More Ramblings

I just finished the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, received as a birthday present from my sister-in-law Dale Bowers. Dale is Asst. V-P for Extended Programs at Clayton College & State University at Morrow, GA. The books theme is “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.” Some analytical thinking that confirms some beliefs you know but don’t spend much time thinking about. I suggest it is worth your time to read it. Not too heavy reading and some parts you can skim. Thanks Dale & you tested me to see if I saw what you pasted on the back of the 2nd page. I always read the covers of any book and then go right to the contents to see if I am interested. It was interesting and when I completed the book, something in my mind remembered seeing something out of place so I flipped back to the front of the book and there was a picture of a Clumber (?) dog with three tennis balls in its mouth. Dale, you are creative! I did enjoy the book!

“Where to be smoke-free”, was the title of a recent article in the JS. Here are statistics quoted by the JS. “Out of 274 surveyed restaurants in Peoria County, 181 classified themselves as smoke-free. That’s 66 percent non-smoking.”
“Out of 281 surveyed in Tazewell County, 78 classified themselves as smoke-free. That’s about 28 percent non-smoking.”
“Out of 86 surveyed in Woodford County, 29 classified themselves as smoke-free. That’s about 33 percent non-smoking.”

Each of you can read into these statistics what you want.

I have an article somewhere that claims lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the USA. It is estimated that tobacco will contribute to168, 140 cancer deaths this year. Half all these deaths could be PREVENTED says the American Cancer Society. (About 570,280 people are estimated to die of cancer in the USA this year.)

In talking about potential candidates to run against Aaron Schock, Dan Silverthorn said “the district (Shock’s) has a large number of blue-collar workers.” Read into that what you want too, also. Then remember we are going to bring more culture to this region by building more entertainment for the masses.

For some of you free "speechers"(sp) showing your stupidity in your “letters to the editors” appearing in the JS and I want to correct the latest one appearing with Mike Bailey’s special OK. (He’s the editor who puts his blessing on whether your letter gets printed and supposedly makes you verify your figures.) A Judith Goodwin says in this Bailey approved letter, that “If we stay in Iraq for another decade so that is another 17.000 dead Americans.” Bad arithmetic, Judith and Mike!! A decade when I was in school was known as 10 years. Approximately 1700 Americans have died from all causes since we invaded Iraq. As Bailey says “do the math.” since we have been in Iraq approximately two years.

An article appearing in the WSJ on 11/04/03 says “When I left Iraq in mid-June 57 mass graves have been found. One with the bodies of 1200 massacred children. There are credible reports of murder, brutality and torture of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iraqi citizens. One Shiite watched helplessly as police plucked out the eyes of his three month old baby.”

Now to Judith and her ilk I give you these statistics. Right here in the good old safe USA, 161,000 people died in accidents in 2002. 161,000 dead in one year and what have all you Bush haters and Pacifists done about it?? A dead, disabled and badly injured person has the same effect on families, no matter how they occurred. (Our family grieved just as much for my niece Claire, who was killed by a drunk driver, as we did for my 1st cousin Richard Witzig who was shot down by the Japanese in the Pacific Zone of WW2.) Judith, who lives at 2914 W. Scenic Drive, said in regard to this letter, “Oh dear, I hope I didn’t get my figures wrong.”

Ain’t this a great country we live in! A misstatement like that in Iraq would not get you a pass into a safe haven like Gitmo. It would get your head cut off and stuck on a pole.

Just a few more statistics, motorcycle deaths rose to 3,661 in 2003. Nationwide 720 people died in farming related accidents in 2004. Home fires claimed the lives of 2,670 last year. Pool drowning was in the low hundreds. Vehicle accident deaths were over 43,000. Injuries of all types were in the high millions.

People who complain about soldiers dying should put things in perspective. The USA armed forces are all volunteers, they have a cause and I am proud of every one of them, even those who thought joining a service was all fun, games and some extra income. (My nephew had one year at SIU and found college wasn’t for him. He is now serving his country in the U.S. Air Force.) Our whole extended family of mainly Republicans is proud of him. If we were Democrats, we would be just as proud of him.

Were mistakes made in all wars? You bet! How about Lincoln and his generals in the Civil War, Lee and his generals, Vietnam, North Korea, (wasn’t Truman a Democrat?), WW2, (wasn’t Roosevelt a Democrat?). Every war ever fought had innocent people die thru bad decisions on a personal level or by those in charge. What’s new about bad decisions? Do they all cause lives to be lost? Who knows? How many college kids have been driven to suicide by professors teaching pliable minds “that there are no truths”? Bad decisions should be corrected by those in charge. Run the armed services, our schools and politics on the model of a successful business and there will be fewer “bad decisions.”

The terrorist we are fighting have no regard for YOUR LIFE and your spouting your venom largely in ignorance, gives the cowardly terrorists more ammunition to kill us all. Regardless of actions taken or not taken by George H. W., George W., Bill Clinton and our bureaucracies, these terrorists would hate us anyway because they envy our freedom!! Their idea of freedom is to put all who disagree with them in prison or just kill them.

Trying to do a little figuring in my head, I believe counting all the armed services in the USA, State Police, FBI, CIA, Border Patrol, policeman of all kinds, deputies of all kinds , financial guards, Brinks type guards, school security officers, public and private property guards, park police and a dozen or so security forces I left out, we probably have over 4,000,000,000 people guarding us and yet we are murder capital of the world. Yet only 150,000 people are trying to free the Iraqi people from there own tyrannies. That figure includes all those doing paperwork, inventory, supply, transportation and other details in the whole country of Iraq.

Get real, some of you people. I’m tired of you undercutting our armed forces abroad as you bemoan Bush’s win over Kerry. As far as bankrupting ourselves, worry more about our pork spending at home than money spent on our security forces overseas.