Have you had enough?
EULOGY FOR HARRY REED
OCTOBER 27, 2003
When Harry, then in the television repair business invited Billy Dinerstein, in the picture framing business to have breakfast at the One’s a Meal on Chimney Rock in the late ‘60s he did not realize what he started. I won’t tell you about the impact on the city and the lives of tens of thousands of people of several generations that he built apartments for, nor am I here to recall Harry’s great achievements. I just want to tell you about the few hours of the day of breakfasts-what he has accomplished with that. Soon Ronnie Finger came and by the time I joined we did not have enough room at one table so we moved to Denny’s on the Southwest Freeway.
Harry was there every morning over the years at the Albert Pick, the IHOP on Memorial, the Executive Inn, The Oak’n Bucket, the Guest Quarters, and the Grand Hotel. We first called our group the BBC, the burned bacon club in honor of Billy’s breakfast habit. The name was discontinued after Billy had several heart attacks and bypasses.
As more and more of us met, we gradually discovered that our relationship ultimately resulted in interdependence with each other. The anchor of that interdependence was Harry. This smart fellow from Chicago created a small group where we understood that friendship based on business is better than business based on friendship. Our relationship in the Breakfast Club developed based on business. We did not realize at first that we would become friends in the process.
Harry shared his life with us as we rode the Houston real estate roller coaster over the many decades. We shared his business and personal ups and downs, his great achievements and his personal tragedies.
His personality created an atmosphere where we could think aloud in front of others and could say stupid things without fear of ridicule.
Where we could learn the unpleasant things before you’d hear it from your enemies.
Where we could find each other every morning without the necessity of using each other or having to contribute something for the benefit of others.
Where we closed our eyes to small faults. Even some big ones.
When someone made a fool of himself Harry would assure him it was not a permanent condition.
There was loyalty, cordiality, esteem, sympathy, affection, readiness to aid, to help, to stick, and to fight if needed. And Harry liked a good fight especially to make Houston a better community.
You can’t create this type of relationship. It has to be the result of perseverance, sticking together and it was the mark of our maturity.
Our differences of opinion on politics, religion, philosophy and women were never a cause to impair our relationship.
The Breakfast Club Harry started has through the decades become interwoven with the texture of our life.
Harry embodied our motto:” The Breakfast Club is where we know all about you and still like you.”
Most importantly we had the unspoken confidence of getting help from Harry when and if needed.
Harry kept his word and promise. You could bank on it. And many of us did.
(I only remember one promise he never kept.
Harry was an enthusiastic but not very good tennis player. As a child of the Great Depression he was collecting rent from tenants while in school and not playing tennis. Most of us did not start playing until late in life and when the Breakfast Club decided to hold a tennis tournament at April Sound, we were concerned that good players may not show up. We also had a weird sense of humor so it was decided that we would call it the HARRY REED MEMORIAL TENNIS TOURNAMENT. The invitations went out and the trick worked. Lots of players showed up embarrassed to have missed Harry’s funeral and relieved to find that he was there in person to play.
In order to make the play fair we decided to pair one good player with one, shall we say, less good player. Harry’s partner was Joe Javor, a good player and pretty outspoken. As soon as he discovered that the opposition hit all the balls to Harry and not to him, he became very outspoken. He did not realize that real estate people always seek the odds in their favor, so they would not hit the ball to Joe. Finally he got mad and sat down in the middle of his court and dared them to hit the ball to him while sitting.
Finally Harry went to him to pacify him and said: Joe, I promise you I will get as good or better than you and they will then hit all the balls to you.”
The only promise I know Harry never kept.
One day some 25 years ago Harry said something so profound that I wrote it down and started to use it myself, so much so that when about 15 years ago I wrote a little book of Old Hungarian Sayings, short sentences based on long experience, I included it. When I explained it to Harry he said it was OK. So it wasn’t an Old Hungarian Saying at least it was said by an old Hungarian.
Harry said:” The heart is just a muscle, use it or it will atrophy.” Harry could be reached through his heart and he would reach others with his heart.
And then came the day that broke his heart. The loss of his beloved Sandy. Weeks passed and one day Harry came to me and said: “I am worried, I just can’t cry. They all tell me it would better if I’d cry but I just can’t.”
So I told him something that I rarely spoken of before not even to my children:” Harry, my father died in the gas chamber at Auschwitz, my mother was thrown alive into the fire pits at Birkenau, because they had too many people for the gas chambers to handle, so they threw children and the sick into the burning pits. My sister died of starvation in Bergen Belsen while I was there searching for her among the thousands of sick and dying and I saw many of my comrades, friends die horrible deaths, but I could not cry for years. So don’t worry, the time will come when you will cry.” Harry thanked me for telling him and he had tears in his eyes for my sorrow.
So many of us would like to have an opportunity to talk about what he has done for us and what he meant to us but there is not enough time. So Harry will miss the Breakfast Club’s 5186th meeting next Wednesday, which we will dedicate to his memory and where we will record and enumerate the deeds of our founder and our friend for Edie, Bonnie, Robin and Hayley
But Harry has been busy since Saturday morning. You see he finally arrived to the Eternal Breakfast Club whose members have been waiting for him for long time. There were hugs and handshakes and a joyous reunion of old friends. Everyone was eagerly waiting for the latest news. Dave Luftig has waited the longest and Harry now can sit again next to Billy Dinerstein, Ira Berne, Joe Javor, Charlie Swain, Ronnie Finger, Ralph Shirley, John McDonald, Jimmy Lions, Jim Tunnel, Chris Duerr, Lee Wiley, Buddy Lander, Harry Levin, Bill Schlottfeld, Homer Jackson…What a Breakfast Club group!
He will have a lot to tell them. Except jokes. He could never remember them.
And Harry will tell them that we are all coming to join. So Harry, my brother, rest in peace and keep a seat for us and the coffee warm. So long until we see you at breakfast again.
THIS IS A SPEECH I AM MAKING TO THE LIONS CLUB ON 10/23/03
We are at war. For those of us who have lived through World War II there is hardly any evidence of the sacrifice demanded of the nation by a war. Standing in longer lines at the airport watching the asinine non-profiling security measures are not a sacrifice but an annoyance at best and at worst, anger at our leaders for removing judgment and replacing it with rules designed on the idiot level.
It appears that we have not been asked to sacrifice in the war effort. We made, however, a major sacrifice that few of us realize. This sacrifice is a very important one because we gave up something for which we fought for over 200 years and what we would not allow anyone to take away from us.
When Congress passed the USA Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act it suspended some of the Bill of Rights in order to be able to fight the terrorists. But this has happened before in our recent history. After Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt rounded up more than 100,000 Japanese residents and citizens and put them in internment camps. In view of current attacks by liberals on the Bush Administration it is worth noting that the great liberals of the time, FDR and Earl Warren, instituted the internment of Japanese-Americans. Some of you may even remember or have heard of the Palmer raids in the ‘20s when more than 6,000 people were arrested and imprisoned by another great liberal Woodrow Wilson.
Compare this to the response to the worst terrorist attack in the history of the world right here on U.S. soil, which resulted in the detention of fewer than a thousand Middle Eastern immigrants.
We are faced with a much more difficult task than FDR because Pearl Harbor was launched by the Japanese Empire, a foreign country and not by Japanese-Americans living in California. The 9-11 Muslim terrorists, by contrast, were not only living in the United States but, until the attack, had broken hardly any laws at all. They couldn’t even have been stopped while boarding the airplanes with their box-cutters, because we had no laws against terrorism until the Patriot Act.
The enemy lives among us. He is the guerilla supported by his community hiding and protecting him. He feels safe. Week after week he hears inciting words from the clerics in mosques and never hears any condemnation from his community.
As a former guerilla fighter I fear this enemy more than most of you because I understand that we are not fighting terrorists, but we are fighting an idea that has been trying to destroy us for a long time. In my book, THE DUAL PALINDROME, published in 2002 (ISBN 1-59109-335-X) illustrated by the children of FISD, I listed the evidence that Islam has been conducting a Jihad for the destruction of western civilization for more than a thousand years.
A few weeks following the 9/11 attack I issued a warning news release that the news media refused to publish, but one that you would now believe. We are fighting a guerilla war and regardless how many we kill, the idea that motivates these terrorists cannot be killed. You can only kill or replace an idea by coming up with a better idea.
We do have a better idea contained in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. This is the idea that would overcome the self destructive, inhuman aggression driving these fanatic terrorists. Therefore it is a major sacrifice to even temporarily suspend any part of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But this is the real sacrifice we are making and you should be aware of it.
Unfortunately you’ll hear more in the media about the underwear Kobe Bryant’s accuser is wearing than what the PATRIOT ACT means, or what it has accomplished. You may also hear a barrage of attacks on the PATRIOT ACT.
It is true that if you are classified as an “enemy combatant,” you could be taken from your home, imprisoned indefinitely, without notice to your family and without access to a lawyer. With Hitler and Stalin this was national policy against their own people. With us it has been applied so far judiciously and with few mistakes.
The results, however, are astonishing. For 2 years now we have been able to prevent another attack by terrorists who are sworn to destroy us. Yet we have no internment camps, no mass arrests. Instead of being a menace to law-abiding U.S. citizens, the PATRIOT ACT is credited with aiding a sting operation that apprehended alleged Islamic terrorists at a hotel in Germany, for example, as well as assisting the dismantling of alleged terrorist cells in Buffalo, Detroit, Seattle, and Portland. One of the suspected Portland terrorists reportedly was overheard complaining about the Patriot Act's effectiveness in scaring away potential financial contributors who feared the new legal consequences. With money sources cut of by intelligence agencies acting under the PATRIOT ACT, the enemy is disorganized but not eliminated. It would be totally irresponsible to stop our interception and obstruction of terrorist plans. Being nice to them will not make our enemies nice to us.
The USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym for UNITING AND STRENTHENING AMERICA BY PROVIDING APPROPRIATE TOOLS REQUIRED TO INTERCEPT AND OBSTRUCT TERRORISM. Here are some major provisions of the Act.
(SEE PREVIOUS BLOG)
Now let us look at the dangers the PATRIOT ACT created. This is how the King of England ruled. People could be tried and put through the agony of unjust prosecution at the whim of the Crown, the State, and the Government. The founding fathers made sure that innocent citizens are protected from such unjust prosecution and the 5th Amendment expressly provides for a grand jury to protect the innocent. It provides:
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.”
The Grand Jury is the sword and shield of justice…a sword, because it can investigate crime and indict criminals…a shield, because its secret and non-public nature, it can protect the innocent against unjust prosecution.
Faced with an enemy that has infiltrated our country and lives among us, we made a deliberate, patriotic and historic sacrifice when Congress passed and the President signed the PATRIOT ACT. Time will tell if it will diminish the foundation of our national concept of liberty and justice. But we know that those living under Muslim rule certainly have neither liberty nor justice.
We must be vigilant, however, to make sure that the people we gave these unlimited powers to use, will use them properly and not abuse them. More than ever in our history we must carefully scrutinize who we elect to public office, to judgeships, to law enforcement leadership because we gave them unlimited powers to use and potentially to abuse and by doing so seriously impair our idea of a government by the people and for the people. We need that idea to be upheld and be victorious so we can defeat the ideas of the terrorists and their sympathizers.
I believe these attacks on the PATRIOT ACT will diminish either by the end of the presidential election campaign or by another terrorist attack on American soil. I further believe that the time will come when we finally will openly admit what the rest of the world talks about daily in their news media, on their TV and radio and what should be obvious to all of us. This enemy is bigger than any threat ever faced by this nation and just like the communist threat in the last century; it is ignored by useful idiots and dismissed by traitors among us. Instead of facing up openly what the Administration knows well secretly, we still live in a make believe world of political correctness. Cal Thomas wrote this a few days ago that the problem could be illustrated this way:
There are two dogs. One is vicious and the other friendly. The vicious dog regularly attacks the friendly dog. The owner of the friendly dog decides to muzzle his dog to show the other dog that the friendly dog means no harm. The vicious dog sees his opportunity and kills the muzzled friendly dog.
The PATRIOT ACT removed the muzzle. Now we need leaders in Washington to remove the leash. We just finished two wars involving power. Nobody is our match in such wars. Now our enemies are waging a "war of wills" instead.
Do we have the resolve, the staying power, the stomach to prevail in a war of wills, a war in which the enemy takes no turf but may manage to murder one American solider every day, blow up buildings or bridges periodically and attack us here at home with suicide missions? It's President’s job to see that we do. If he fails, Americans may choose to retreat from this war. That wouldn't be a new policy. It would be a return to the policy that we followed for more than 20 years, when Republican and Democratic administrations alike responded to terrorism (e.g. in Tehran in 1979, in Beirut in 1983, above Lockerbie in 1988, in Mogadishu and at the World Trade Towers in 1993, in Saudi Arabia in 1996, in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, off the coast of Yemen in 2000) by running away and by attempting to appease the terrorists. That policy encouraged more terrorism and led directly to the terrorist atrocities of September 11, 2001. It was on that date that we finally began to seriously fight back using our power.
The question now is do we continue to fight - or do we cut and run, as both Saddam and Osama bin Laden have always predicted that Americans will whenever they are faced with a ruthless and determined opponent. If we back down or back away, we may save the lives of some American soldiers in the present, but have no illusions: We'll be sending a message that terrorism works against us, and both our enemies and our friends will understand the implications -- and act on them.
The vicious dogs are out there just waiting.
Attacks on the PATRIOT ACT forced me to find out more about it. It is important for you to understand what it does before you fall for phoney attacks.
The USA PATRIOT Act
Preserving Life and Liberty
(Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism)
Congress enacted the Patriot Act by overwhelming, bipartisan margins, arming law enforcement with new tools to detect and prevent terrorism: The USA Patriot Act was passed nearly unanimously by the Senate 98-1, and 357�66 in the House, with the support of members from across the political spectrum.
The Act Improves Our Counter-Terrorism Efforts in Several Significant Ways:
1. The Patriot Act allows investigators to use the tools that were already available to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking. Many of the tools the Act provides to law enforcement to fight terrorism have been used for decades to fight organized crime and drug dealers, and have been reviewed and approved by the courts. As Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) explained during the floor debate about the Act, �the FBI could get a wiretap to investigate the mafia, but they could not get one to investigate terrorists. To put it bluntly, that was crazy! What�s good for the mob should be good for terrorists.� (Cong. Rec., 10/25/01)
* Allows law enforcement to use surveillance against more crimes of terror. Before the Patriot Act, courts could permit law enforcement to conduct electronic surveillance to investigate many ordinary, non-terrorism crimes, such as drug crimes, mail fraud, and passport fraud. Agents also could obtain wiretaps to investigate some, but not all, of the crimes that terrorists often commit. The Act enabled investigators to gather information when looking into the full range of terrorism-related crimes, including: chemical-weapons offenses, the use of weapons of mass destruction, killing Americans abroad, and terrorism financing.
* Allow federal agents to follow sophisticated terrorists trained to evade detection. For years, law enforcement has been able to use �roving wiretaps� to investigate ordinary crimes, including drug offenses and racketeering. A roving wiretap can be authorized by a federal judge to apply to a particular suspect, rather than a particular phone or communications device. Because international terrorists are sophisticated and trained to thwart surveillance by rapidly changing locations and communication devices such as cell phones, the Act authorized agents to seek court permission to use the same techniques in national security investigations to track terrorists.
* Allows law enforcement to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists. In some cases if criminals are tipped off too early to an investigation, they might flee, destroy evidence, intimidate or kill witnesses, cut off contact with associates, or take other action to evade arrest. Therefore, federal courts in narrow circumstances long have allowed law enforcement to delay for a limited time when the subject is told that a judicially approved search warrant has been executed. Notice is always provided, but the reasonable delay gives law enforcement time to identify the criminal�s associates, eliminate immediate threats to our communities, and coordinate the arrests of multiple individuals without tipping them off beforehand. These delayed notification search warrants have been used for decades, have proven crucial in drug and organized crime cases, and have been upheld by courts as fully constitutional.
* Allow federal agents to ask a court for an order to obtain business records in national security terrorism cases. Examining business records often provides the key that investigators are looking for to solve a wide range of crimes. Investigators might seek select records from hardware stores or chemical plants, for example, to find out who bought materials to make a bomb, or bank records to see who�s sending money to terrorists. Law enforcement authorities have always been able to obtain business records in criminal cases through grand jury subpoenas, and continue to do so in national security cases where appropriate. These records were sought in criminal cases such as the investigation of the Zodiac gunman, where police suspected the gunman was inspired by a Scottish occult poet, and wanted to learn who had checked the poet�s books out of the library. In national security cases where use of the grand jury process was not appropriate, investigators previously had limited tools at their disposal to obtain certain business records. Under the Patriot Act, the government can now ask a federal court (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), if needed to aid an investigation, to order production of the same type of records available through grand jury subpoenas. This federal court, however, can issue these orders only after the government demonstrates the records concerned are sought for an authorized investigation to obtain foreign intelligence information not concerning a U.S. person or to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such investigation of a U.S. person is not conducted solely on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment.
2. The Patriot Act facilitated information sharing and cooperation among government agencies so that they can better �connect the dots.� The Act removed the major legal barriers that prevented the law enforcement, intelligence, and national defense communities from talking and coordinating their work to protect the American people and our national security. Boxes on an organizational chart should not restrict the government�s prevention efforts. Now police officers, FBI agents, federal prosecutors and intelligence officials can protect our communities by �connecting the dots� to uncover terrorist plots before they are completed. As Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) said about the Patriot Act, �we simply cannot prevail in the battle against terrorism if the right hand of our government has no idea what the left hand is doing.� (Press release, 10/26/01)
* Prosecutors can now share evidence obtained through grand juries with intelligence officials -- and intelligence information can now be shared more easily with federal prosecutors. Such sharing of information leads to concrete results. For example, a federal grand jury recently indicted an individual in Florida, Sami al-Arian, for allegedly being the U.S. leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, one of the world�s most violent terrorist outfits. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is responsible for murdering more than 100 innocent people, including a young American named Alisa Flatow who was killed in a tragic bus bombing in Gaza. The Patriot Act assisted us in obtaining the indictment by enabling the full sharing of information and advice about the case among prosecutors and investigators. Alisa�s father, Steven Flatow, has said, �When you know the resources of your government are committed to right the wrongs committed against your daughter, that instills you with a sense of awe. As a father you can�t ask for anything more.�
3. The Patriot Act updated the law to reflect new technologies and new threats. The Act brought the law up to date with current technology, so we no longer have to fight a digital-age battle with antique weapons�legal authorities leftover from the era of rotary telephones. When investigating the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, for example, law enforcement used one of the Act�s new authorities to use high-tech means to identify and locate some of the killers.
* Allow law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant anywhere a terrorist-related activity occurred. Before the Patriot Act, law enforcement personnel were required to obtain a search warrant in the district where they intended to conduct a search. However, modern terrorism investigations often span a number of districts, and officers therefore had to obtain multiple warrants in multiple jurisdictions, creating unnecessary delays. The Act provides that warrants can be obtained in any district in which terrorism-related activities occurred, regardless of where they will be executed. This provision does not change the standards governing the availability of a search warrant, but streamlines the search-warrant process.
* Allow victims of computer hacking to request law enforcement assistance in monitoring the �trespassers� on their computers. This change made the law technology-neutral; it placed electronic trespassers on the same footing as physical trespassers. Now, hacking victims can seek law enforcement assistance to combat hackers, just as burglary victims have been able to invite officers into their homes to catch burglars.
4. The Patriot Act increased the penalties for those who commit terrorist crimes. Americans are threatened as much by the terrorist who pays for a bomb as by the one who pushes the button. That�s why the Patriot Act imposed tough new penalties on those who commit and support terrorist operations, both at home and abroad. In particular, the Act:
* Prohibits the harboring of terrorists. The Act created a new offense that prohibits knowingly harboring persons who have committed or are about to commit a variety of terrorist offenses, such as: destruction of aircraft; use of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons; use of weapons of mass destruction; bombing of government property; sabotage of nuclear facilities; and aircraft piracy.
* Enhanced the inadequate maximum penalties for various crimes likely to be committed by terrorists: including arson, destruction of energy facilities, material support to terrorists and terrorist organizations, and destruction of national-defense materials.
* Enhanced a number of conspiracy penalties, including for arson, killings in federal facilities, attacking communications systems, material support to terrorists, sabotage of nuclear facilities, and interference with flight crewmembers. Under previous law, many terrorism statutes did not specifically prohibit engaging in conspiracies to commit the underlying offenses. In such cases, the government could only bring prosecutions under the general federal conspiracy provision, which carries a maximum penalty of only five years in prison.
* Punishes terrorist attacks on mass transit systems.
* Punishes bioterrorists.
* Eliminates the statutes of limitations for certain terrorism crimes and lengthens them for other terrorist crimes.
The government�s success in preventing another catastrophic attack on the American homeland since September 11, 2001, would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, without the USA Patriot Act. The authorities Congress provided have substantially enhanced our ability to prevent, investigate, and prosecute acts of terror.
I COPIED IT FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT
> > > It's once again time to review the winners of the
> > annual Stella awards. The
> > > Stellas are named after 81 year old Stella Liebeck
> > who spilled coffee on
> > > herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That
> > case inspired the Stella
> > > Awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits
> > in the United States.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately the most recent lawsuit implicating
> > McDonald's, the teens
> > > who allege that eating at McDonald's has made them
> > fat, was filed after
> > > the 2002 award voting was closed. This suit will
> > top the 2003 awards
> > > list without question.
> > >
> > > 5th Place (Tied) - Kathleen Robertson of Austin,
> > Texas, was awarded
> > > $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her
> > ankle tripping over a
> > > toddler who was running inside a furniture store.
> > The owners of the
> > > store were understandably surprised at the
> > verdict, considering the
> > > misbehaving toddler was Ms Robertson's Son.
> > >
> > > 5th Place (Tied) - 19 year old Carl Truman of Los
> > Angeles won $74,000
> > > and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over
> > his hand with a Honda
> > > Accord. Mr. Truman apparently did not notice there
> > was someone at the wheel
> > > of the car when he was trying to steal the
> > hubcaps.
> > >
> > > 5th Place (Tied) - Terrence Dickson of Bristol,
> > Pennsylvania, was
> > > leaving a house he had just finished robbing by
> > way of the garage. He was
> > > not able to get the garage door to go up since the
> > automatic door opener was
> > > malfunctioning. He could not re-enter the house
> > because the door connecting
> > > the house and garage locked when he pulled it
> > shut. The family was on
> > > vacation and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in
> > the garage for 8 days.
> > > He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found and a
> > large bag of dry dog
> > > food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming
> > the situation caused
> > > him undue mental anguish. The Jury agreed to the
> > tune of $500,000.
> > >
> > > 4th Place - Jerry Williams of Little Rock,
> > Arkansas, was awarded $14,500
> > > and medical expenses after being bitten on the
> > buttocks by his next door
> > > neighbor's Beagle dog. The Beagle was on a chain
> > in its owner's fenced
> > > yard. The award was less than sought because the
> > jury felt the dog might
> > > have
> > > been a little provoked at the time as Mr. Williams
> > who had climbed over
> > > the fence into the yard was shooting it repeatedly
> > with a pellet gun.
> > >
> > > 3rd Place - A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered
> > to pay Amber Carson
> > > of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she
> > slipped on a soft drink and
> > > broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on
> > the floor because Ms.
> > > Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds
> > earlier during an
> > > argument.
> > >
> > > 2nd Place - Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware,
> > sued the owner of a Night
> > > Club in a neighboring city when she fell from the
> > bathroom window to the
> > > floor and knocked out two of her front teeth. This
> > occurred whilst Ms.
> > > Walton was trying to sneak out of the window in
> > the Ladies Room to avoid
> > > paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded
> > $12,000 and dental
> > > expenses.
> > >
> > > 1st Place - This year's runaway winner was Mr.
> > Merv Grazinski of
> > > Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a
> > brand new Winnebago
> > > Motor Home. On his trip home from an OU football
> > game, having driven onto
> > > the
> > > Freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and
> > calmly left the drivers
> > > seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of
> > coffee. Not surprisingly
> > > the RV left the Freeway, crashed and overturned.
> > Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago
> > > for not advising him in the owner's manual that he
> > could not actually do
> > > this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new
> > Winnebago Motor Home. The
> > > company actually changed their manuals on the
> > basis of this suit just in
> > > case there were any other complete morons buying
> > their recreation
> > > vehicles
The following has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA. The guy should run for President.....
"We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden, delusional and other liberal bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights."
ARTICLE I:
You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II:
You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be ... and like the rest of us you need to simply deal with it.
ARTICLE III: (I like this one!)
You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV:
You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.
ARTICLE V:
You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI:
You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII:
You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV, pool tables, weight rooms or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII:
You don't have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of part time jobs, education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
ARTICLE IX:
You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness --which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over- abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the "Bill of Rights,"
ARTICLE X:
This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from. We welcome you here. English is our language and like the one you left behind, we also have a culture. Learn it or go back to the country and the living conditions you were fleeing.
If you agree, share this with a friend. No, you don't have to, and nothing tragic will befall you if you don't.. I just think it is about time common sense is allowed to flourish -- just call it "The Age of Reason Revisited"
__
For those of you who are complaining on how long the war is taking but consider
this:
1) It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the
Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.
2) It took less time to find evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq than it
took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
3) It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to
destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Teddy Kennedy to call
the police after his Oldsmobile sunk at Chappaquiddick.
4) It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in
Florida!!!!!!
Isn't our military is GREAT?!
FOR A CHANGE OF PACE JOIN ME AT MY LAKE WHERE I SPEND ALMOST EVERY EVENING WHILE WALKING MY DOG.
SILENCE AT SUNSET © 9/5/02
Revised July 2003
I sit on the bench at the edge of the lake
Trying to comprehend what I see.
Water surges to shore wave after wave
The sounds gently encircling me.
I can feel the pulse beat of the dusky air
Hushing the noises from everywhere.
The sun has turned into a big orange ball
Lighting up the thousands of passer-by
Purple-bottomed gray sheep climbing the wall
Of blue mountains of transparent sky.
Like cotton candy torn by a huge hand
Fractured curtains of reddish clouds hang.
White egrets fly towards their evening rest
Brilliant white against the dark green,
Silently majestic as they head for their nest
With the oak forest a magnificent screen.
After a day in the fields with horses and cattle
Feeding on grasshoppers in the survival battle.
It is the deserved rest they are all seeking
In the safety of branches of a forest long dead.
After the hard labor it is peace of the evening
In the flooded forest still inhabited.
Settling birds like shimmering snow
Feeding the fish in the branches below.
The colors of burnt orange take on a red tint.
It is the smoke and dust of far away places,
Volcanoes and fires deliver a hint
Of endless wars, traffic jams, and other disgraces.
Their coded message quite bewildering:
This beauty is created by human suffering.
Highflying birds seem black in the sky.
In my heart and my mind I know they are white.
Why do they seem black the higher they fly?
When they reach home it will be set right.
The rush hour flying to get home to the nest
Is over. All is well. It is now time to rest.
The sun is gone down but the sky still remembers
It ‘s still glowing red and as clouds turn to gray
The pulse of the waves conquers the stillness
The air becomes visible in a dazzling display.
I’m slowly beginning to comprehend:
The cycle is completed by the day’s end
The birds are at home. White, black, it’s the same
The chatter of sounds, the splash of fish feeding
No time for regrets, no time-out to blame
The day is gone forever, it is now the evening.
The orchestra of frogs waits with joy and with fear
For the unstoppable darkness, like a ghost, to appear
The first bright planet unblinkingly glows
As the cosmos slowly displays its dead trees.
Trillions of Suns, galaxies, asteroids
Dead planets, black holes that nobody sees.
Noiselessly they fill the endless horizon
Beyond human understanding but for a good reason
Waiting for us to come home, with joy and with fear
After our existence with enabling hosts.
In groups or alone, from far and from near,
Embraced and absorbed by the dark silent ghost.
In stillness we’ll enter the eternal night
Of dead forest of galaxies where all will be right.
FACTS VS. PERCEPTION OF FACTS
First let me quote from my book THE DUAL PALINDROME©
“The past cannot be changed. Yet nothing changes more constantly than our understanding of the past. For the past, that influences our lives, does not consist of what actually happened, but how we now perceive what has happened. Just as pictures drawn by children reflect their limited knowledge of facts, an adult who ignores the past will always remain a child.
We are sometimes shocked by the rapid change that is brought upon us by events such as the tragedy of 9/11. The knowledge of history cushions this shock because historical facts provide an early warning system that gets us ready for the future. And it is in the future where we’ll spend the rest of our life.
How far can you look into the future? Not too far. Perhaps days, months or rarely years. Our view of the past, however, is unlimited. While we cannot change the past, we can better understand it; so that we can better understand the future and change it.”
We live in a dumbed down society that can only tolerate sound bite facts and is not interested in the truth. Let me give you a few examples.
IN WORLD WAR II THE GREAT DEMOCRACIES DEFEATED THE TOTALITARIAN GERMAN AND JAPANESE FASCISTS.
FACT: Neither the USA, nor Britain, nor the Soviet Union were a democracy.
Britain was a monarchy ruled by a Queen; the Soviet Union was a Socialist Republic ruled by a tyrant and the United States was a Constitutional Republic.
Germany was a Socialist Republic and Japan was a theocracy ruled by a god like king.
THE UNITED STATES IS A DEMOCRACY
FACT: If that were true we would have President Gore at the White House. The word democracy does not appear anywhere in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, nor has there been any election ever held where the people decided to change our form of government from a Republic to a democracy. There are no court decisions or laws that have ever declared that we are a democracy. The closest we come to it is when Rush Limbaugh calls himself the doctor of democracy without disclosing whether he functions as a pathologist, or proctologist.
Recall elections come as close to the concept of democracy as can be tolerated in a Republic. They should, however, be never allowed where the target of the recall was elected indirectly through representatives. The President is elected through such representatives and his recall by popular vote should be illegal.
THE PATRIOT ACT IS NECESSARY TO FIGHT TERRORISTS AND ENEMIES DURING THE WAR.
FACT: The loss of some civil rights by terrorists and enemies seems acceptable in time of war. The problem arises from the lack of definition who these terrorists and enemies are. We should pass laws that make the abuse of the Patriot Act for unlawful purposes be considered a treasonous act and heavily punished. Unscrupulous prosecutors are using anti-terrorist laws to deny the civil rights of non-terrorist suspects and even use it in retaliatory acts against personal, business and political opponents.
More later.
