The Questions You Would Have Asked

Today, I finally came across two personal comments on South Carolina's Alvin Greene (the guy who won the state Democratic primary for senator). These were military guys who had supervised him at points, and they were posted on a forum. Both comments went hand in hand. They described Alvin as being a non-starter, a poor learner, and not easily grasping things around him. We aren't talking about a 18-year old kid....this was the description for a guy in his late 20s and early 30s.

In short, they suggested Alvin was mentality underdeveloped or possibly mentality retarded.

When I came to Tucson in 1989....the administrative guy in my office was a NCO who was rather odd from day one.

I came to realize after about two months....that he was mildly mentality retarded. He could read through a book or study manual, and remember enough to pass tests. If you asked him to explain the material....he'd just look at you. He could not comprehend. Question X met up with answer Y. That was his entire comprehension.

He did his job, but the minute he finished the tasked assigned....he just sat there staring at the wall. He could spend three hours a day staring at the wall.

After six months.....I came to realize there was a list of issues with this guy. He'd been in fourteen years and would probably make Master Sargent within a year or two. He could not supervise anyone, and he was a total loss at taking an emergency and reacting to it. He had the responsibility ability of a twelve year old kid. He could become ballistic and slam his fist on the table with only a marginal chaotic situation going on. With three or four beers....he'd just sit there staring at the wall and not react much to anything you said.

Did the Air Force realize this guy's issue? I think most of us did....but the leadership didn't ever see it as a reason to let the guy go. That was the general attitude in 1989. Could a guy survive in today's atmosphere in the Army or Air Force as mildly mentality retarded? Maybe...at least for the first four years. But after that point....they kinda expect some leadership to come out of you....and if you can't perform as a leader...they'd eventually let you go.

So....this is the sad part about this entire story. Americans really don't ask questions about who they vote for or why....and in the case of a bunch of folks in South Carolina.....just being a black guy on a ballot....might be enough to win an election.

Did Alvin get help or $10k to register as a senate candidate? Who knows? Who cares?

The public spoke, and this is basically over as far as I can see. The public didn't want to ask serious questions....so you just might have a terrible choice for your Democratic candidate. You might bring up voting in 2008 and suggest that few if any questions lead to folks voting a certain way then.

It's a story that will simply linger. If you start asking questions....you won't be happy with the answers. And if you just accept fate....you won't be happy. It's life....and you just gotta accept it.

The Kid and the Sailboat

Last week....this sixteen year old gal with the sailboat was the big story of the week. This kid (Abby Sunderland) became this lost teenage girl in the Indian Ocean....and a huge amount of effort was put into this search and rescue.

Eventually they found her, and folks began to ask stupid questions....like why a father would allow a kid to do something like this?

Well...today....the NY Post came out and said that her father is flat broke, and had engineered a reality show contract...."Adventures in Sunderland."

The father, Laurence Sunderland, is apparently a sailing instructor out in LA (California)....and pretty much waiting for this massive pay-off deal.

I sat and watched Fox News last night...and they kept looking at the timing of this event....when storms typically flair up in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific....and this was really the wrong time to engineer such a cruise. However, if they waited...she would turn 17 and thus make this a worthless effort.

I have a pretty disgusting view of this matter, if this is all true. You sit there and pep up some naive sixteen year old daughter...to bring a fortune upon the family's door step...and risk her life for the money? It doesn't make any sense.

If I was the daughter...and came back to figure this all out...I might just stop at the front door...and just walk away. You can't trust a father who puts you into harm's way...for money. It's that simple.

Our Bob

My brother will occasionally point out five-star news items from the local papers. These are typically not items carried in national newspapers or with the big-boy networks.

So there's this story from this week.

We have a local guy from just across the state line (in Tennessee)....who is mostly known for nothing much in the local area. He's 91 years old. If you asked anybody who knows him....he's just a friendly guy from the area....worked hard his entire life.....and a WW II vet.

There is another story about Bob Hamsley.....but it's 66 years ago.

You see Bob arrived on the shores of France....to combat the Nazis. Bob's a guy with a homegrown attitude....of doing what you can for folks.....and fixing wrongs.

On the sixth of August....1944....Bob came to arrive in Plelo, France. It's best to say anybody from Plelo....was living on borrowed time. Their names were written down to be terminated. It's the kind of situation that most of us today cannot imagine.

Bob was an officer in the Third Army....and controlled five armed tanks. He was supposed to save bridges and help the US forces advance.

When Bob arrived in Plelo....the Nazis had everyone kinda lined up and were in some preparation for an execution. In simple terms....machine guns were lined up and prepared to kill a mass group of people.

Bob rolled his tanks into the town and made probably enough noise to make the Nazis think dozens of American tanks were about to arrive. The Nazis retreated and left the town.

So, folks around Plelo were kinda in shock and awe at the mighty Americans and their "vast" fighting force. People lived....only because Bob and his crew weren't hesitant to face down any threat.

Here's the odd thing....they remembered Bob. They remembered his entire tank team. They went out and erected a statue of Bob. Then they named a couple of streets after Bob and the crew. Then they even named a athletic stadium after him.

Several decades passed between Bob's visit in 1944 and when he finally went back. It would appear that Bob never knew about alot of this 'attention' and name usage. He's been a couple of times over the past fifteen years and enjoys the attention now.

If you walked around Bob's neck of the woods....he kinda kept quiet and didn't make a big deal about his actions. I think he saw it as simply something that he was going to do that day, and little else.....a piece of destiny perhaps.

Other than an article and a couple of days in France to sip wine and enjoy the French countryside....that's about all that Bob's getting out of this deal. And you know....I think he's mostly happy and satisfied about this moment. It's his little piece of a big deal.

The Sun Setting on Larry King

It was not truly a shocker...at least to me.

Today, CNN announced that Piers Morgan is set to replace Larry King in the fall. You probably know Piers....from the UK. He's the Britain's Got Talent judge and spent a number of years as a newspaper editor.

Larry? Well....Over the past three years...his rating have been falling and CNN is getting to a point of redesigning their entire evening lineup. I suspect Larry knew about this approaching replacement deal back in February and probably wasn't going to get excited about it.

The question here...does CNN recover from the Fox News supremacy now? Can Piers do something that brings viewers back?

I can see four percent of Fox New's edge sliding over to CNN...and maybe MSNBC's spiral going deeper. Maybe Piers can get a five percent gain over the current situation and that'd make CNN feel awful happy.

What happens with Larry? I'm guessing two or three books over the next three years...and that's about it.

For those who don't remember how it was on CNN before Larry...I do. CNN had a four-star gal who carried top notch interviews....and simply decided that she'd had enough. So they hired Larry...and simply hoped that his format would eventually catch on. The first year was not that great (not marginal, but not matching the previous host)....and then eventually...folks accepted Larry. It is an end to a era.

The Brits Have It

I read a fair amount of British newspapers...and a story popped out this morning. Over in the British Isles....there's this new trend.

The National Health Service (the British universal health care program)...is sponsoring a booklet to handout to pension folks...it's a sex manual for senior citizens.

It's a booklet thats given out as part of the national health program (figure around $16 that it would cost....if you had to actually pay for it)....detailing senior citizen benefits of sexual activity and how to go out and get some.

Naturally, it covers Viagra....which the health system will cover free of charge...and the need for safe sex.

And yes, it does cover the various acts that some folks may have forgotten about or missed during their earlier years. "Explicit" would probably be the word used by most folks who come upon the booklet.

Don't worry....our program will end up with booklets like this after 2013 as well....if you were wondering.

Drug Lotto

There's an interesting story over at the NY Times. Basically....lots of people have health issues today, and they are prescribed various drugs to save them. The basic problem is that folks are forgetful and simply skip taking their drug on schedule.

So some smart guys sat down and decided to create a method that works....but probably is unethical.

The heart of this new method? Financial incentives. The name of the game? Well in Philadelphia....it's called lotto. You can win $10 or $100 each day they take a certain prescribed drug. The company behind the drug....fronts the money from profits. How to make this work? Well....they use a computerized pillbox to record if they took the medicine and whether they won that day.

It would appear that the game is rigged so everyone wins something.....and the average might be around $300 every six months.

My view over games like this? It is unethical....paying people to take their drugs on time.

Will it spread? Yeah....I'm willing to bet within five years that it'll be in most states and pharmacy operations will even make it more interesting with $1000 per win.....maybe even a car once a year for some lucky "player".

Richer Than Rich But Cursed

For most folks, it's big news. For Aghans.....it's five-star once-in-a-lifetime news. There's a minimum of $1 trillion in mineral deposits sitting there in Afghanistan.

Iron, copper, cobalt, gold, niobium and lithium (the stuff they use for batteries).

The Pentagon, along with some really smart folks....have spent four years analyzing data and going over the whole country. They indicate these assets are spread over the whole country.

So what happens now? I'm guessing thirty different international mining companies are likely sending guys in to discuss matters. But you need one key element in this deal.....a safe atmosphere from which to work. The Taliban has to be pushed out and the country made safe.

Corruption from this mineral situation? Yeah....you can count on this....with warlords and local governors deeply involved in this mess.

What happens in twenty years? It will eventually turn safe enough to mine. The money will flow into the country.....and I think it'll turn into another Nigeria....where citizens rarely see any changes other than better roads and airports. This is the sad part about the discovery....it ought to bring the country together and stabilize things for the next two centuries.....but it won't.