The Newell Post

I love cliches. They’re so pithy and there’s nothing quite like pith when all is said and done. Some cliches sound like Yogiisms which may make us smile or groan but we, nevertheless, get the point of the statement which doesn’t always happen during Presidential debates.

The Jury’s still out. What a great cliche that is! It not only gets to the heart of the matter but instantly we have a mental image of a courtroom with an empty jury box and an anxious defendant and a courtroom full of people awaiting The Verdict. My mind actually creates the jury room in Twelve Angry Men. During the recent Obama-Romney debate I envisioned Henry Fonda urging me to not jump to conclusions, to examine the evidence, to be patient enough to allow the truth to will out.

It’s hard to ignore Henry when he is forceful. Even the cynical Jack Warden, with whom I can really sympathize because he is in a rush to go to a Yankee game, or Lee J. Cobb, the angriest of the Angry Men, cannot convince me that Obama is guilty of doing nothing for the last four years. It is because of this that, in my mind, The Jury Is Still Out. The trouble is Judgement Day is nigh.

My biggest disappointment with Obama is something Romney pointed out during the first debate. Instead of focusing on health care reform, Obama should have been doing more to create jobs and get the country back on its economic feet. I felt that if you get people back to work health insurance for these people would follow. I understood the situation, the historic alignment of Congress in the President’s favor. Obama had the votes to do something that hadn’t been done before and he chose to use this opportunity to create his legacy right out of the chute. Whether he was correct to do this cannot be determined yet. The Jury Is Still Out.

The trouble with undertakings as monumental as trying to fix health care is that these things take time. Obama’s attempting to deal with an issue that Presidents have been dodging for years. How often have we heard that Social Security is the third rail of politics? You touch it and you die. The same is true about Medicare and Medicaid. But it’s time that someone deal with them and Obama did just that and it may cost him re-election but maybe it shouldn’t?

Maybe we all have to come to the realization that important matters cannot be solved over night. Maybe we have to give these things some time? Maybe our ADHD inflicted society must just have a little patience and hope? Just maybe Obama was right. Maybe Obamacare will save Medicare and Medicaid and reform health care. The Jury may still be out but Henry Fonda has convinced me to be patient and to look at the evidence one more time. The Jury may be changing in favor of Obama.

I Believe

I believe in The New York Yankees, Champions of Heaven and Earth

I believe in Derek Jeter, our fallen son, The Clutch Hitter Almighty

I Believe in Mariano, Saver of All Time

I Believe In AROD, but I don’t know why.

I Believe in Cano, Doncha Know, who has been dead for Three Days but will Rise in The Motor City.

I Believe in Andy, who has Testified and been reborn.

I Believe in Granderson, the Grandy Man Can’t, who never saw a baseball he couldn’t swing at and miss.

I Believe in Swisher, the soon to be former Yankee, who Swishes when he hits and when he fails to catch.

I Believe, I really do Believe, The Tiger shall be tamed and the New York Yankees will remain Victorious for ever and ever.

Amen

Just sixteen days from today I have to make a major decision. The outcome of my decision may not amount to much and I know that but I still want to make the right decision. I don’t want to be wrong. At the least I want to be able to say I told you so. The trouble is I haven’t got a clue. The bigger trouble is neither does anyone else.

That is why sixteen days away from the Presidential Election I still don’t know who I will vote for.

The debates have not provided anything new. Both candidates look happy if not smug when the other is speaking as if to imply that the other is so full of bullshit that it’s laughable. I would laugh too were it not for the fact that I don’t think I will be able to move out of the country to find a better place to live.

Neither candidate inspires the confidence that leads me to believe that we will be in a better position in four years. Neither has a plan, or has outlined a plan, that you can even pick apart and attack. All I keep saying at the end of their speeches is Just Gimme Some Truth.

My nephew Chip and my niece Marybeth posted a video on Facebook last week that may have been the most depressing thing I have ever seen. The upshot of the video was that Congress cannot possibly balance the budget without excruciatingly high taxes. The point was made that even if you eliminate all discretionary federal spending, including Homeland Security, all Defense spending, everything but entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, you cannot balance the budget. The reason being that when you add those costs to the interest due on the national debt you already exceed all tax revenues collected.

Let me state that again. The government could shut down except for those entitlement programs and we are still in the red.

Is this the truth? If it is, we are cooked. If it is, there is no way that we can continue as a nation without significantly raising taxes and significantly cutting entitlement programs. Yet, neither candidate is saying this.

One of the things that I have stated time and time again is that, while we have waged two wars that have cost trillions of dollars and that may or may not have secured our safety, there has been no equivalent economic pain at home. Sure, we have had the financial collapse but that had nothing to do directly with the wars. The economy itself was allowed to self-destruct. If you talk to people who were around during World War II, that was not the case back then.

I remember hearing stories about rationing and manufacturers switching over their production lines to war time necessities. Consumer products were for the most part put on hold while companies made items related to waging war. Even civilians had a role in the war. Today, no such effect has been felt by those of us at home.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been the singular responsibility of our servicepeople. Men and women in the military are the sole combatants and have been the only ones, along with their families and friends, who have felt the impact of war.

While these wars were waged, millions went to baseball and football games. Millions went to college, although the cost has really skyrocketed. Millions went to Disney and complained about the long lines. And yes, gasoline and home heating oil prices have gone through the roof. But there were no paper drives; no tire drives; no War Bond sales; what we did have was a lot of finger pointing and bellyaching. Now all I have to say is, Just Gimme Some Truth.

Which candidate will tell me that he has an energy plan like T Boone Pickens who claims that America has twice the barrel equivalent of Saudi Oil in natural gas resources? Which candidate is going to tell me that we all have to feel the pain in order to bring our nation back? Which candidate will tell me that parents have to bear the responsibility to raise their children and to prepare them for school? Which candidate is going to tell me that the prospect of retiring when I am sixty six is a complete and utter fantasy? Which candidate will cut entitlements and raise taxes on all of us?

Just Gimme Some Truth!

Every time I hear “You can’t have your cake and eat it too” I reply, “Then what do we do with this cake?”

Of course we can have our cake and eat it to. We just may have to settle for a smaller slice is all. This should be easy for us all to accept, well maybe Rep. Akin will have some difficulty but then he can just squeeze away and voila! No more cake.

 Would that we all had this physiological capability, to make things disappear. I really could have used this Physiological Delete Button or as I like to call it “PDB” when I was listening to the Jet game while I was driving home from the Yankee game Saturday night. How great would it be to be able to delete unpleasant memories or events and their effects? It is certainly an ability that R hopes we have.

I mean all the campaign funds in the world wont be as effective in modifying our collective memories as the PDB. Hopefully for R, we will forget that we actually had a surplus of tax dollars before W set out looking for WMDs in the wrong country. It will, of course,  be useful for us to forget that the financial mess that has been lingering for five years actually started the year before O was elected. But then O has some use for the PDB, too.

After all, O swept us all off our feet with his suave demeanor and Clintonesque rhetoric. I am a sucker for a good speech but even I am getting a little bit suspicious of these guys who just  talk a good game. I mean come on do something. Electrify us with ideas not just words. O had every opportunity to propose job programs and to set lofty goals that just might have caught on but instead we have Obama Care and no one is really sure what that will mean for any of us.

O cannot even take on the NRA even after the terrible acts of violence that have stunned us all to sleep while would be gun enthusiasts buy six thousand rounds online. But then R hasn’t said that much either.

R does have a great smile, though, doesn’t he? I laugh when I hear women (you know who you are) say that R is good looking. He looks like an alien, not the undocumented variety but the HG Wells, Alien Nation type. He really creeps me out and once he actually comes out with a plan I will then consider his politics but for now I guess we have to just listen to Rep Ryan Rage Against the Constitutional Machine to know what the issues are.

As a kid I used to hate this time of year. It was still summer and I was still on vacation but you knew it was going fast and, before long, you would be going back to school. I used to really hate the first few days of school because school had that hot, musty, new-books smell. I am getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

It was always around this time that you would start to hear the Robert Hall jingle, “School bells ring and, children sing. It’s back to Robert Hall again” and so on. It was on TV and every radio station. It was the 50’s version of Staples playing “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, “except I never laughed at the Robert Hall ad.

Now I hate how it has already started to get darker early. I am barely home from work and the sun has already set. Ok, I do get home late but still, taking an outdoor shower at twilight isn’t that nice. Just another reminder of the waning of summertime. There was a time when I didn’t mind going back to school, though.

When I was a teacher I was ready to go back to school right after the Fourth of July weekend. Teaching at St. Vito’s was a terrific experience and I hated when school was out of session. Ok, I might have missed the after school sessions at the Ground Round but I missed teaching too. Back then the first day of the school year was New Year’s Day. I might have said Happy New Year to my kids but who remembers?

Perhaps the worse thing about this time of year is knowing that the election is coming and that means we will be bombarded with bellowing, billowing, bombastic bullshit from both the left and the right. I really hope they don’t over do it with the lies and threats and predictions of doom and gloom if the other guy wins. I’m done with both of them.

Yesterday I was reading about O and how he has an issue with not being able to show gratitude and appreciation to campaign workers. It’s even a problem for him to thank donors. Is this guy a child of the Entitlement Generation? Then you have R who supports For Profit colleges because they are on his donor list but he doesn’t mention that these same colleges are ripping off our Vets as well as other students. So, I haven’t a clue as to whom I will vote for.

But just as the Lord Taketh, He also Giveth because just as the summer starts to end, professional football starts to begin. What better way to end your days of summer fun than by reading about the New York Jets beating the crap out of each other? I mean, that’s how you get to the Super Bowl isn’t it? The Jets may not have two guys that can catch a pass but they can duke it out with the best of ‘em. I wonder where Tebow was when the fracas broke out?

The baseball playoffs will also be coming up and, though, the Yankees have not been playing all that well, I still have high hopes that we will once again vie for another World Series title. The Autumn Classic! I always thought that was a Bronx Entitlement Program.

I have some kind of sinus thing going on. I have a splitting headache and it seems to be emanating from my sinuses. Wishing to alleviate my suffering, I went to a Walgreens near where I work. I go to the appropriate aisle for sinus medications and select the product that will give me some relief. Except, it wasn’t the product. It was a card with a picture of the product.

You see, Crankers use this and similar medications to manufacture meth. You know what meth is? It is the drug of choice for people who want to stay high for days on end and no longer care that their hair falls out to say nothing of their teeth. So, because of these cretins, I have to take this card with the picture of my selected sinus medication back to the counter where the real thing is securely kept out of the reach of nasal sufferers.

In order to obtain the medication I had to show my drivers license. I asked if I had to take my shoes off too. The clerk was not amused. But this little interlude got me thinking. Why do we have to put up with so much bullshit because of the morons who are doing bad things? Why do we have to succumb to evil?

Think about all the things we have to do in order to live in what we call a civilization. You know there are areas where you just shouldn’t walk alone at night. You probably should stay off the subways after 1 AM. My own rule is don’t ride the subway after the evening rush but that’s me. I go to a Yankee game and I have to take off my Yankee cap to show I don’t have any explosives hidden under my interlocking NY. I have to have my cell phone operational to show that I am not using it for an illegal purpose.

Then, I go to get a Blue Moon and I have to show that I am of legal age to purchase it. Ok, the first time that happened I was flattered, but come on! What’s going on here?

Here are some other inanities that we have to endure because of the evil people in the world:

We have to take off our shoes and submit to full body scans at the airport.

We have to put up with the snotty TSA personnel after they make us take off our shoes.

We have to change our passwords to various sites every other week (it seems).

We can’t go to a stinking movie without worrying that some nut job is going to pull out an automatic weapon. (I don’t know about you but I will wait until the new Batman movie comes out on Netflix.)

We can’t go to a sporting even without worrying about drunken idiots attacking us for wearing the wrong shirt or cap.

We can’t go just about anywhere without being recorded or videoed or otherwise having our privacy invaded.

We can’t drive our car without being scanned or under surveillance for DWI, driving unseatbelted, or running a red light or maybe driving an unregistered car without insurance.

I am sure you can add to this list because new invasions or forced accommodations to evil are added every day.

The real trouble is we really don’t mind. It is more important to us to enjoy the semblance of security and personal safety than to worry about surrendering personal liberties. We are only too happy to have ourselves scanned and patted down so that we can fly the friendly skies. We don’t mind surveillance cameras in department stores because we understand the need to watch for shop lifters. We give in because we understand there is evil out there and someone has to be on the lookout for it. But think about the costs that we have to absorb because of evil people.

I can understand why gun owners are angry when they have to deal with restrictions and background checks but they have to put up with it because of those who do evil with guns. There really is no choice in the matter.

America is the most ‘penalized’ country in the world. We imprison a greater number of our citizens than just about anywhere in the world. That cost is a major burden on our nation. It is estimated that eighty five percent of those incarcerated are in prison because of drug related offenses, either selling or committing another crime while under the influence or trying to get money to be under the influence. The War Against Drugs has been a failure.

Because we spend so much money on capturing, prosecuting, and imprisoning drug users, there is very little left for treatment programs. Maybe it is time to rethink this strategy?

I don’t know what the answer is, I only know that, like most Americans, I am sick and tired of having to adapt to evil. I want to progress and evolve to a higher level of living but I am dragged down by those who resort to a life of evil and this is just here in the good old USA.

I would like to see the Congressional Budget Office develop an Evil Index that would cost out what our nation spends on fighting evil. I am just thinking that we would have a twenty first century country were it not for bad people and the things they do.

Make the world a better place.

Nearly a week has gone by since the terrible tragedy that took place in Aurora, Colorado. It is still hard to grasp the depth of the tragedy even as we try to make some sense of why these acts occur in the first place. The why, we will never know. We never do when lunatics act out. The how, well, that’s another story. We always know how.

A guy buys a gun. Then he buys 6000 rounds of ammunition, online no less, that’s how!

We live in a society that taxes everything we do. You rent a car, tax. Get a hotel room, tax. Buy a bottle of whiskey, tax. Fill your car up with unleaded regular, tax. Buy a pack of Luckys, big tax. Buy a Big Gulp Coke in New York City, FORBIDDEN!!!!

But you can buy all the armor piercing ammo you want and there is no special tax on that.

Look, I understand there are responsible gun owners just like there are responsible drivers. The difference being is that it is not as easy to get a driver’s license as it is to get an AK-47. To get a driver’s license, you must pass a written test, pass a road test to make sure you can actually handle the deadly weapon that you will be driving, have your picture taken, register your car, get car insurance, oh yeah, and pay for the privilege of driving. I don’t know if you have anything to do to buy a gun, except show up and buy one at a gun show. Maybe they have a three day waiting period but that is the most inconvenience that you will have to endure and, if you listen to the NRA, even that is too damn much.

Everyone points to the Second Amendment right to own and bear arms. Now, even if our founding fathers really did want citizens to be able to carry weapons to put down insurrections or to be able to revolt if the government got out of control, I don’t think we should be held hostage to a view that was clearly expressed for a society much different than our own.

Surely the framers of our Constitution would not advocate the right of seventeen year olds to carry a gun to a neighborhood basketball game or a graduate student to carry an automatic weapon to a midnight movie.

The old refrain, “If you criminalize gun ownership, then only criminals will own guns,” which is what Sarah Palin was hiding behind when she uttered, “Bad guys don’t follow laws,” just is not good enough reason to stand pat on gun control. Oh, by the way, a big thank you to John McCain for giving this one a platform, will she ever go away?

The fact that gun permit applications doubled in the state of Colorado immediately after the midnight massacre is extremely disturbing. Do people really think that if they carry a gun they will be safer? It seems to me that more guns will only make for more deaths. Do we really want to see people in the subway carrying heat? How about on the LIE? I just don’t think that would be a good idea.

It seems to me that there is a rational approach to gun regulation but I guess it requires people to be rational first.

Summer In The City

There was a time when I could care less about getting away on vacation during the summer. New York was the only place I wanted to be. Back in the late sixties and early seventies just going to Central Park on a Saturday afternoon was as much vacation as I needed.

In fact we often went down to the park on Friday nights. I say we because, while I would have no problem of negotiating Central Park and its hidden environs on a Saturday afternoon, Mrs Newell raised no stupid children who would go into the Park at night without a few of his well chosen friends. Of course on many a sultry Friday night it was not uncommon for a group of us to take the IRT Number 6 down to 59^th Street and head over to our favorite liquor store on Sixth Avenue.

Sixth Avenue Liquors had the finest selection of imported and domestic wines which we summarily ignored. Fortunately for our well developed palates there was a varied selection of fine grape and strawberry wines. But nothing could compare with the finest of wines, The Nectar of The Gods, Bali Hai. Just saying the name brings me back to a particularly eventful Friday evening in July of 1971. Our Party of four, having bought our half pint bottles, made its way up Sixth Avenue towards the outskirts of Central Park when all of a sudden there was a sudden downpour. Proceeding to the Park was no longer an option and we were forced to ad lib on the fly and select a new destination. Fortunately the St Moritz hotel had a lovely sidewalk café with a protective awning.

As my comrades and I selected one of the many vacated tables we surmised that this location would only do for the briefest of interludes. While my friends and I could hoi polloi with the best of them, it would not take Management long to discover that we were imbibing beverages not included on their rather extensive wine list. They would, no doubt, see through our veil of refinement and boot us the hell out of there. Yet, it was not Management who encouraged our departure.

One of our group had been a wee bit too egalitarian and had invited a denizen of the Park, or some other outside abode, to join us in our Friday night soiree. This surely would attract attention so we made quick our departure but not before swilling our last drops of Bali Hai. Now where would we go?

Although it had stopped raining, the Park was no longer an attractive destination. The area that always proved an interesting hang out was not readily accessible and involved walking up hills and trekking through dales which would be under water this evening. Therefore, in defiance of Horace Greeley’s admonition, we headed east.

It was not long before we found ourselves under the Manhattan tower of the Queensboro, or if you prefer, the 59^th Street Bridge. Whatever you call it, you would not believe what you would have seen there.

I was never at the corners of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco but, surely, where I was now was the east coast equivalent. There were bikers. There were hippies. There were freaks of every denomination and inclination. I was sure someone had slipped something into my Bali Hai. I got a good indication of where we were when I approached what looked like a sidewalk café but of somewhat less reputable standing than our previous bistro. They served nothing but fruit juice. This led me to believe that you could purchase a variety of intoxicants none of which contained alcohol or any other legal ingredients.

It would have been a terrific place to people-watch were it not for the fact that you really didn’t want to get caught looking at anyone lest they kill you. It may have been the era of Peace and Love but that was only a slogan for this crowd. Nevertheless, we stayed for quite a while and even went back on a few occasions later that summer. But on this night, having had enough of Woodstock without the mud, we made our way to our regular late night haunt, Child’s for breakfast before our subway back to the Bronx.  We had our eggs and coffee and set off to the 59^th Street subway station and boarded our waiting number six IRT.

I have been hearing quite a bit about the disparity in fund raising for this year’s election between the Republican and Democratic parties. A continuing theme in these discussions is the role of Citizens United. This refers to a Supreme Court decision that ruled that independent corporations could not be limited by campaign finance laws limiting expenditures and donations.

In some ways this decision is consistent with other court rulings where in corporations are considered persons in terms of possessing the same fundamental right of due process. This legal fiction gives corporations the protection of law that individual citizens possess. Under this theory and the interpretation of its application by the Court, groups like Citizen United cannot have their free speech infringed upon and donating money is what speaks the loudest in presidential campaigning.

Because of this ruling, there is a new term being bandied about on the talking head channels, Dark Money. Of course the Democrats who are being out donated and out spent are up in arms, hence the moniker, Dark Money. They didn’t have any problems when their donors were piling it on. Nevertheless, I do think we have something to worry about.

Americans don’t read. In fact, as a nation, we probably devote more time to Jerry Springer than reading a newspaper whether on line or in print. So, TV is where we get convinced. Having the most money to spend on TV ads and campaigns is a decided advantage but that’s not the problem. Who is making sure that what is broadcast over the federal air waves is the truth. Should money give you the right to lie on a grand scale?

The benefit of one on one debates is that both candidates are there to defend themselves. Issue ads that attack an idea or campaign ads that attack a candidate are one sided, often vitriolic attacks. Made to smack the viewer in the heart of their emotion, TV ads create truth even where it does not exist. Just ask John McCain.

The trouble in partisan politics isn’t that you have two parties who fundamentally disagree with each other but rather, as displayed time and time again in Congress, you have two parties that would rather lose than let the other party win. The term statesman is nowhere to be found in Washington DC. So what’s a voter to do?

Well, earlier in the year I urged you all to vote for yourself. It still isn’t a bad idea. It would be great if enough politicians felt the wrath of the voter but they would have to care about us first. They don’t care about us only our $$$$. If you don’t have $$$$, you are SOL. Because politicians have to raise thousands of dollars a day, they have no time to listen to us. They may regret that they can’t listen to us but no one seems willing to risk losing an election in order to change the system.

We don’t have enough money to afford the Free Speech that our founding fathers provided us in the Bill of Rights.

Posted by The Newell Post at 11:29 AM 0 comments