The View From the Outback© 2000-2006 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. August 31, 2006 Laugh of the day. While Googling about, I ran across an entry which said Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist, had a good list of media contacts, but he spelled Michael Isner at Disney wrong. It is Eisner, they said, and wondered who was doing editing for Mr. Rhodes these days. How nice that I can get my screwups blamed on THAT Richard Rhodes. In fact, I had spelled Eisner wrong in two different pieces - now corrected. Sadly, I have no editor. All of the mistakes in spelling, grammar, syntax, and facts are mine. And my only spell checker is part of a $19 shareware text editor I use to compose this mess. I ought to get a Pulitzer for just being close to right - about anything. August 31, 2006> First, I noticed that the use of "Myself" instead of "I" or "me" was in vogue among athletes being interviewed. "The coach said John and myself would start in the game." Why is this pompous use of "myself" so prevalent? Because most people don't know when to use "I" or "me." After all, most of the pro athletes who went to college attended few classes in English grammar and writing, and relatively few actually graduated. Some people may be so shy that they don't want to say "I" for fear people will think they are bragging on themselves. So, they say "myself." If you've got it, flaunt it. "Myself" has its place. "I am going to buy myself a new dress," is certainly preferred to "I'm going to buy me a new dress." This is akin to those who say "we" when they mean to refer only to themselves ("I"). My friends on ham radio who hear someone say the royal "We" for "I," often say, "Do you have a mouse in your pocket?" End of nitpicking for August. August 30, 2006 Corporate America continues to fail to meet expectations. After months of being plagued by calls from five different collection agencies asking to speak to some guy I never heard of, I asked AT&T (SBC) for an unlisted number. As soon as I got the unlisted number, I began to get calls from telemarketers or finance companies, or whatever, asking for a man by name. I ran my new number through various sources and discovered that it had been used as recently as 7 months ago in the small town of 1700 people that shares my phone prefix. Using some other searches, I quickly located two unused numbers in that exchange that had not been in use for about 3 years. With all their computer sophistication, would it not have been reasonable to expect the phone company to be able to identify numbers in my exchange that had not been used in several years? Oh, they also forgot to mention that there would be a monthly charge of $5.50 for having an unlisted number. Just what kind of expense does SBC have to justify charging $5.50 a month for an unlisted number? They should save money by not having to print my listing in the phone book, for starters. We just got rid of the Spanish-American War phone tax. This inflated charge helps offset that loss. We might go broke, but you can bet that AT&T will not. With the new Unlisted number, random telemarketing calls (Out of Area) kept coming. I now have a message on my answering machine that says Mr. XXXXXX no longer has this number. And that it is dedicated to my computer, the ringer is turned off, and I never answer this line. I ramble on about how telemarketers, poll takers, collection agencies, et al., should take me off their lists, since they are never going to be able to talk to my computer. At the end of a long speech, I say that I will give them the number for my "voice line." I start to give phone numbers for area codes in the Dallas area and pretend that it was a slip of memory from numbers I had when I lived in the Dallas. I feign near-senility (not too hard to do). Finally, I tell the caller to leave his number and I will get back to him when I can remember my new voice number (which I never call, etc.) Then: "Oh, I forgot to mention. This is an Outgoing message only. You cannot leave a message. Have a nice day." The calls have dropped way off in recent days. Also, I added the new number to the Texas and U.S. do-not-call lists. Of course, I answer the phone when I see a familiar Caller ID. One of my phones also announces the caller's name via a voice chip if the name is transmitted by Caller ID. My computer is actually connected to the Internet via satellite. Geeez. I hate lying to telemarketers. They are such kind and thoughtful people. If you do not recognize the phone number on your caller ID, you can do a reverse lookup at several sites, with www.phonenumber.com one I like the most. It was here that I discovered that my new unlisted number has been listed to a Mr. XXXX XXXXXX only a few months before. They also note which carrier is used and if it is a cell phone. Not 100 percent accurate, but very helpful. If you strike out with the reverse lookup sites, try http://whocalled.us/, which is devoted to nuisance telemarketer calls with phone numbers, narratives, and sometimes the names of the guilty party. My favorite entry is from a Private Investigator who got fed up with a telemarketer and uncovered the man's personal cell-phone number and suggested that people call him and give him a taste of his own medicine. Remember to dial *67 to block your outgoing Caller-ID (in most if not all U.S. phone systems - check your phone book). As you may know by now, a majority of the Caller-IDs used by telemarketers are either phony of if you call that number it will be busy. August 29, 2006 This being a recluse thing can cause some strange behavior. The temperature dropped from a high this week of about 105F to 77F. I was in the back yard while my neighbor's goats lounged near the fence. I had a spirited conversation with the goats about what a nice day it was and what a relief from the heat. They seemed to enjoy having someone to talk to, too. Get the straight-jacket handy. It's only a question of time. August 29, 2006 In recent years, the guidelines for giving flu shots has been to give a priority to the young and the elderly. The elderly die in disproportionate numbers when they get the flu. Italian and Canadian studies tend to show that flu shots given to persons over 65-years-old are only effective in preventing flu in less than 50 percent of those who got the shot. The CDC Web site (www.cdc.gov) notes: "Among elderly persons living outside chronic-care facilities (such as nursing homes) and those persons with long-term (chronic) medical conditions, the flu shot is 30%-70% effective in preventing hospitalization for pneumonia and influenza. Among elderly nursing home residents, the flu shot is most effective in preventing severe illness, secondary complications, and deaths related to the flu. In this population, the shot can be 50%-60% effective in preventing hospitalization or pneumonia and 80% effective in preventing death from the flu." And - "The flu causes 36,000 deaths (mostly among those aged 65 years or older) and more than 200,000 hospitalizations in the United States." (I spent about 20 minutes on the VA Web site looking for a mailing address for the Secretary and downloading the latest .PDF file of Veteran's Benefits. Finally, I wised up and flipped open my C-SPAN U.S. Congressional Directory - which also has government departments and Cabinet officers. Secretary Jim Nicholson is at the Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20420.) Update Sept. 26, 2006 re: VA and Double Flu Shots I received a very thoughtful letter on the subject of flu vaccines from Lawrence R. Deyton, M.D., Chief Public Health and Environmental Hazards Officer at the Veteran's Administration. In response to my query about the possibility of giving aging veterans a double dose of the flu vaccine, he said in part: "The question of whether senior citizens should get higher doses of flu vaccine has been the subject of research but is not FDA approved nor considered routine medical care at this time." While I greatly appreciate the speed and thoroughness of the reply from the VA, three words caused hair to bristle on my arms "not FDA approved." I thought that maybe the VA, with its reputation for excellent medical care, was not completely bound by the edicts of the FDA. How foolish of me. The FDA is under constant attack for being too slow to keep up with changes in potential life-saving care with regard to prescriptions. Thus, if we and the VA wait for the FDA to approve a double dose of flu vaccine for the elderly, we can probably count on a whole bunch of old dead veterans and other elderly folks. So, I will continue to research the subject and most likely will seek flu shots from two sources this year. You'll know if I croaked from this piece of independent judgement if the Outback fails to be updated from time to time. August 27, 2006 We have become known as a "throw-away society." One-time lighters, one-time cameras, paper plates, plastic spoons, and on and on. Cell phone quits, get a new one. Actually, I loved my old Motorola phone (not a flip top) and when the speaker died, I found a guy in Sherman, Texas, who fixes cell phones and replaced the tiny speaker for five bucks. Honest. Five bucks. Unheard of. If the toaster breaks, it is cheaper to buy a new one that fix the old one, if you can even find anyone who fixes toasters. If your 19-inch TV in the bedroom quits, it may be cheaper to buy a new one than get the old one repaired. The dumps are full of broken $19.00 coffee makers. I saved one of my cheap Mr. Coffee makers by taking it apart and using Epoxy to keep the switch in place, which had fallen inside the case when I pressed on it. For most people, just buy a new one. So, when the battery in my Norelco shaver died, I was determined to "fix it." On my computer, I had an Internet bookmark for a reliable source of batteries and ordered and exact replacement for about $29.00. It took some soldering to replace the battery, but I am a ham-radio operator. No problem. I have four soldering irons and several rolls of solder. About a year later, the cutters on the Norelco shaver were getting dull. I bought the 3-pack of cutters for $29.95. Runs like a new razor. The only problem, I could have bought a new razor for about $49.00. I had spent around $60.00 fixing my old one. But, I have seen a progression of new models of lots of gadgets being made of cheaper materials, more fragile parts, and so forth. If I can save something that I bought years ago, I will give it a try, even if I pay a premium. You know the saying, Grandpa, "They don't make 'em like they used to." Microwave ovens come to mind, as each one I buy is lighter and more flimsy than the last, from name brands. Maybe Norelco does keep up their quality, but they would be in a minority. Now, I have a new challenge. The soaker hoses made from recycled rubber spring a geyser-type leak about every few days. I need them to soak my house foundation in this drought. I have spent about $30 for connectors, cable clamps, hose repair clamps and the like for my three hoses. Eventually, as I cut off more and more leaky sections, I will have to buy a couple of new soaker hoses. Come to think of it, I saw a 25-footer for $7.95. I have $15 in connectors and clamps invested in my current 25-foot hose. I need to re-evaluate the cost/benefit ratio of fixing these cheap recycled soaker hoses, or go back to using the flat plastic ones. Writing this paragraph has helped me realize my muddled thinking. The only excuse I have is that not all stock lengths fit my needs, so a little re-fabbing is often in order. Today, I have to fix two of the three. Forgive me, but since I have nobody around the house to talk to, I often do my only clear thinking when I write. August 27, 2006 In the Outback for May 10, 2003, I wrote an article about "Depleted Uranium Weapons." (outbac80.html) I wrote in part: "DU (uranium 238) is a very hard substance and helps munitions penetrate armor. Plus, it has an incendiary quality that causes a shell tipped with DU to literally burn its way through armor." And: "One report from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute indicates that in Desert Shield/Desert Storm, over 940,000 30mm DU-tipped rounds were fired and more than 14,000 large caliber DU rounds were fired. Imagine the number that were fired in the much longer conflict in Iraq." And: "Many attribute a large part of the 'Gulf War Syndrome' sickness to the lingering effects of the DU radioactive clouds wafting about." A recent AP article relates the story of the multiple and debilitating medical problems of an Army vet who served in Iraq. He attributes his problem to breathing in depleted-Uranium dust, and he is not alone - either in the severity of his condition or the belief that DU caused the problems. But the Pentagon and Army doctors seem to be ducking for cover. There has been only one study about the possible effects on veterans who were exposed to DU. That study included 32 people out of the 900,000 who participated in both Iraq wars. Do some research on DU shells and munitions. You will be shocked that our government does not seem to be willing to make the connection between some of the illnesses of Iraq-war vets and the use of DU munitions. DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. In other words, the problem is not going to go away. August 27, 2006 There is an interesting dichotomy taking place in the video-viewing arena. People are buying larger and larger HDTV sets, up to 60-inches is not uncommon. Yet, they are also buying devices such as cell-phones, I-Pods, and other devices with tiny viewing screens that they use to watch video of all sorts. How can anybody who has tasted the lifelike viewing of a 50 to 60-inch HDTV be satisfied with watching the same material on a screen smaller than the palm of your hand? Makes no sense. Except for the truly addicted. August 27, 2006 Headline: Plasma HDTV set sales jumped 95 percent in the April-June quarter from a year ago. Inch-for-inch, the best buy in an HDTV of quality is a DLP set, using the Texas Instrument chip, with Samsung being the leader in sales. You need the eyes of an Eagle to see a substantial difference between the viewing experience of a Plasma versus a DLP. Plasma sets are thin and can be hung on the wall. DLP sets are "rear-projection" and a 50-inch set may be about 14-inches deep. My 46-inch DLP set weighs only 65 pounds compared to the incredible weight of the larger CRT (glass tube) sets. CRT HDTV sets are quickly fading into history. So, how many people actually hang plasma sets on the wall, over the mantle, like you see on those tours of rich folks homes? Unless you mount a plasma at eye level, you have to look up and put a strain on your neck - or slouch back in your chair. Mounting brackets and hiding the cables in the wall cost hundreds of dollars extra. What if you move your furniture around? You can't move a wall. Even though my DLP from Samsung has a very wide viewing angle (about 170 degrees), when I have company viewing off to one side, I swing the set around (it sits on a coffee table that I used to trip over) to face more in their direction. Again, try swinging your wall. Plasma makers have done a really good job of marketing, not the least of which are the many plasma sets you see mounted on the wall in homes and apartments depicted on TV shows. Oooh! That's cool. Let's get one. August 25, 2006 There is much joy in Mudville. Mighty Tom has struck out. Sumner Redstone, Viacom Chairman, fired Tom Cruise for being an idiot in public. Oh, that more such actions would follow in the Celebrity community. One might suspect that Sumner, real name Murray Rothstein, might not have taken it well that Tom Cruise promotes Scientology so publicly and so argumentatively. We are told that Sumner's wife really did not like Cruise's obsession with Scientology. When you are 83 (Sumner Redstone) and you have a beautiful 43-year-old wife who does not like Tom Cruise .... well, you know how that is going to turn out. Keep those young brides happy. I remember getting something changed on the NBC Evening News by writing to the wife of the president of the parent company, GE, in which I asked her "Have you ever said to your husband, you know I don't like....?" It turns out that I guessed right, or she decided to agree with my point of view. And fans can only be pushed so far with irrational behavior. You can practice Voodoo - or whatever - and be a big movie star. Just keep it behind your locked gates in Malibu or Beverly Hills. And don't let the staff see you sacrificing a goat at an altar. They will sell the story to you-know-who. August 25, 2006 There are many people who think the Israelis went completely out of bounds in their response to the original kidnapping of a couple of soldiers and possibly killing three soldiers by a Hezbollah incursion into Israel. The bombing and artillery damage to Lebanon, and the hundreds of civilian deaths, is simply beyond comprehension as a rational response and their claim of "self defense." Yet, our president says in public that the Israelis "have a right to defend themselves." This from a man who invaded a country that never fired a shot at us. Afghanistan, fine. Iraq, I don't think so. The U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting the actions of the Israelis. The House floor debate sounded like a pep-rally for the Israelis. The mantra of "The only democracy in the area" is wearing thin. Now, there is a wimpy investigation to see if the Israelis used cluster bombs we supplied them in violation of agreements we had with them about their use. What were the caveats attached to the use of the bunker-buster bombs we sent which leveled homes, businesses, and apartment houses in Lebanon? Probably no restrictions from us. The best estimate I have found is that maybe 500 Hezbollah fighters were killed. After all that carnage? And that perhaps the majority of Hezbollah's rockets were destroyed. That is like saying "We crippled their bread supply. We blew up a bakery." They can get more rockets with ease from their local wholesalers. August 21, 2006 For many years, the Wall Street Journal, was a bit pedantic and a fairly-boring read. They have gradually caught up with the tenor of the times. Today, in an article about U.N. Resolution 1701 - regarding the cease-fire in Lebanon, they lead with this gem: "Most U.N. resolutions don't have the shelf-life of a gallon of milk ...." August 21, 2006 In the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, where I once resided, a City Council member has proposed some new rules to crack down on illegal immigrants in the community, who are having many negative consequences, according to City Council member Tim O'Hare. Some of the ideas: prohibiting landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, penalizing businesses that employ them, making English the city's official language and ceasing publication of any documents in Spanish, and eliminating subsidies for illegal immigrants in the city's youth programs. The Dallas Morning News points out that similar provisions have been adopted or are under consideration in cities in Pennsylvania, California, and Florida. The News had a "comment" box where you could opine on the ideas being proposed in Farmers Branch. A quick scan of responses showed only a very few who thought it was racist, or had some negative connotation. As one person said, "What part of illegal immigrant" do people not understand?August 21, 2006 A few computer software updates. I used the rock-solid Acronis 8 True Image to copy an "Image" of my C: drive to an external USB drive, so that if my computer crashed, I could rebuild the operating system from the external image. Being a sucker for an upgrade, I paid to upgrade to Acronis 9 True Image. After installing it, there was a message "No Disks Found." Gee, they were there a minute ago. After a couple of hours of searching the Web and finding many others with the same problem, and no clear solution, I uninstalled Acronis 9 and reinstalled Acronis 8, and then updated 8 with about a 25MB update file. How to kill a day without even trying. I am happily making images of my C: drive again. As the kids would say, it appears that Acronis True Image 9 SUXs. I downloaded a 30-day trial of System Mechanic 6 (www.iolo.com) disk and computer utilities, and shortly ponied up the money to register my copy (I now have three paid copies). So far, I have found Sys Mech 6 to be a very handy program to keep my disk, my registry, et al., in good repair. One quirk: a file called "delay.exe" loads at Startup. This file is supposed to regulate the progression of file-loading at startup in a more orderly fashion. All it did for me was cause Palm Desktop to rename the datebook file to a file with no entries. After renaming the backup files several times, I got smart. I deleted "delay.exe" from Startup (RUN MSCONFIG and in Startup uncheck delay.exe). Tip: download the 30-day Trial version of Sys Mech 6. Check several times during the month and you will at times find a message on the bottom half of the screen that offers to sell it to you for $24.95 versus the normal price of about $50. Sadly, I paid full price for the first one, before I discovered the "sale good to midnight tonight" message. My son, Rick, who is a high-level programmer, wrote to say that he was very pleased with Sys Mech 6. It is seldom that I give him a tip, considering that he was my original computer tutor when he lived in Dallas and has worked on contracts with several of America's largest companies. I have used Computer Associates EZ-Antivirus software on three computers for nearly two years. Recently, the Updates began to fail on my main computer. Then, I read that CA was in financial trouble and was laying off a large group of people. And there was the nagging memory of ZoneAlarm using an outdated version of EZ-Antivirus when I was considering the "full Z-Alarm solution." I uninstalled EZ-antivirus, downloaded BitDefender 9 and paid for it online - $29.95 (www.bitdefender.com). BitDefender is from Romania, and they have offices in the U.S. and elsewhere. It has autoupdate every day, scans outgoing and incoming e-mail and is regarded by many geeks and several publications as the best antivirus software in the world. When someone asked me how it was working, I could say only that the AutoUpdate and E-mail scanning was working, since it has yet to detect a virus or other threat. The program is smart enough that when it is scanning an e-mail into Eurora Pro, it shows the Eudora Icon. I am very careful about e-mail and Web surfing, but I suspect that BitDefender will catch most anything that tries to slip through. Update Since I wrote about deleting CA EZ-antivirus from one of my computers (2 more to follow), CA eTrust AV had a bug which deleted a vital Windows file, causing some servers to crash and not reboot. For a long time, it was hard to find an article, outside of geek pages or blogs, that said much about vulnerabilities of the Mac OS system. Now that we have the Intel Macs that will also run Windows, and a program is about to become available that will allow you to run Macs with the Mac OS and Windows programs, without actually installing a copy of Windows (CrossOver), there has been a spate of references to bugs and virus attacks on the Mac OS. Hmmm. I wonder who is driving that media campaign? But, the real rib ticklers are the constant releases from Symantec (Norton firewall, antivirus, etc.) telling us about all of the security chinks in Microsoft VISTA, even though VISTA is a long way from being on the market. This is the equivalent of Pfizer touting a medicine for a disease that has not yet been discovered - which even Pfizer would never do. Symantec is running scared. VISTA will be inherently more secure. Microsoft's Live OneCare is gaining traction. OneCare offers Antivirus, Antispyware, a Firewall, performance tune ups, and data backup and restore. Live OneCare is reasonably priced and last I looked you could install it on three computers for the one fee. Of course, I have long ago expunged all Symantec (Norton) products from my computers (resource hogs, buggy, themselves vunerable to attack, and trashed two computers when I tried to install paid-for upgrades) - and look forward to my Intel Mac with CrossOver (codeweavers.com). August 21, 2006 Sometimes you can be too clever. In an earlier Outback I noted that I had ordered the new Gold Coin from the U.S. Mint. Because I did not trust my credit-card info to be in a government database, since there is a "laptop-a-week" scandal or a site is hacked, I used a "one-time credit card," which was generated by one of my card companies. It had a max value of about $100 more than the cost of the coin + shipping and was set to expire in two months. The Mint kept screwing around and telling me that I needed to write or call to verify who I was - something about security. I called twice and was assured that my order had been taken off "hold." Well, the credit-card date expired and no Gold Coin. I should have known better than to deal with the U.S. government. The irony is that I am now on their mailing list! Fat chance I will order anything. I am, of course, writing the Director of the U.S. Mint to comment on the ineptness of his employees, who two times told me I was "good to go." And to take me off the U.S. Mint mailing list. Save your money. It was a once-in-a-lifetime impulse to order that Gold coin. August 21, 2006 When the actual names of the chemicals that can be used to make liquid explosives was printed in many media outlets after the London terrorist arrests, I started searching on the Web for articles about those chemicals. Ooops! Dear NSA and FBI. I was just curious. I am a former Marine, ATF agent and CIA agent - with no evil intent. Please delete my searches from your files. Thanks. Sen. Barack Obama Hailed as Native Son in Africa - Nobody Mentions His White Mother, Except BarackAugust 27, 2006 An AP article from Nairobi, Kenya, about Sen. Sen. Barack Obama, says in part: "Kibera's residents, like people across the country, are thrilled at the chance to see Obama, whose father was Kenyan." It is interesting that anybody who is half-black, like Sen. Obama (mother was White) is always thought of as an African-American. And they are identified with "African-American causes." One AP release said: "The senator grew up in Hawaii with his American mother after his parents divorced." What kind of "American" is she? The PC-correct, liberal media, have a very hard time saying" "His mother is White." It destroys part of the myth and hero status as the first "African-American U.S. Senator" - and all the early speculation that he might be our first "African-American President," or as others might say "our first half-black President." I would have no problem with Sen. Obama being President - or Condi Rice. Much better choices than Hillary. I like Sen. Obama. He is an intelligent fellow who appears to be a reasonable man - for a liberal Democrat. During most of the long interviews I have seen, he always mentions his bi-racial background and that his mother is white. Incidentally, Obama's African father had three wives. Heck of a deal. I remember a dear African friend from Nigeria visiting Dallas with his "number One wife," or so he introduced her to me at lunch. Although he was a very wealthy man, we ate at a chain restaurant in Dallas. He had the Monte Christo sandwich, which he raved about. How do I remember this stuff from over 20 years ago? A weird brain. Now, where is my cell phone? Sen. Obama is the Hallie Barry of politics. She was the "first African-American" to win a motion-picture Academy Award. Her mother is also White. During the half-time at a recent Dallas Cowboy game, they honored Dat Nguyen, a retired Cowboy linebacker. Dat was born in a Vietnamese refugee camp. For all the years he played, I never was aware of his exact ethnicity, although it was obviously Asian. His name was pronounced "WIN." So, unless you saw Nguyen in print, all you thought about was that he was one great linebacker. At the Cowboy pre-season game, he was accompanied by his beautiful white and very blonde wife, Becky, and their young daughter, Aubrey Mai. When Aubrey Mai grows up, do you suppose she will be called a Vietnamese-American? I doubt it. By then, we will have gotten beyond these stupid hyphenated-American labels.There is an old rule called the "one-drop" rule, i.e., if there is one drop of African blood in you, you are an African-American. How about a new rule? If you have one drop of White blood in you, you cannot be called African-American. It makes just as much sense. Look around on TV. More and more incredibly beautiful partly-black or half-black women are news readers or news anchors, with a sprinkling of Asian-Americans. When the awards for female African-American journalists are handed out, most of the awards will probably go to the partly-black or half-black news ladies - because they are in the majority among "people of color in TV news." How many coal-black news readers or anchors do you see? Think about that. There's some discrimination nobody talks about. I will never forget how shocked and pleased I was in Hong Kong when I saw all the beautiful Eurasian women. Intermarriages often produce stunningly-attractive children. Aren't you tired of pale white blondes? In the Miss America thing, I can hardly tell one white blonde from the next. The Miss Universe contest is something different. So, knock off the BS about the hyphenated-Americans. It is divisive, to say the least.Update October 18, 2006 Sen. Barrack Obama was on "Oprah" on October 18, 2006. He never tries to avoid the fact that his mother was White and a Republican (she died at age 53 of ovarian cancer). It is only the liberal media and the Democrats - who want to champion him as an African-American. A photo was shown of his White mother. His dad was African from Kenya. Sen. Obama noted that his sister is half Indonesian (I presume she is a step-sister) and that she is married to a Chinese Canadian. He said: "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mack and relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." The Margaret Thatcher comment is most likely a bit of hyperbole to make a point about the diversity within his own family. Sen. Obama has been married to a black woman for 14 years and they have two lovely daughters. He pretty much promised Oprah that if he runs for President, he will announce it on her show. "Oprah, you're my girl." Only he could get away with calling her "girl." 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 |