November 2023
Enough is Enough
29/11/23 06:02
November 29, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 49) - I can be a very patient man. But enough is enough. As a 71-year-old retired college professor who is signed up for Medicare, I have been inundated with more than 100 telephone calls from telemarketers this month, alone. During the Medicare open enrollment period, they are trying to sell me some sort of Medicare coverage plan. Most of these are robocalls. Usually, when one answers the phone, one is greeted by several seconds of silence. If you wait long enough, either a real person who, from the sound of the background noise, is sitting in a boiler room operation, or a recorded voice - probably AI (as in Always Irritating). I hang up, because I know I have little reason to trust these people. However, receiving telemarketing phone calls at all hours on my cell phone borders on harassment. I actually received a call during Thanksgiving dinner and another while watching the play "Annie." My greater concern is for less media-savvy seniors who could become victims of potential Medicare scams. While I am a First Amendment advocate - I use to teach journalism and strategic communications at KU - I believe this level of telemarketing abuse goes beyond the pale. Frankly, if it isn't against the law, it should be. I feel so strongly on this topic that I have contacted a member of Congress about these concerns. Whether it does any good or not, remains to be seen. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.The Sixth Floor Window
22/11/23 06:31
November 22, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 48) - John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected the 35th President of the United States on my eighth birthday. He was murdered 60 years ago today, just two weeks after my 11th birthday. The assassination happened on a Friday, just a few hours before St. Michaels, Maryland, Boy Scout Troop 147 gathered for its weekly meeting at the Scout Cabin in St. Mary's Square. The hours after the assassination were filled with angst, anger and confusion. Of course, an 11-year-old's perspective on events - some of which he couldn't understand - was quite different. A first concern had to do with classmate Jim Rodney's birthday party on Saturday. Was it still on? (It was.) The second had to do with that night's Boy Scout meeting: Was it still on? Troop 147's Scoutmaster Arthur Southard lived on the same rural road as I and he drove me to the meeting. Normally, the evening's activity would focus on matters such as how to tie certain knots, tips on camping in the woods, or instruction toward earning a merit badge. However, this night was different. After the normal Pledge of Allegiance and recitation of the Boy Scout Oath and Law, Mr. Southard delivered a monologue that I remember to this very day. At that hour, we did not know very much about Lee Harvey Oswald, the man with the rifle who stood in a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository and murdered President Kennedy. But in a strong, almost angry tone, our scoutmaster told us how Oswald had broken every tenant of the Boy Scout Oath and Law. After only 15 minutes, there was a moment of silence and the meeting was dismissed. Any of the scouts who had not appreciated the gravity of the national tragedy did so now. It wasn't until March 2007 that I had the opportunity to visit Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository. I had gone to Dallas to attend a University of Kansas Journalism School alumni gathering. When I entered the plaza, my first thought was how small it was compared the huge space it had occupied in my memory. The death of President Kennedy was a point of demarcation for me and our nation. I visited the Sixth Floor Museum and got to see where Oswald sat, munched cold fried chicken, and waited to disrupt the course of world history. Sixty years on, the events that were launched by that madman lying in wait at that sixth floor window still loom large. We can't help but wonder how the trajectory of American history would have changed had Oswald's rifle shot had missed its mark. (Of course, having visited the scene of the crime and seeing how small it really is, it is unlikely that any experienced shooter could have missed the mark.) Arthur Southard has been gone for 18 years. However, his words on that dark, cold November night still resonate. How, in the name of God and country, could that man in the sixth floor window have done such a dastardly deed? Oswald is also gone, the victim of another vigilante. So we will never definitively know the answer. However, 60 years on, during a period of raucous discord in the American family, that question remains relevant. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Rope-A-Doped Republicans
08/11/23 04:36
November 8, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 47) - Every time the Republicans think they have their opponents on the ropes, the Democrats borrow a strategy from the late Muhammad Ali and "rope-a-dope" them into submission. Like a punch-drunk boxer swingly wildly and hitting nothing, the Grand Old Party was once again a Grand Old Flop in yesterday's off-year elections. In Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky, things didn't go the way the MAGA crowd wanted. They thought they could ride the apparent unpopularity of President Joe Biden to victory in the Kentucky gubernatorial election, Virginia legislative contests and Ohio abortion and marijuana referendums. But guess what? Joe Biden wasn't on the ballot. Freedom was. And the Republicans, who once prided themselves as being a champion of individual freedoms, are now seen as autocratic bullies on the wrong side of the issue. And it has been that way in practically every major election since Donald Trump stumbled into the presidency in 2017. You might say that the voters in those states "woke" up to the realization that Republicans are a dystopian bunch who don't want people to make personal decisions on how they live their lives. They think they know better. Yet, time and time again, the American people show them they are wrong. Of course, Democrats are not worry-free one year out from the 2024 presidential election. Joe Biden's popularity polls are anemic, at best. And he is confronted with a host of foreign and domestic issues that would be a drag on any president's popularity. But to count him and the Democrats out is foolish - mainly because Donald Trump will be on the ballot next year. (That is, of course, assuming that the Great Grifter isn't in a prison cell or doesn't flee the country to avoid one.) Trump is King Midas in Reverse - everything he touches turns to lead (or gets indicted). The only reason Joe Biden is president today is because Donald Trump was on the ballot in 2020. And while less than four out of 10 Americans say Biden is doing a good job, that doesn't mean that they won't vote for him anyway when presented with the alternative of four more chaotic years of the seditious, self-engrandizing and morally corrupt Donald Trump. The Republican Party is rudderless. And if it shuts down the government or allows the Russians to run roughshod over Ukraine, it will be headed toward electoral disaster. Remember: "Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee." As long as the Democrats stick to the real issues - personal freedom, social justice, a strong economy and national security - they will win. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Israel's Moral Imperative
01/11/23 06:17
November 1, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 46) - I made it clear in my blog post of October 12 that I support Israel's right to to defend itself in the wake of horrific attacks by the terrorist group Hamas. I have also made it clear in personal comments and social media posts through the years that because of its history, Israel has a moral imperative to follow the Geneva Convention and to avoid making war on the civilian population. These pleas have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. And yet, yesterday, Israel's so-called defense forces took things to a new low. They killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds more in a crowded refugee camp in the name of killing one "high-value" Hamas leader. To be totally honest, these are the same kind of tactics Germany used in the Second World War. Of course, the Allies did it, as well. Does Israel really want to follow those examples? We have heard Israel's claim to have warned the residents of the refugee camp to shelter elsewhere prior to the attack. But where were they supposed to go? Gaza is one great big prison where no one goes in and no one goes out. Under Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership, Israel has repeatedly provoked the Palestinians through the commission of a series of civil rights - some may say human rights - violations. I doubt that he is the man to lead his nation out of this crisis. How do you expect him to "fix" this problem when the only tool he seems to have in his tool box is a hammer? Yes, Israel was attacked. And yes, the United States should stand with her against Islamic extremists. But we have to be more forceful in telling our friend that there is a line that has been crossed and that she needs to return to the side of sanity and humanity. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.