attended. I have made a decision this evening. I don't plan on ever voting again until campaigns are civil and focus solely on issues. Since that is not likely to happen, I have just this hour become a non-voter, probably for the rest of my life. The hell with all of them. They don't deserve my even wasting the gas to get to the polling place. My problem is that I read too much and watch too much C-SPAN.Samsung ML-2150 LaserJet - With Automatic DuplexingLike a Tiger, I have been lying in the weeds for several years stalking my prey. As the herds of new printers ambled by, I ignored them, waiting for my ultimate quest - a 1200 dpi laserjet, 21ppm, with automatic duplexing, for around $400. Finally I pounced and dragged the catch back to my lair. It is a Samsung ML-2150. A lot of printers claim they can do "duplex printing," just watch out for the word "manual." The ML-2150 is heavy (38 lbs.), which gives me a feeling it will last. It has a 500-sheet paper tray (letter or legal), a single sheet feed for labels, card stock, and transparencies. It prints envelopes very well (up to 10 at one loading, with no curl), since the printer uses the straight in the front and out the back path. It has 16MB of memory (upgradeable to 144MB), parallel and USB 2.0 outputs, and is Energy Compliant. Mine is set to go to sleep in five minutes. Network and wireless-network adapters are available. I have printed several long documents, both portrait and landscape, in duplex mode. Not a hitch so far. The printer is fast, quiet, and can produce up to 8,000 pages from one toner cartridge (the starter one produces about 4,000 pages), and has a monthly duty cycle of 100,000 pages! "PC World" readers (Dec. 2003) rated Samsung printers as the only one as Oustanding in reliability. It appears to have about the same paper paths for tray and single sheet, as my HP LJ6P (weight 24.5 lbs.) , which jammed only a few times in several years. It is probably more than coincidence that if you taped over the Samsung name, you might think you had the more expensive HP duplexing LJ. Now, I have a color inkjet (HP 970Se) and a mono-LJ that both will print duplex. While I am not accusing the Koreans of copying the general design of the HP laserjets, I am reminded of a very old story. When reel-to-reel tape recorders were in vogue, one of the best was AMPEX. The Japanese were known for attending trade shows with cameras and note pads and trying to obtain visits to tape-recorder factories. Then, one day a Japanese tape recorder hit the American market. It look almost exactly like the AMPEX - and at a lower price, of course. Good job, guys. Oh, there was one difference. The AMPEX was brown. The Japanese recorder was, as I recall, black with chrome trim.The HP 1300 laserjet sells for about $400. It has "manual duplexing" and weighs 19 pounds, has a much smaller paper tray, and so on. I am dismayed at many of the venerable line of HP printers are now so lightweight and flimsy. The HP 2300 laserjet sells for about $649 and has "automatic duplexing" and weighs 31 pounds. Why would anyone buy one of these two printers when the Samsung ML-2150 runs circles around them for $400?
Now, everybody can be a publisher on the cheap in their back bedroom. If only everybody had something to say that was worth printing. But, Grandma will get a surprise when she gets a letter from you that is printed on both sides. She'll think you had it professionally printed just for her. And think about how much more news you can get on a two-sided family newsletter next Christmas. Your friends can hardly wait. My HP LJ6P has been a workhouse, never faltering for many years - and tens of thousands of pages. The HP LJ6P was one of the best laserjet printers ever made, in my opinion. And I had several HP's, starting with the original Laserjet that cost more than many current computers. But, it looks like the HP LJ6P will be relegated to printing e-mails on my e-mail only computer. Iraq's WMD - Views of Past & Present CIA DirectorsThose who continue to say that the Bush administration lied to us about WMD in Iraq, or that the CIA is completely inept, should read the speech given by CIA chief, George Tenet, at Georgetown University, on February 5th, 2004. A copy of the speech is at the CIA.gov Web site. And read the article on "Opinion Journal" (WSJ) www.opinionjournal.com on February 7, 2004, by R. James Woolsey, a former director of CIA. Then, draw your own conclusions, rather than listen to the political vitriol emanating from the Democratic candidates and their flacks. Mr. Tenet gave an honest appraisal of the CIA's track record in several areas of terrorism, particularly the WMD dilemma in Iraq. In the history of the CIA, I cannot recall a more open, honest (as far as I am concerned), and revealing look at the work of the CIA - and I know a good bit about how they operate. The U.S. was not alone in saying that Iraq had WMD just prior to our invasion. Even the passive nerds at the U.N. believed it and voted unanimously for Resolution 1441. So, it is not that we were the only ones mostly in the dark. Speaking of the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, Tenet pointed out that the analysts never said there was an imminent threat from Iraq. Mr. Tenet spoke of some of the successes, such as how we and British intelligence knew exactly what Libya had in the way of WMD. Part of the negotiation to convince Libya to forsake its WMD programs hinged on the CIA and the Brits laying their cards on the table and saying, "this is what we know you have." Mr. Tenet said: "Intelligence also knew that Libya was working with North Korea to get longer-range ballistic missiles. And we learned all of this through the powerful combination of technical intelligence, careful and painstaking analytic work, operational daring and, yes, the kind of human intelligence that people have led the American people to believe we no longer have." Mr. Tenet took questions, and I thought his answers were forthright and convincing. At the end, a young man asked a question that Mr. Tenet would not answer on the grounds of national security. The young man persisted with a similar follow-up question. George Tenet grinned broadly and said: "You are O for two and a walk." The audience laughed and the young man sat down. In his article, Mr. Woolsey begins by saying: "So which is it: Are America's spies a gaggle of fools for believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? Or is the Bush administration a gang of knaves for lying us into a war?" In the course of the article, I think Mr. Woolsey answers both questions satisfactorily. He speaks at length about the difficulty of deciphering the intelligence on WMD in Iraq, where some generals were under the impression that even though their units had no chemical weapons, units on their left and right flank had them. The internal deception within Iraq about WMD was so great that not even those high up in command fully understood the situation. How, then, could outside intelligence agencies, in the U.S. and abroad, make any sense out of this? But, if you read nothing else about the WMD situation, read Tenet's speech on the CIA Web Site. It was a masterful and revealing speech. I have seen him testify before Congress several times. This speech was much more open, frank, and complete than the bull that takes place in the partisan atmosphere of a hearing, where everybody has an agenda - with their little five-minute-question time - which they use mostly to make statements and posture to their constituents who are watching on C-SPAN. Please. No More Federal HolidaysUnited States Postal Service 2004 Holiday Closing Schedule: Monday, January 19 - Martin Luther King Jr's BirthdayMonday, February 16 - Washington's Birthday (President's Day) Monday, May 31 - Memorial Day Monday, July 5 - Independence Day Monday, September 6 - Labor Day Monday, October 11 - Columbus Day Thursday, November 11 - Veterans Day Thursday, November 25 - Thanksgiving Day Saturday, December 25 - Christmas Day Saturday, January 1, 2005 - New Year's Day I worked for three government agencies, the U.S. Marines, the ATF, and the CIA. Although there were all these Federal Holidays on the calendar, my friends and I were usually working, sometimes even on Christmas Day. So, let's stop coddling the postal service and other government agencies. Print a stamp, have a party at lunch, but let's at least stop shutting down the government for Martin Luther King's birthday, Washington's birthday, and Columbus Day (goodness, how did he get in there? Is there a big Columbus lobby?). Even Labor Day is suspect. I have forgotten what it is we honor on that day. If we are fond of honoring Labor, one way would be to work on that day. You know - labor. Independence Day (July 4th) falls on a Sunday in 2004. So you've already got Sunday off, don't milk it all the way to Tuesday morning. Memorial Day and Veterans Day seem worthy of commemorating. Thanksgiving is just an excuse to eat and drink too much. And Christmas Day as a Federal holiday? Well, the Jews and Muslims and others thank you for giving them a day off for no reason. Yes, all of this was brought forth by me wanting to mail a letter tomorrow, and driving to another town to check my PO Box there and visit my alternate domicile. But the Post Office is celebrating President's Day. Screwed up my whole week's game plan. I bet that most of the postal employees can't name 10 presidents - whom they are honoring by sitting in front of the TV with a couple of beers. I guess I might as well join then, but I am out of beer in a dry county. Curses.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Richard C. Rhodes You are welcome to quote sections from this page - or the whole page, as long as the source URL is included. Of course, I would be flattered if anyone linked to this page. It is very hard to be the writer, editor, fact checker, copy editor, and publisher of anything. So, I beg your forgiveness for the many mistakes that creep in. Suggested Reading From Past Columns Click Here for Suggested Reading List Archive of Back Issues Media List of Addresses and e-mails Postal Service State Abbreviations, etc. Postal Service Abbreviations - Richard C. Rhodes End |