From RugCenter....Give it a look!

Last year, I posted two super articles by our commenter here, 'tio', under the name MugCenter...well, I'm now presenting, below, his dad, Roger, and his RugCenter Report. I get them every week and enjoy his style and I hope you enjoy it, too! I want to thank him for allowing me to edit as needed as it was far too long to publish......

Spring is here, so I pulled out the lawn mower and put away the snow blower. I guess we do have one more snow job coming on the 15th. The IRS gets one more "dump" on us. The Tea Party and true conservatives are giving Nobama cause for concern as BHO is leaning on Beck and Limbaugh for being vitriolic. The "anointed" never like to face reality, but live in a theoretical world. They see anyone who can think for him/herself as a mortal threat. Yet these elite thinkers are never held accountable for being wrong and people still flock to them to lap up their drivel of "wisdom." Life is hard and has many troubles. THAT is the real wisdom, endorsed all the way from Jesus to Fox News.

Pilots will now be allowed to fly while taking anti-depression medication. There was a 70 year ban on this, but now the rule has been relaxed. I guess they feared the possibility of suicidal tendencies from these drugs. We certainly don't need any more 9-11s, but they were caused by religion, not medicine. For a country like the USA that gets a constant dose of "everything is good, so be happy," we do lead the world in taking drugs for depression. That equation doesn't balance for me. Is that what they call cognitive dissonance--holding opposing views at the same time and trying to make that seen rational?

The City of New Orleans has had to have thousands of homes gutted to take out toxic drywall. This junk was bought from China and has so much hydrogen sulfide (smells like rotten eggs) that it corrodes the wiring and other metal systems in the walls. It also is a health issue from breathing it in. So is that the Chinese plan--to kill us with commercial products, like gases in walls, toxic metals in toys, and hosts of other stuff dumped on our markets without regulation? Who is really making money on this exchange? (Z; I told Roger China's like Roberta Flack with all their imports which keep harming Americans..."Killing us softly...." !!?)

Thomas Sowell's book Intellectuals and Society raises some interesting questions. By his definition, intellectuals are those whose sole product is ideas. The intelligentsia seem to have no accountability, are not subject to market forces, and come across as 3rd party "experts" who know better than the collective wisdom and experience of the people. Two good examples are Paul Ehrlich, the entomologist from Stanford, who predicted mass famine in the 70s and the collapse of western civilization. He was the one who convinced Americans that having kids was bad for the environment. Now we face a birth dearth that doesn't reach replacement levels while the other cultures like muslims are having 6-8 kids per family. Yet Ehrlich is still sought after as a guru on population issues even though his track record is dismally wrong. Or Al Gore, the environmental high priest, who has no degree in science (and probably very little course work), but is still the media darling who can tell us that everything is a disaster unless we stop having kids and redistribute the wealth. He gets the Nobel prize for conjuring up fear, but is woefully lacking in hard facts, The Pied Piper of Green is leading us into poverty and making us think it's an improvement. Liberals and academics lap up his kool aid as fast he can pour it. These fear mongers rely on intellect (in other words what THEY know) and emotion, but not real hard-earned wisdom. The have no accountability to the outside world, behave irresponsibly, and bask in the light of fawning fools who adore them. If you don't have time to read Sowell's whole book, it's worth getting the summary from pages 310-13. Unpack your brains and get back into common sense.

Have you noticed that many commercials are now prominently featuring blacks, which is a good thing? It shows the rise of minorities into the main stream of life. Yet, Hispanics are now the largest minority, but I see few ads featuring them. There is one ad about an inhalation medicine where the bee has a Hispanic accent. Is it the stigma of illegals that prevents this? I know immigration "reform" is always a big topic, but I don't think most Americans want a magic wand approach where we just pronounce all the illegals as citizens and consider the issue resolved.

Nobama will remove words like "Islamic radicalism" from his report on security strategy because he does not want to view muslims through the lens of terrorism. This sounds a bit like the French after WW1, where they dumbed the people down via the school system to be blind to any outside threats. Yes, they had seen the horror of the "war to end all wars" and lost a huge number of people. They de-emphasized national pride and courage. Even in the face of German rearmament in the 30s, the French and British refused to see any threat. The intellectuals even proposed total disarmament to set a good example. They postulated that if they were no threat to Hitler, he would be no threat to them. WRONG!! The minnow may be no threat to the bass, but that doesn't bring security. GULP!! Militarily the French were stronger than the nascent Nazis, but refused to act. Hitler's generals were fearful when Hitler made bold moves into the Rhineland and Sudetenland, knowing that the Nazis weren't all that militarily ready. But Hitler had read the pacifism of his enemies correctly and knew they wouldn't respond.

In modern Europe , the Japanese knew about the current issue of stuck gas pedals, but tried to cover it up. One of their VPs e-mailed management that they needed to "come clean." They did inform people in Europe before they did us here in the USA . So we had to learn by painful experience before they finally admitted it here. Hmmmm. Let's look back at history. In December of 1941, the Japanese emissaries to Secretary of State Cordell Hull were supposed to give us an answer about their intentions as the clouds of war in the Pacific loomed. They did meet with Hull , but about 45 minutes AFTER the bombs began to fall on Pearl Harbor ! Tora! Tora! Tora! in 1941. Toyota ! Toyota ! Toyota ! in 2010?

Obama has decided to remove the nuclear option from our diplomacy package. Is it wise to tell your enemies up front which weapons you will not use? Back in the Vietnam Era, Secretary of State Kissinger purposely informed the North Vietnamese that President Nixon may be a "madman" who just might resort to nuclear weapons if they didn't come to the table to negotiate. It was an act, but it worked. Perhaps it didn't get us a clear win, but it did finally achieve an end. The knowledge of a threat can be as effective as its actual use if the other side is kept guessing. Is Nobama willing to give up options unilaterally to "achieve peace for our time?" No, I don't want a nuclear war, but maniacs don't often respond to reason--they respond to force. There are times when the olive branch is not mightier than the sword, eh?

The mining disaster in WV is a tragedy that maybe didn't need to happen. The owners of the mine had several hundred violations cited in the last 2 years, among them was improper venting. I guess the people who own the mines see violations as part of the operation because something is always out of compliance. As the world economy goes global, ALL people become mere commodities to be used as economically as possible. Profit and success trump pain and suffering. Is the thin veneer of civilization we thought we had wearing even thinner?

Mrs. Muhammad Ali has been placed on a commission by Nobama to address bioethical issues. Ali himself has Parkinson's disease. Is this just a celebrity move? Maybe Don King could serve as Secretary of Defense because he has experience arranging fights! It's all about image, not substance.

That's it for this edition. The fish are biting and it's time to think about getting the garden going. Baseball season is on and the NBA is heading for the playoffs. Get outside and have some fun and exercise. Otherwise you might get a letter from Michelle Obama about not trying to win the war on obesity. Fat chance of that, huh? Otta here!

Thanks, Roger! Z