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, in my 7th decade. 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. Some insights come from talking with ham-radio operators in every major country and such idyllic places as the Cook Islands. 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 15 years. Since most visits to my pages come from searches, I am no longer trying to keep on a regular schedule for updating the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic. The more I see of the handiwork of labor unions, the more I become convinced that they rarely serve a useful purpose - and are in fact counterproductive to American growth and efficiency. Writing about the "Arab port-management fiasco," the WSJ on Feb. 25, noted that: the Chinese and Singaporeans already manage some U.S. ports. "The port-management business is dominated by non-American companies in part because high labor costs drove U.S. firms out of the business. That's also in part the handiwork of the International Longshoremen's Association, an affiliate of the protectionist AFL-CIO. And, lo, the New York Sun reported this week that 'nearly every politician who has been at the forefront of the opposition to the Dubai deal is on the receiving end of some Longshoreman largesse' in the form of campaign contributions. They include New York Representatives Peter King (R), Jerry Nadler (D) and Vito Fossella (R) and Senators Clinton, Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.)." The Arab-hysteria regarding port management is small change. Americans would have a massive headache if they realized how much of this country is owned outright by Arab countries, France, Japan, China, et al. Not to mention that foreigners are financing much of our country's enterprise by holding a huge proportion of our debt, in the form of securities - both in the government and private sectors. Tiger Woods withdrew from The Nissan Open due to the flu. He will receive $8,925 that will not count toward the money list, plus credit toward his pension plan for making the cut. Tiger Woods will get a golf pension? He ought to be donating money to the pension plan for all those poor souls he had repeatedly beaten out of the top money over the years. Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, who is seven-feet tall, recently won the 3-point shootout trophy. His all-around game and agility is remarkable for a man of his height. His career free-throw percentage is 86%. When you compare him to the oaf Shaquille O'Neal, it makes Shaq look all the more pathetic. Shaq is simply an oversized bully who pushes and shoves his way to the basket. Shaq's career free-throw percentage is 53%! Shaq has made ONE 3-point shot in his career. Dirk Nowitzki made eight 3-pointers in ONE game! Shaq is a man with the body of an NFL offensive tackle who prefers to push around smaller people on the basketball court rather than get his nose bloody on the football field. And he makes a lot more money that way, too. There is no justice. If I were "Porky Pig," the White House Press Secretary, I think I would resign and go into an honest field of work, like lobbying. You can do only so much spinning and you take a chance that your head will spin off and buckets of blood will spill on the floor. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a 78-year-old fellow hunter, Harry Whittington, during a quail-hunting trip. The man was not seriously injured and luckily none of the birdshot got into his eyes, although he did take some birdshot in his face and chest. In general, shotgun birdshot does not have much lethal effect on humans beyond perhaps 20 yards or so, especially if the person hit is wearing heavy clothing. Whittington was reported to have been shot from a distance of about 30 yards with birdshot. At least one pellet penetrated as far as his heart. Magnum loads of buckshot and shotgun "slugs" are another story. Thank god they were not hunting feral hogs. My question is: What is Cheney, who has a pacemaker, and a 78-year-old millionaire attorney doing out on a Texas ranch trying to kill poor little birds? Gov. Ann Richards used to come to the Outback near my house to hunt quail. President Bush and his father hunt quail. I saw Bill Clinton on TV hunting either quail or ducks with a semi-automatic Benelli shotgun. At the time, he was trying to ban semi-automatic weapons. Smoooooth. I have a Benelli shotgun, but it is the 12-gauge semi-auto "riot gun" prized by police and Swat teams (if their city can afford them). It came out of the safe a few months back when a deranged fellow up the road killed four people and none of us were sure where he was going next. People used to come on my mini-ranch and hunt quail without my permission, while I sat in my house 100 yards away. I fail to see the point of shooting those tiny little birds. Are they really especially tasty? Shoot clay pigeons if you like to see stuff fall out of the sky. That I can understand, since I have been shooting pistols, rifles and shotguns for over 60 years. Never shot a quail, a duck, or a deer. Not my thing. Shooting a gallon jug of colored water with a .45-caliber hollowpoint - from my beloved H&K .45 - is my idea of fun. Everybody to their own thing. The medical spokesmen for Harry Whittington in Texas and the press needed to be more precise in reporting about Mr. Whittington having had a "heart attack," or a "silent heart attack," presumably from the agitation caused by a birdshot pellet that penetrated his body to the edge of his heart. Actually, it appears that he experienced "Atrial Fibrillation" (AFIB). AFIB is not a "heart attack." AFIB is an abnormal heart rhythm that itself is non-life-threatening. One major concern with AFIB is that blood will pool in the heart and a clot will form. The clot might then cause a heart attack or a stroke, depending on where it migrates. AFIB is usally treated with blood thinners like Coumadin, which help prevent clots from forming. "Heart attack" sounds more dramatic to those who want to portray the shooting incident in the worst possible light. I'm not a doctor, but unitl this incident, I have never heard of AFIB being called a "heart attack," or a "silent heart attack" - and I have done considerable research on AFIB and talked with respected cardiologists about the condition. Speaking of former Gov. Ann Richards and quail hunting brings to mind a story I have told before. A TV reporter friend in Dallas called me and said that he was going to be coming to my neck of the woods to cover the governor's quail hunt. For a $50 contribution to the Dems, I would be able to meet and greet her governess during the visit. I replied: "If I am going to give $50 to a woman, there better be a bottle of wine and some overnight time involved." In truth, Ann Richards would be about 1,247,569th down on my list of people I would like to meet. The moron who had run against her, Clayton Williams, killed his chances with his comment about rape. After rain had delayed an event, he joked that "bad weather was like rape: if it's inevitable, you might as well relax (lie back?) and enjoy it." There are slight variations on that quote, but the substance remains the same. Ann Richards waltzed into office despite her admission of being a reformed alcoholic and questions about her possible use of marijuana. A fellow named Bush replaced Ann as governor. He had a drinking problem as a younger man, but I voted for him anyway. During this campaign, there were rumors that Ann was a lesbian. So, she might be a drunk, pot-smoking lesbian. Trifles. The issue was: could she govern? Not so well. Smart mouth, but brain not too well engaged. Both "PC Magazine" and "PC World" have started doing reviews of HDTV sets. There is a growing convergence of "home entertainment computers" and HDTV sets. But, who needs stand-alone reviews of HDTV sets in a computer magazine? There are a hundred sources of information about HDTV, but a dwindling group of magazines devoted to Personal Computers. I have written both magazines suggesting that they look on the their covers where it says "PC." "PC Magazine" has decided to write articles about cars! In the Feb., 2006 issue is an article entitled "Why Buy a Hybrid?" Again, I suggested to the editor that the magazine has lost its focus. I have not picked up a recent issue of "Road and Track," or "Car and Driver," but I doubt that they are writing reviews of the latest Dell desktop computer. If this trend keeps up with the "PC" magazines, I will cancel both and just cherry-pick their web sites about computer stuff. In previous Outbacks, I have pointed out how ludicrous it is to drink bottled water in those small bottles people seem to carry around now as a security blanket. In the first place, research indicates that all this emphasis on large intakes of water may be misplaced. The best evidence is that you should drink only enough to quench your thirst or to replace water lost in sweating during heavy work or exercise. Bottled water can cost up to $10 a gallon! Much of it is drawn from city water supplies and filtered. Now comes the startling news to most of us that producing the plastic water bottles just for U.S. consumption requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil a year! That is enough to fuel 100,000 cars a year! For nearly 20 years, I have compromised. I fill reusable plastic gallon jugs with filtered water from the machines found in N. Texas in Wal-Mart, Krogers, Brookshires, etc. The cost is on the average about 35-cents per gallon. I then fill up the same smaller plastic bottle I have used for months to carry in my truck - or one of my free small thermos bottles. The cost of that bottle of water is about 8-cents. On a 60-mile jaunt, I may drink half of the bottle of water, or 4-cents worth. Compare that to the cost of the bottles of "designer" water so many of you seem to suck on with every fourth step and every third breath. You have a compulsion, an addiction, you know. Get help. Living in the Outback has many drawbacks, but it sure is cheap compared to city living. I ran my expenditures for the year in Quicken. My clothing bill averaged $10 per month! That is a few pairs of underwear a year, a few pairs of socks, one pair of jeans, one pair of sneakers per year, and one shirt. I did splurge a while back on a $150 pair of SAS handmade shoes from San Antonio, but well worth the price. That year, my monthly clothing budget was probably $16 a month. My jackets and warm-up suits have all been Christmas or birthday gifts. My closet if full of fancy shirts from my Dallas and Hawaii days that I never wear. Too ostentatious for the Outback. This month, I bought a beautiful blue-flannel shirt at Dollar General. Made in Bangladesh from 100% cotton, with a nice feel and good workmanship. Cost: $9.00 A friend of mine, who grew up in Estonia and now lives in Saint Petersburg, Russia, recently had lunch with me at Applebee's, and we spent the afternoon at my son's house in a Dallas suburb. He is in the telecom biz. We first met on ham radio when the Soviets still occupied Estonia. He used the name Tony on the radio (not his birth name). He and his wife and son stayed in my home several years ago when he was on a business assignment in the United States. A while back, he lived in Israel. We were all interested to know if he had been close to any of the suicide bombings or shootings while living in Israel. We were expecting some gory accounts of having to drive around dead bodies in the streets - or bomb fragments stuck in his car door. Instead, when hard pressed he did not describe his rather long stay in Israel, near Tel Aviv, as being particularly exceptional. He paused and said, "I liked the weather." Not to take anything away from the carnage in Israel, but that is all we ever see on the news. Nobody in the media seems to comment that "the weather is nice." My Estonian friend has a remarkable characteristic. He speaks English with no accent. Once, on the radio, speaking from Texas to Estonia, I asked him how he got so fluent, so colloquial, and had not a trace of an accent when speaking English. He said, "Just listening to you guys." He meant simply talking to and listening to American ham-radio operators. During the Cold War, Estonia was a fairly rare contact on ham radio, but virtually nobody ever broke into one of our hour-long - or longer - conversations to ask for a signal report from him. They thought I was talking to an American overseas and Tony said his Estonian ham callsign only infrequently. So, this is one of the reasons that I cannot understand how Henry Kissinger, the Governator in California, and so many other people in the public eye speak with heavy foreign accents after having lived in the U.S. for decades. When I lived in Germany, I did not have a very advanced German vocabulary, but my accent was almost perfect. Many times I passed for a German. You can teach a Parrot to mimic a voice. So what is the deal with all these nearly-incomprehensible accents we hear in the United States? Pure laziness. The French will let you know when you do not speak their language with the proper grammar or accent. Why do we put up with all this foreign-accented mumbling from long-time U.S. residents? Or immigrants who do not even try to learn English? When Tony lived in Estonia, I was just back from living in Hawaii and he seemed very interested in Hawaii. I sent him a rather thick, color-laden, book on Hawaii. It took about six months to reach him. The paranoid Russians no doubt had it stacked up in a huge pile of incoming books, while they pored over it for signs of secret writing or microdots. At that time, my friend did not know of my former association in the intelligence business. And I never mentioned it, so that the paranoid Soviet radio monitors would not get the wrong idea about our relationship. Over the years, Tony has been to Hawaii at least twice that I can recall, once with his wife in recent months. You really must love the place to fly from Estonia or Russia to Hawaii! Just to get to Dallas took 25 hours this trip. Tony brought with him some gift books about Estonia and a calendar from Hawaii. He knew the calendar would mean a great deal to me, as I too love the Hawaiian islands and the people there. And he brought a commercially-produced DVD about Estonia. It plays on my computers, but will not play in my DVD player in my expensive home-theater setup. My visit with Tony was on SuperBowl Sunday. At least something memorable happened that day. Who is There Left to Vote For?There is no telling how high up in the Bush administration the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal will reach. And the same is true of the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, the former CIA covert operative. There is also the allegation by Lewis "Scooter" Libby that Vice President Cheney instructed him to leak information to reporters from a high-level intelligence report that suggested Iraq was trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Parts of that National Intelligence Estimate were previously declassified. Whatever. The stench is beginning to rise to the surface from some buried bodies. Already, House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, has relinquished his post. The NSA interception of communications with one end in the U.S. is sure to heat up. Too much time will continue to be spent on trying to "hang" people, while the important business of governing gets short shrift. The case of Cong. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R), who resigned after admitting to taking more than $2 million dollars in bribes from defense contractors, is particularly sad and disappointing. "Duke" Cunningham was the first Navy jet-fighter ACE during the Vietnam war. Just today, the History channel ran a show that recreated one of his heroic missions as a fighter pilot, and "Duke" narrated much of the coverage of that harrowing mission. What gets into people that they can turn from a Navy hero into a taker of massive bribes? There is a real good story in that query for some competent journalist who can get Duke to bare his soul. I would like to hear how he got so far off the path. His constituents should have gotten a little suspicious when he lived in a $2.5 million dollar mansion, had a yacht, and drove a Rolls Royce - on a salary of about $160,000. Several Web sites were hot on "Duke's" crooked tail for a long time before he threw in the towel. As you watch the hearings on lobbying reform, you can see that the Congress is running scared. Their approval rating is below that of used-car-salesmen (of whom there are many honest ones, I guess). There is a lot of sentiment for banning all gifts to people in Congress, cutting off all privately-financed travel, banning former members from the Congressional gyms, and not allowing them "floor privileges," while Congress is in session. Some want to restrict the amount of money rich candidates can spend out of their own coffers in an election campaign. Sounds good to me, Senator, now Governor of New Jersey, Corzine - and others. There is strong sentiment about doing something to reign in the tax-exempt 527 organizations that spent millions on "issue ads" in the last campaign. The constant refrain is also that "we must do something about campaign finance reform." But, as one of the witnesses, a former Congressman, said (I paraphrase), "We were never very good about resolving multiple issues in the same session." In other words, you all will be lucky if you get one thing reformed, let alone the whole system. And that one reform may likely be mostly cosmetic. The campaign finance reform is particularly difficult since the misguided Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo said that campaign contributions are protected by the right of "free speech." Money is speech. What hogwash. The Supreme Court may have relied on the concept around Washington that "Money talks." Another case of the Court being a super-legislature, by making up some cock-and-bull theory to thwart the sensible legislation passed by our elected representatives. Just like burning a U.S. flag is free speech. One more Bush justice on the High Court and some of this nonsense may go away. Maybe there are enough now. The amount of money spent to hire lobbyists is staggering. The influence is beyond comprehension. There has been a lot of talk about banning "earmarks" in legislation - at least without public disclosure in advance. You know, a bunch of pork that gets inserted at midnight in a 700-page bill to be voted on in the morning. There is ample evidence that a majority of these "earmarks" come as the result of lobbying pressure (and gifts of trips, lavish meals, sports skyboxes, et al.). You cannot watch these hearings without getting mad as hell. The talk about special interests having all the influence in Washington is largely true. As one of the Congressman commented, the press coverage of "the bridge to nowhere" in Alaska helped the public focus on a seldom-understood systemic problem in the Congress. We have the spectacle of vicious personal attacks by Democrats on federal court nominees and witnesses before various committees who represent the Bush administration. I continue to be amazed that Sen. Ted Kennedy bellows about character and judicial integrity when interrogating witnesses. This is the pot calling the kettle black. He managed only a C average at Milton Academy prep school. He was admitted to Harvard because his older brothers and father had graduated from the school. While attending Harvard, accounts say that he was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. At about 11:00 p.m., he offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Kennedy steered the car off a narrow wooden bridge into Poucha Pond. Mary Jo drowned. Kennedy swam to shore and walked back to the party - passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead, Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy did a two-year stint in the Army during the Korean War, where he was stationed in Europe. His father had earlier managed to get Teddy's enlistment period reduced from four years to two years. In 1953 Teddy returned to Harvard and eventually graduated. Sen. Kennedy has a long history of some demonstrated and some only alleged heavy drinking and sexual escapades. He belongs to a social club (the Owl Club) for Harvard students and alumni that was evicted from campus nearly 20 years ago after refusing to allow female members. Ironically, Sen. Kennedy was active in the passage of "Title IX," a 1972 act that prohibits federally funded institutions from discriminating on the basis of sex. When confronted with the evidence of his membership in the Owl Club, Kennedy said, "I am going to get out of it as fast as I can." If you are interested in learning more about the flaws in Kennedy's character, you might read "The Senator: My Ten Years With Ted Kennedy," by Richard Burke. The author describes how he tried to save Ted Kennedy from his personal excesses. I think I will pass on that book. Sen. Kennedy already makes me sick to my stomach every time he opens his pious and hypocritical mouth in the Senate or is quoted in the press. He makes Hillary look like a Girl Scout leader. The Democratic party must have a death wish, or at the least a self-mutilation compulsion. At the memorial service for Coretta Scott King, Democratic speakers used the occasion to criticize the Iraq war and bring back memories of Martin Luther King being wiretapped by the Feds. Never mind that the wiretapping of King was carried out by J. Edgar Hoover at the request of then Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy - Democrat. The inference about the King wiretap and the current NSA debate was obvious, Mr. ex-president Carter. Mr. Carter, you are rapidly becoming a pain in the ass! President Bush was in attendance and was one of the speakers who gave tribute to Coretta Scott King. Even some of the black voters must have been turned off by what was a sacrilegious demonstration of political propaganda by the Democrats. If you recall, at the memorial service for Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, the Democrats turned the event into a political rally. Even the ex-Navy Seal, Jesse Ventura, could not stomach the spectacle and walked out. It is one thing to be bitter and angry about losing some elections, after all those decades of holding power. But, somebody within the party needs to talk to the leadership about being just plain stupid. They need to fire that crackpot Howard Dean and hire a good PR firm. There are many good people in the House and Senate. Honest and hard working and ethical. But, the system is so broken and the partisanship so bitter and divisive, that it seems fruitless to vote for any of them. They cannot function effectively as the system now exists. Perhaps we will see another American Revolution. People with long rifles and coonskin caps driving the entire Congress and lobbyists out of town - and reconstituting a government "of the people and by the people." Of course, my dream will never come true. Do away with political parties! They are not required by the Constitution. If you elected 100 people to the Senate based on what they told you they stood for, there is no way that there would be these idiotic 55 to 45 votes on so many issues - based on party-line votes. After about 20 years of watching C-SPAN coverage of the Congress and reading about its workings, I cannot believe that a collective group of supposedly intelligent people can come up with such asinine results on so many issues. Drilling for oil in or offshore of the U.S., gun control, abortion, gay marriage, medical marijuana, health care, social security, campaign finance reform, cutting taxes increases revenues to the Feds in the long haul versus cutting taxes hurts the poor, favors the rich, and expands the deficits. And a hundred other issues. You cannot tell me that the system is not broken by partisan bickering when on a particular issue the American public may poll as high as 75 to 80 percent in favor of something - and the Congress either bottles it up in committee or stands on the floor and argues like a bunch of shool children that the other side's logic is "fatally flawed." Increasingly, they even impugn the motives of opponents during floor speeches. Pass a Constitutional amendment for a balanced budget, do away with political parties, scrap the tax code and start over. Not going to happen in my lifetime. But if it ever does, please pry open my coffin at the Veteran's Cemetery and slip in a copy of The Wall Street Journal telling of the changes. Some way, I will be able to understand. Better yet, wire my coffin for DSL and tie it into my dead brain. I will probably understand as much as most of the people who are now in Congress. The Winter Olympics Are Over?Only because I saw a TV program guide that announced the "final ceremonies," did I know that the Winter Olympics had concluded. I grew up mostly in Minnesota. I skied some, sledded down steep hills, ice skated, and spent a lot of time on a toboggan. My childhood sweetheart was a figure skater and went on to skate for the Ice Capades. One of my friends was a male Olympic figure skater. Another male friend was an Olympic speed skater. So, you would think I would be glued to the screen watching the festivities in Turin, especially since a great deal of it was replayed in HDTV on my satellite TV. No, I watched about two hours of the competition. I can't stand to see a figure skater fall or make a bad landing. They train for years and one slip and they are toast. And there is the dubious judging system. One person's style is another's bad form. This year, I gathered from the news clips that several figure skaters fell. How painful to watch and how tragic for them. All that work trashed in the blink of an eye! If you have seen one ski jump, you have basically seen them all. Again, there are the intangible points given for "style." If you have seen one speed-skating event, that ought to hold you over until the next Olympics. If the bobsleds were not different colors, most runs look like all the other runs. What do the three guys in the back contribute in a four-man team? Downhill ski runs and slalom all tend to look alike, unless someone falls. Cross-country skiing is like watching grass grow. FYI: Many years ago, my friend Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the founder of Aerobics, tested all types of athletes. Cross-country skiers were the most fit. I suppose the ski moguls are entertaining and the snowboard moguls. But, I never knew when they were coming up and missed them. The snowboard race with four contestants at one time kept my attention for quite a while. The Luge? What is that all about? It reminds me of kids in Minnesota going down steep hills on garbage-can lids. As someone pointed out, if there is not a finish line, and if style points are given, then it is a competition, not a sport. Curling is an Olympic sport? Since the games were in Italy, why not Bocce Ball on a frozen field, like in Philly in the winter? Non-Italians look up Bocce Ball on Google. It is a hallowed Italian institution. Hockey is a really strange game. I played goalie in neighborhood games as a kid. People slam into each other, willy-nilly. Nearly everyone is bleeding. Most have missing teeth. When someone scores, you seldom can follow that tiny little puck at such high speed. Even a replay has to be in slo-mo to pick up where the puck actually went. If you like boxing, you probably like hockey. Finally, there was the verbal overkill from those who covered the Olympics. Do we need to know all that stuff? Rather like the three men in a football announce booth. You are watching the game, yet one man tells you who has the ball and how far downfield he made it, another comments on who blocked whom, and the third comments on the ball carrier's parents and siblings. If I never again hear the words "Body Miller" and "party" in the same sentence, I will be forever grateful. And there is no hope that "I tell you what," will go away anytime soon. Just tell us. No need to introduce your comments with "I tell you what." In the Summer Games, you can tell who won a swimming event. You can see who jumped the highest, who pole-vaulted the highest, who jumped the longest distance, and who is fastest in the 100 meters. Other than diving, where "style" is everything, the Summer Games are mostly about clear winners and losers. Now, that I will probably watch. I was not alone in my disinterest in the Olympics. It was the least-watched Winter Olympics since at least 1988. Return to the List of TopicsCOPYRIGHT 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 |