Memories of the day

After yesterday's post regarding June 6, 1944, my youngest sister wrote: I remember going to church that morning. I do not think I really understood the big reason.

She was not alone. I remember the morning this way:

Dear Carol,

It was an early summer day, much like all the others. I went to St. Patrick's Boys' School and sat in my classroom; probably thinking about how many more days we had to go before school was over and the summer vacation would begin. Like you, I have no recollection of understanding the importance of the day, nor of the significance of what had started across the ocean on the shores of France. Then we were lined up and marched over to St. Patrick's church. All the students were there from the separate boys' and girls' schools. The boys shepherded by the Xavierian Brothers and the girls by the Sisters of whatever. We were in the lower church and it was crowded. There were some adults there as well. Probably from the neighborhood. Undoubtedly some had husbands, brothers, loved ones in the European Theater of operations and were praying for their safety. Our pastor Father John Meehan came out of the sacristy into the sanctuary and stood before the altar. Many of us in the back rows were too far away to have a good look at him but we heard his words. Then he knelt before the altar and began praying and all joined in responding to his prayers. When he finished he got up and turned to the rows of students and announced a school holiday. Some did not hear him clearly and "what did he say?" was heard throughout the crowd. Father Meehan responded that some of you didn't listen too well and he raised his voice and repeated his declaration of a school holiday. Did you hear that, he asked and there was a loud chorus of yeses. We left the church and went home and for the next few days followed the news in the paper about what was happening in France. I believe now it was several years before I came to fully appreciate what June 6, 1944, meant to all of us in America, and to the world and to history. In the movie The Longest Day, released in the early sixties, one of the characters (played by Rod Steiger) in charge of a large ship says we are on the cusp of a day that the world will still talk about long after we are dead and gone. How prescient he was.
Bud

Remember the Day

June 6, 1944

Something to think about

The "Kung Fu" actor David Carradine, age 72, was found dead in a luxury suite in a Bangkok hotel this week and police early on suspected suicide. It turns out the actor's death may have been accidental. He was found with a black nylon rope tied around his genitals and a yellow nylon rope tied around his neck. The two cords reportedly were tied together. Friends say he was in a good mood since his arrival to film a movie and would not likely commit suicide. Is there an explantion for all this?

Correction

In the last blog, the line beginning "France shared it with Israel and" should read "Iraq" not Iran.
In the next line, "Israel helped South Africa...
Sorry.

The road to nuclear club membership or how the hell did they get the bomb?

"Every nuclear power has been a secret sharer of nuclear technology", according to Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal.
Stephens' opinion essay appeared on June 2 and although in narrative form it reads like an organizational chart in any corporation.
In America our bomb was conceived by European scientists and built in a joint effort with Britain and Canada.
The Soviets stole theirs thanks to atomic spies, including Klaus Fuchs, a German scientist who worked in Britain and the United States.
The Soviets gave the Chinese a start in their nuclear program.
Britain gave the secret of the hydrogen bomb to France.
France shared it with Israel and Iraq.
Israel helped South Africa (which has since dropped out of the "nuclear club").
India illegally re-directed plutonium from a U.S.-Canadian reactor.
China gave early guidance to Pakistan, as did a Pakistani who stole sensitive centrifuge information from his employer in the Netherlands.
Pakistan helped Libya, North Korea and probably Iran get nuclear programs underway.
North Korea got into the "daisy chain" by helping Syria, and North Korea has hosted Iranians at its missile launches.
Stephens quotes an L.A. Times 2003 report about so many North Koreans working on nuclear and missile projects in Iran that a resort on the Caspian Sea is set aside for their exclusive use.

Want a new house? Only $49,500,000!

What makes a house worth $49,500,000? --- the asking price for a property in SW Miami featured in a well-known realtor's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal today.
I took a peek at the web site and had a visual tour of the house inside and out. I don't know if what I saw is worth the asking price, and I don't plan on tapping my 401K to even visit - but it is mind-bending at this time to think someone has the faith in the American dream to ask this price and expect someone will come forward. Most likely a prospect will counter-offer and the price might drop a mil or two but forty-seven mil for a house? It does have a helluva view of the water!
By the way, more than 700 viewers had viewed the web site as of mid-morning!

John Wayne-May 26, 1907

Feedback Job Opportunities

June 12, 1979 OBITUARY 'Duke,' an American Hero By RICHARD F. SHEPARD In more than 200 films made over 50 years, John Wayne (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0526.html) saddled up to become the greatest figure of one of America's greatest native art forms, the western. The movies he starred in rode the range from out-of-the-money sagebrush quickies to such classics as "Stagecoach" and "Red River." He won an Oscar as best actor for another western, "True Grit," in 1969. Yet some of the best films he made told stories far from the wilds of the West, such as "The Quiet Man" and "The Long Voyage Home." In the last decades of his career, Mr. Wayne became something of an American folk figure, hero to some, villain to others, for his outspoken views. He was politically a conservative and, although he scorned politics as a way of life for himself, he enthusiastically supported Richard M. Nixon, Barry Goldwater, Spiro T. Agnew, Ronald Reagan and others who, he felt, fought for his concept of Americanism and anti- Communism. But it was for millions of moviegoers who saw him only on the big screen that John Wayne really existed. He had not created the western with its clear-cut conflict between good and bad, right and wrong, but it was impossible to mention the word "western" without thinking of "the Duke," as he was called.

"...post-World War II"

Thursday, May 21, 2009: "Led by a rebound performance from left-hander Jon Lester, who limited the Jays to one run over 6 1/3 innings, the Sox completed a three-game sweep of Toronto with a 5-1 victory before the largest post-World War II crowd in Fenway history (38,347)."(John Brown, MLB.COM)

Spring comes to Franke

The mild winter is gone and the new spring season has descended all around the Lowcountry. An example of this is the beautiful entrance to Franke at Seaside in Mt. Pleasant, SC, a continuing care and retirement community where Mary and I now reside. Hope you enjoy the view. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

What happened to "love thy neighbor?"

I found it interesting that regular church goers in America are more likely to approve of state torture than those who go less regularly. This data came out in a Pew Research Center (see The Religious Dimensions of the Torture Debate) survey released April 30. White evangelical Protestants are most likely to tolerate torture. People who attend church at least once a week are also more inclined to support torture. White non-Hispanic Catholics and white mainline Protestants agreed torture is often or sometime justified. Are these good people focused on the harsh messages of the old testament and missing the message of the new testament about loving thy neighbor and doing unto others as you would be done unto?

Some say that information gathered under torture is not reliable: people under torture will tell you whatever you want to hear. Another thought about all this is the application of torture only works if the victim is convinced he or she will be killed unless they talk. When you have "guidelines" known to the world, friend and foe alike, that prohibit killing, then the victim need only be trained to hold out. That the victim may not be able to stand up indefinitely to torture is probably most true. The Gestapo proved this during World War II. Their prisoners were told that if captured they should try to hold out for at least 24 hours to give others the chance to get away. This is probably true to this day. But Bill Maher, HBO's resident political satirist, joked recently that one of the terrorists at Guantanamo had been water boarded so much he was showing up wearing a bathing suit, carrying a beach towel and a Danielle Steele novel under his arm.

Garden, ducks and the worm

Giamumusso Yard, Franke @Seaside. (Click photos to enlarge)

Canadian geese visit Franke @Seaside.


The worm turns.

Ducks out of Water

The expression "ducks out of water" applied to these curious creatures as they explored Augsburg Drive in Franke at Seaside, Mt Pleasant SC. (Click on picture for enlarged view.)

Case solved - Print recovered

The celebrated case of the missing print (last blog entry) has been solved. It was returned to its place of honor on my alcove wall shortly before noon today. To save the culprit further embarrassment, we will not disclose additional details of the case. Let us just say it was an honest mistake. Members of the firing squad may stand down.

Print stolen - reward offered

On Sunday, April 26, 2009, someone stole a signed print by Robert E. Kennedy of Hemingway's favorite hangout in Key West, Sloppy Joe's Bar. I obtained the print while visiting Key West in 1993 and later had it matted and framed. The print was hanging in the alcove at the front door to my apartment since February 2008, when I moved to Franke at Seaside. The theft has been reported to the Mt. Pleasant Police. The print is today valued at $300. A reward will be paid for information leading to the recovery of the framed print. (This is a copy of the stolen print.)

Looking for trouble

This painter on Saturday (April 25, 2009, was just trying to do his job in the Seaside Farms community but unsafe - and possible life-threatening - practices are a major 'no-no'. He has no second man on the ground for support, no belt and he climbed to the extreme top of the ladder and reached above his head to put some paint on the overhang. It may have worked this time but this kind of reckless disregard for job safety is trouble waiting to happen. (Click on photos for enlarged versions.)

Walkin' on water

I caught this young man "walking on the water" at Isle of Palms on April 23. He was on a board and propelling himself with a paddle around seven thirty in the morning when the sun was coming up and there was only a little breeze. I don't know how cold the water was but I wore jogging clothes.

Up and at 'em early in the morn...

At 6:45 this morning I closed the door of my apartment and walked quietly down the corridor and descended the back stairs into the parking garage and out into the neighborhood of cottages and homes. Everywhere it was silent. There was no one out on the street. Newspapers had been thrown in front of many houses and still laid on lawns and sidewalks. In front of a friend's house I picked up the paper and tossed it to the front door and continued on my morning walk. When I crossed the property line between Franke at Seaside and Seaside Farms I met one woman walking and talking on a cellphone. She was dressed in nurse's whites and headed in the direction of the main road. Would she catch a bus? Is there even a bus on that road in the morning? Would she wait to be picked up by a car and driver and taken to work? Shortly after a car passed by with one person in it. Going to work? Seaside Farms is a residential community of private homes, small to medium lots and generally well kept lawns. Some automatic sprinklers were operating and I left the sidewalk temporarily for the road to escape the water. Like Franke at Seaside there was no activity to break the morning silence. Except for the major differences in prosperity the area resembled a community in East Germany that I drove through in 1989. No one on the streets. No sound from the homes. No evidence that anyone even lived there. Suddenly a small dog was at my heels and startled me. I stopped and faced him down as he circles my legs. A teenage boy came running after him with a leash in his hand and as he got close to me said, "Sorry." I continued on my silent walk until I encountered a lady walking two small dogs, one on a leash and one walking point unleashed. Both were friendly and well mannered. We exchanged "good morning" greetings - the lady and I, (not the dogs and me.) I completed my circle of the Seaside Farms community and re-entered Franke at Seaside, a retirement and continuing care community. I circled back by my friend's house where I hoped to scrounge a cup of coffee but the newspaper was still on the front steps and I concluded no one was up and about. I got a cup of coffee at the Franke Bistro and am back in my apartment from where I can see a couple of people walking over to get some breakfast and begin a new day. "Another day in which to excel," was how one friend put in last week. A phrase I had not heard since the Vietnam war era.

Forget it

The cartoon wasn't that funny. Twice it failed to post correctly.

An anniversary of sorts

Fifty-eight years ago today I went on active duty with the United States Air Force and never looked back. Along with many other young men, I left Boston's South Station on a train around seven in the evening headed for Geneva, New York, and Sampson Air Force Base (now a state park). Immediately prior to leaving I had dinner with two friends, Ed and Marie Quigley, my mother and my girlfriend, Peggy Early (all now deceased). It was the end of my youth and the beginning of my adult life. I was in the Air Force eight years, the last six as a Special Agent, USAF Office of Special Investigations. This service led to a wider future in the internal security field that occupied me for two decades and took me around the world. I gave up the girl who saw me off at the railroad station, met and married another one, Mary Frances Cooper of Georgetown, SC, and we had five children. Several years ago we achieved the goal of parents everywhere: all of our children are on someone else's payroll.

We had a dinner table discussion last Sunday, some friends and I, about compulsory service for young people. A couple of years of military service, Peace Corps, working as a volunteer, etc. I know I benefited from my years in the military service but I would not favor mandatory service for young people today. If they can be encouraged to do it (e.g. Mormons with their young men), or if they choose to do it, then fine. But the beauty of being American is you can do what you want (within limits of being law abiding) with your life and time. This is a precious right and privilege I would not take it away from any young person. (Naturally, if our country was at war then obligations would arise and everyone would be required to do their bit.)

Food - thinking about it

Recently I have been giving some thought - more than usual - to food. Perhaps this occurs because food, including the lack of sufficient food in parts of the world, is the recent topic of our Charleston area study group's bi-weekly discussion.

My thoughts, however, are more local in nature than the world-wide supply and demand. In recent weeks I have been to different places where food is being offered at reduced prices and in ways to attract more business. In an upscale downtown restaurant, sampler meals were offered. For $30, $40 or $60 you could sample one or more items off the appetizer, entrée and desert menus, along with some rolls and non-alcoholic beverage. A second place, a family style restaurant, offers prime rib for $9.95 on special nights of the week. The third venue offered two meals for the the price of one on three nights early in the week.

Another observation has to do with how much food is served, eaten and wasted. From the discussion group readings it is clear that people in many parts of the world do not have enough to eat either because it is not available or they cannot afford it. Recently in a restaurant the waiter asked if we wanted bread. I said "yes" and simultaneously my companion said "no." So he waiter brought four rolls to the table. I ate one and at the end of the meal asked what would happen to the three remaining in the bread basket. They would be thrown out, he said, unless you take them home. I took them home and ate two of them at breakfast the following morning.

In the dining room of the nursing facility where my wife lives the amount of food that is not eaten and goes into the disposal is troubling to me. The food is basic, well prepared and in most cases palatable. (I eat an occasional sample meal there to stay abreast of my wife's care.) Similar events can be observed in the dining room at the retirement community where I live. In restaurants I am often amazed at the amount of food carried away from tables. It appears to me that Americans waste a tremendous amount of food.

At the same time I understand restaurants serve large portions to attract customers, drum up new and repeat business and stay solvent. Skimpy portions mean dissatisfied customers who are not likely to return. What is about us that we will leave food on our plate and have it thrown in the garbage rather than settle up front for a smaller serving?

Perhaps your own experiences are similar. Perhaps not. Food is a subject too often taken for granted in America because we have so much of it. Should we look at it differently? I would like to hear your views.

E-mail me at arch@archibald99.com or comment on this blog.

Looking at Reagan - huckster or salesman of the year

No one really cares about the lives of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. Former presidents are another story. Consider Ronald Reagan whose presidency ended in January 1989 and who died in June 2004. When he died it took seven days to haul him across the country from California to Washington and back to the land of fruits and nuts, to round up the usual fawning suspects to praise him fulsomely to the heavens before finally putting him in the ground. It is not unreasonable to suspect his early career in show business influenced his final bow on the American stage.

As time passes, however, it is possible to look at Mr. Reagan and consider whether he was the great savior of the Western World from the evil empire, the Soviet Union, or the "amiable dunce" as early critics labeled him. Or, perhaps he was something else, something in between the worshipers and the icon bashers. Two new books by Will Bunch (Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our future, Free Press, 276 pages, $25.00) and William Kleinknecht (The Man Who Sold The World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America, Nation books, 316 pages, $31.00) will provide new insights.

Like the chameleon who changes the color of his skin to suit his mood or match his surroundings, Reagan flipped from being a Roosevelt liberal and union president to being a co-operator with the House Committee on Un-American Activities in outing Hollywood reds and a spokesman for General Electric where he honed his "Morning in America" image.

The one constant in Reagan's career from hawking light bulbs to occupying the Oval Office is that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. The middle class got stuck with the resulting bill. Much is made these days about a small percentage of rich people paying all the income taxes. Well, hell, they got all the money they ought to pay the taxes.

These two new books aside, one political observer, Garret Keizer, a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine, suggests that a longer view of Mr. Reagan may be necessary. Perhaps twenty-years is not enough time to properly assess the man and the myth. In the April Notebook essay in Harper's, Mr. Keizer writes:

"Take for example, that 'arch conservative' Ronald Reagan, who from the perspective of a hundred years will be seen as the last of the California hippies, a man who told us that if we just let the markets run wild and the Magic Bus of juggernaut capitalism go barrel-assing down the road with its freak flag flying all would be groovy and out of sight. What was his 'Morning in America,' but a cover of 'Aquarius'; what was his presidency but the last act of 'Hair?' - preferable, I admit, to the helter-skelter criminality of Cheney and Bush. But to call either administration 'conservative' in its blithe overconfidence is to hold up a picture of your brain on drugs."

...hope for all the rest of us...

In Rochester, Pa. state food inspectors told some church ladies they couldn't sell pies they baked at home at the church lunch on Good Friday. Some state employees, obviously, don't have enough to do.

Closer to home state school administrators are struggling to keep their schools afloat and some 1,500 teachers on the job. Trouble is Governor Mark Sanford isn't doing his share. He has to date refused to release $700 million in stimulus funds that could be used for education. President Obama's team told the governor he could not use those dollars to pay down long term debt. The governor now says he will release the money if the legislature finds a matching sum in South Carolina revenue to pay down long term debt. As a former legislator I know if the legislature - acting for the citizens of South Carolina - had $700 million in revenue to pay down debt it wouldn't be looking to Washington in the first place.

The editorial staff of the local newspaper, The Post & Courier, has again taken the governor to task again for "his intransigence" in this matter. The paper accuses the governor of advancing his personal national profile in hopes of securing the Republican nomination for president in 2012. "There seems to be little doubt that Mr. Sanford is moving in that direction, and apparently his position on the stimulus money is playing better nationally than in South Carolina which is bearing the brunt of his refusal."

Three cheers for The Post & Courier. I've been reading this paper since I returned to South Carolina in 1959 and I cannot recall it ever criticizing a Republican like it recently has this governor. Maybe there is hope for the rest of us.

Two views on the Navy brig in Hanahan

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Letters to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC

Brig leadership

Post and Courier reporter Tony Bartelme has done a valuable service to the newspaper's readers with his story on the Hanahan brig. The professionalism of the brig's leaders and staff comes across loud and clear. I believe this story ought to dissolve a lot of apprehension about housing "war on terror" prisoners in the Hanahan brig.

When the brig opened, I was the public affairs director at the S.C. Department of Corrections. The brig leadership and staff at that time came to Columbia to learn some of the ways a modern, well-run prison system operated.

I remember SCDC personnel stressing with brig personnel that "prisoners are sent to prison as punishment for their crimes, not for punishment." Again the attitude of the brig's current leadership, as reported by Mr. Bartleme, makes it clear they still understand this, even if other officials in the Department of Defense do not.

FRANCIS X. ARCHIBALD
Franke Drive
Mount Pleasant

No to terrorists

I am grateful to The Post and Courier for letting me know that terror suspect Al-Marri was relaxed and smiled during his recent court appearance. I think our nation needs to remember 9/11 every day and watch the videos of the sacrifices that were made on that day and the days after.

It has reached the point that terror suspects have more rights than anyone else. Now President Barack Obama wants to remove them from Guantanamo and put them somewhere else. Our state could possibly be the one picked to receive them.

I say if President Obama wants to put them on American soil, let it be in his home state. We do not want them in South Carolina.

PEGGY NICHOLS
Quail Hollow Court
North Charleston

Moscow Rules

A movie review this week for "Duplicity," starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, calls it a smart, sexy, sophisticated film. Roger Moore, the syndicated reviewer, said the picture was shot, edited and scored "like a sexy, '60s caper picture - conga drums and horns, split screens," and spy jargon ("Moscow Rules"). (The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC, 3/1/9/09.)

What are Moscow Rules? Other than those who slink around dark alleys, boarded up warehouses, lonely apartments and rainy streets associated with spies and spy-catching who even thinks of such things? Some say there never were any Moscow Rules; that these were the figment of fiction writers' imaginations. Others swear that vastly outnumbered Western spies operating against Soviet and East German Stasi agents throughout Europe during the Cold War survived by following Moscow Rules.

Fact or Fiction, true or not, these are the Moscow Rules:
1. Assume nothing.
2. Never go against your gut.
3. Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
4. Don't look back, you are never completely alone.
5. Go with the flow, blend in.
6. Vary your pattern and stay within your cover.
7. Lull them into a sense of complacency.
8. Don't harass the opposition.
9. Pick the time and place for action.
10. Keep your options open.

And by the way. "Duplicity" has four (out of five) stars. Ought to be a treat for Julia Roberts' fans. Clive Owen - an up and coming action actor has a bright future. See you at the movies.

Touche...

A friend asked: Where did President Obama get the cardboard cutout of Francis Archibald? (See "Fresh Sights and Faces", below). I also stopped long enough recently to be photographed near the FBI building, on Pennsylvania Avenue; our nation's monument to the now-controversial J. Edgar Hoover.

Fresh sights and faces

When I visited Washington recently on some family business I enjoyed several new sights and met some interesting people...including this view taken from the rooftop of the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue and this familiar face.

...stronger than before...

"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before." (President Barack Obama, Address to Congress, Feb. 24, 2009)

No on "Truth Commissions"

The Washington Post this morning (February 17) carried a story about Congressional proposals to establish "truth commissions" to investigate the Bush administration's alleged abuses of power, especially prosecution of the war on terrorism. The authors, David Rivkin, Jr. and Lee Casey write "A growing chorus of critics is demanding the creation" of such a commission.
It is not quite clear who makes up this chorus. What is clear is that the two proposals floating in Congress are a dangerous precedent for the United States to buy into. The commission(s) would be outside the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. We have had special commissions in the past, most notably the Warren Commission (who killed JFK?) and the commission on 9/11 failures (who screwed up?). The Warren Commission probably had it right: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, but that doesn't mean I believe all the testimony taken in that investigation any more than I believe all the testimony heard in the more recent 9/11 inquiry.
Such a commission would most likely be an almost open-ended witch hunt for something to pin on the Bush administration, to publicly crucify some officials in that administration, and indict one or two. I hold no brief for former President Bush, his administration or most of the people who ran it. But if we start each new administration with an investigation of the previous one then we encourage timidity, goal tending and likely turn imaginative, aggressive leaders into a "workers on routine" out of fear of what will follow when they leave office. This is not in the best interest of the country.
An administration does what it thinks best and it does what it has to do. History will record whether it was good or bad and history is not written months after the end of an administration or the start of a new one.
The Bush administration is gone. Let them go. Correct perceived abuses of power and move on. Congress ought to get on with providing leadership and cooperation with the new administration and helping to get the country moving again in the right direction. Fault finding and recriminations are a waste of resources.

Out with the old..in with the new computer

One night last week I believed the power supply in my seven-year old computer had died and I ordered a new one on overnight delivery so I could get up and running in a minimum amount of time. The new power supply is to the left in the first picture. I switched each of the hookups and cable connectors as I went along to avoid confusion. One out from the old and one in from the new, as in the second photo. 

Alas, this did not restore the computer and additional trouble shooting convinced me the motherboard had failed and is was time for a new computer. 

So it was off to Best Buy and a new selection. I chose a HP Pavilion, Special Edition and topped it off with a HP w2408h Wide Screen monitor which can be used horizontally or vertically - as in picture number 3. In this mode one can see an entire printed page (81/2 X11) without scrolling. 

Right now I am enjoying this capability. Whether I stay with it or go back to the traditional horizontal image will work itself out.

 

The stimulus bill and our elected representatives

Within the next 24 hours passage of the stimulus bill will re-affirm President Obama's November victory. Prior to November, the Republican Party's argument for tax cuts and less government spending proved unable to stop the economy from going over a deep cliff. The debate is over. He won. It is time for his new, bold and aggressive answers.

It ought to be clear to a blind man begging in the bazaar that less than the extraordinary measures proposed by the President will stall the economic engine in the station idling all the cars behind it. It is not only America's future recovery which hangs in the balance, the world is waiting for us to kick-start the world economy. A manufacturer in India was quoted recently as expressing his optimism. Prices for raw materials were down so he is buying. When he starts producing there has to be someone to buy and the recovery will continue to spread.

Some parts of the stimulus package warrant criticism but tossing the baby with the bath water is the worst response. Draining off questionable elements is the better way to go. Indications are much of this has already been done in the Senate. More may be possible in the Senate-House Conference Committee which will follow the Senate vote. But in the end, our elected representatives will fail us if they do not support the administration's goals in these critical times.

Why didn't he...?

Yesterday a TV talking head asked why President Obama issued his executive order setting pay and other limits for executives of companies who get bailout money from the taxpayers instead of letting congress put such limits into the pending stimulus legislation. Why? Because if congress did it the legislation would have more holes than a colander.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

President Barack Obama’s supporters – of which I am one – ought not to allow our enthusiasm to cloud our personal judgment. Those few (out of approximately thirty-four) cabinet and other nominees who have failed to pay taxes of whatever kind and stripe are embarrassments and rightfully have withdrawn, although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner got in amid criticism in the U.S. Senate. There has been much public attention in recent years to “nannygate” and other tax issues. Common people struggling to make ends meet, including paying taxes, are left to wonder if these “paid late” taxes would ever have been paid absent the vetting process for high office. The President has accepted responsibility for these goofs. He and the country will move on. He ought to know, however, we expect better from him in the future.

Light up the night

Letters to the Editor
The Post & Courier
134 Columbus St.
Charleston, SC 29403

Dear Sirs:

I live at Franke at Seaside, a retirement community off Rifle Range Road near the Isle of Palms connector. On many occasions I have driven down Rifle Range Road from Coleman Boulevard almost to the connector in almost complete darkness. This is not a safe practice, but it is a necessity at times.

I was not at the Mt. Pleasant Town Council committee meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 6, when a woman asked for lighting along Rifle Range Road. But in reading the story in the Jan. 7 Post and Courier, I am led to believe she and her request were treated with scorn. One would thing that what she has asked to be erected was a statue of Ted Kennedy in the city park being built at the foot of the Ravenel Bridge.

I recently made a special trip down Rifle Range Road from Coleman to the connector to see if there were sufficient poles. City administrator Mark Burdette was quoted as saying it would cost $117 per light if the poles were in place and $1,700 each if new poles were required.

There are poles aplenty to hang lights from. These carry power to all the homes on the road. Less than six of these have small lights attached, usually near a residence. Perhaps the occupants of those homes did a private deal with the power company.

Mount Pleasant ought to take a deep breath and listen to the woman who asked for the lights. There is no need for new poles. Lighting this road would promote safety, and perhaps discourage criminals, reduce automobile accidents, and break-ins of automobiles parked in yards. It would also put Mt. Pleasant in the lead to becoming a modern and model city.


Francis X. Archibald
Franke Drive
Mount Pleasant

(Published Tues. Jan. 20, 2009)

What I want from the new President

The inauguration of a new President is like the Christmas season - you develop a wish list and hope for the best. Tomorrow will be no exception. My list has been running around in my head for some time. I have sorted out and discarded the improbabilities and the insignificant. I don't expect our new President to perform miracles. But what I do wish for --in broad strokes-- is three things: peace, economic prosperity and a better way of life for all Americans.

First, peace. We need to stop fighting in foreign lands unless our national interests are threatened. Diplomacy and persuasion, compromise and empathy, and understanding, tolerance and forgiveness ought to be part of our national makeup and come way ahead of putting our brave men and women in harm's way. Having said this, let there be no doubt those who attack us must be chased to the ends of the earth. We must stay strong and vigilant to deter potential enemies.

Prosperity is made up of many parts. A strong marketplace, a vigorous blend of job opportunities and new educational possibilities to prepare Americans to compete in the world, are absolutely essential to our nation's growth and prosperity. Returning us to a realistic condition where individual home ownership and group pride in community are within the financial and realistic reach of all men and women is an equal part of prosperity.

Third, a better life for all. Illness and disease, poor medical care for many, and ever increasing medical insurance costs take a heavy toll on all Americans. Care for the sick and the elderly are already a national crises. Intolerance and disrespect make life unpleasant for all Americans. Human abuses due to age, sex, color, religion, national origin and politics must be curbed to promote the American dream.

No President can bring all these presents - just like Santa Claus doesn't always deliver. But the new President, Mr. Barack Obama, the first black American to become President of this great land can provide the leadership, the inspiration, the new ideas, the dedication to one and all --- and the power of the "bully pulpit" to get the ball moving and lead all Americans into new, uncharted waters of peace, economic prosperity and a better way of life.

Latest Family Grouping

Our daughters brought their dogs to visit Mary at Skilled Nursing at Franke at Seaside and she enjoyed the occasion. Martha (l to r) owns Q-tip, Mary, Wynn and her son Cooper with his new partner JR. Wynn and her family rescued JR from the pound at Myrtle Beach just before Christmas and picked him up after New Year's Day. Dogs are allowed to visit residents provided they are current with all necessary shots and under control. On Thursdays, several people in and around Franke at Seaside bring their dogs to Skilled Nursing and Assisted Living to visit the residents. Good therapy.

Quotes from recent readings

“The word ‘bankrupt’ originally came from Italy, deriving from banca rotta, or broken bench. When a medieval money lender could not pay his debts, his bench was broken in two, sometimes over his head.” (The Economist, Jan. 3, 2009, pg 45.)

“Money and religion tend to drive human behavior more than any other factors – with the possible exception of love – which is why the Middle East, with its oil and its central role in the story of the people who trace their origins to the God of Abraham, remains a perennial question.” (Jon Meacham, editor, Newsweek, Jan. 12, 2009, pg. 6.)

“For those who have lived through religious terror, it is never, never escaped. It did not end with my displacement from Kashmir 18 years ago. It did not end with my migration to the (United) States two and a half years ago. Terror, once experienced, transcends all real and unreal boundaries.” (Aarti Tikoo Singh, My Turn, Newsweek, Jan. 12, 2009, pg 20.)

The Lady of the Lake - redux

Recently, on an early morning exercise walk in Hidden Lakes subdivision in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., I observed a lady pause in her walk to stand at the edge of the water and gaze through the mist at a gazebo in the lake and the many birds resting on the roof. This called to mind “The Lady of the Lake,” Sir Walter Scott’s 200 year old poem set in the Scottish Highlands which retold the 16th century legend of a family banished and restored.

Touch it and you're dead

According to The New York Times, January 7, 2009:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be “a central part” of his administration’s efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade into the thorny politics of entitlement programs.

Far be it for me to tell the President-elect what to do, but I recall that the late great Representative from Massachusetts Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr., said: Social security is the third rail of politics. Touch it and you're dead!

(O'Neill was an outspoken Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts of Massachusetts. He was the Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement in 1987, making him the second longest-serving Speaker in U.S. history after Sam Rayburn and the longest-serving Speaker without a break.)

Why there is no room at Blair House

A reader in New Hampshire referred me to a story in The New York Times, published December 12, 2008, explaining why President-elect Obama and his family could not use the Blair House starting in early January. The story says, "The Obamas were told that they could move into Blair House on Jan. 15, but no earlier, because it is booked, an Obama transition official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 'We explored the idea so that the girls could start school on schedule,' the official said. 'But there were previously scheduled events and guests that couldn’t be displaced.'"
"White House officials declined to disclose specifically who is using Blair House during that period, for what purpose or how they could take precedence over the president-elect of the United States when it came to government housing; one White House official would say only that it had been booked for 'receptions and gatherings' by members of the departing Bush administration. Those receptions, the official said, 'don’t make it suitable for full-time occupancy by the Obamas yet.'"

Who outranks President-elect

President-elect Obama and his family are staying in a Washington hotel until they move into the White House. We are told that Blair House, used by Presidents and executives of other nations' is booked-up. No one has published (that I know of) who the "bookee" is. It would be good to know who outranks the President-elect. I called The Washington Post on Saturday and a man at the national desk said they did not know, President Bush had not told them, and they didn't care. I sent an e-mail to The New York Times and have not had a meaningful response from there.

A South Carolina lady passes

Eartha Kitt, a South Carolina girl who by the stint of her own ability and charm climbed from the cotton fields of the old South to become one of the premier vocalists of the 20th Century died on Christmas - December 25, 2008. She will be missed by everyone who heard her sing. (Photo by Michelle V. Atkins, New York Times.)

Says it all

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

This week I saw "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," based on a book written by the Irish novelist John Boyne - he drafted the outline of the book in less than three days. The story revolves around an 8-year old boy who moves from early World War II Berlin with his father, mother and sister to a place in the country. This is a new assignment for his father, a senior officer in the SS, who has been made commandant of a killing concentration camp. The family does not know about this and lives a short distance from the camp in a secluded, beautiful house where the father also keeps his office. The boy is a typical 8-year old and takes to exploring. He encounters the barbed wire fence he believes is to keep the animals out of the farm he has been told is on the other side. He meets and befriends a 8-year old Jewish boy who is a prisoner. The story is about their friendship, betrayal and renewed friendship. The story of innocent youth is well dramatized and the end comes so quickly and with such devastation that when the picture ended no one in the local audience moved. The credits rolled for several minutes showing us the minutiae of even who the electrician was before anyone got up and left. It made such a strong impact. I recommend it highly.
(PS: I apologize if you receive this twice. I sent an earlier e-mail to family and friends but did not intend to load up your inbox.)

Bring back crucifixtion

The United Nations Security Council has given the Secretary General 90 days to come up with a strategy for dealing with piracy. I have given some thought to the subject and offer my opinion as to what may have beneficial results: Bring back crucifixion.

This simple strategy against the pirates in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia, and in the Straits of Malacca, is worth trying. Acts of piracy are on the increase. Holding ships and people for ransom are outrageous criminal acts.

There is no indication that any pirates are acting out against "oppression by infidels" or any other reason often quoted by terrorists. Pirates are not terrorists. They are pure and simple brigands, criminals, murderers and all-around low life's. There is no political movement supporting piracy, no claim to desire a Kingdom of Pirates under any law, man or God's.

We know that Caesar crucified pirates who had kidnapped him and held him for ransom, (admittedly he never succeeded in putting an end to piracy.) Although crucifixion has largely fallen out of style in the Western world, as recently as 2003 an Englishman was sentenced in Saudi Arabia to partial beheading and crucifixion. Partial beheading and crucifixion is one of the punishments known under sharia (traditional Islamic law) as al-hadd, the limit, a reference to the ultimate sanction allowed by God.

Although the Englishman's sentence was not carried out,Saudi Arabia reportedly crucified two highway robbers a few years ago.

We ought not to adopt Islamic law totally in the Western world but in dealing with people to whom Western law (arrests, lawyers, courts, trials, juries, prison sentences, fines, parole, and eventual release) has no fear factor then we should deal with in terms they may well understand and appreciate.

Ships can try to defend themselves with heavy water cannons and ear splitting music to ward off pirates. They may also "pour on the coal" and outrun pirates usually attacking in smaller boats. But it is worth considering the potential payback to catching and crucifying a few pirates and letting them rot in the sun for three days to a week.

Dr. C. Truman Davis* more than 30 years ago wrote an essay on crucifixion which describes the grisly procedure in detail and is worthy of reading. Many pirates may not be able to read and thus may not be scared off, but seeing their buddies Ali, Hosea and whoever hanging on a cross rotting in the hot African sun may well send a message to other pirates to consider a new line of work.

(* Dr. C. Truman Davis is a nationally respected Ophthalmologist, vice president of the American Association of Ophthalmology, and an active figure in the Christian schools movement. He is founder and president of the excellent Trinity Christian School in Mesa Arizona, and a trustee of Grove City College.)

"Shut up, your dirty Baathist"

My nominee for Judge of the Week is Iraq's chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al Khalifa who this week told a defendant he had just sentenced to death to "Shut up, you dirty Baathist," referring to Saddam's Sunni-dominated Baath Party.

The judge's order was directed to a former Baath party official Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafur, who shouted "Down with Persian-U.S. occupation" and "Welcome to death for the sake of Arabism and Islam" as the judge read his sentence of death, according to the Associated Press.

In America, we are accustomed to mainly tolerant judges who hold their tongues under difficult circumstances. It is refreshing - for at least a vicarious moment - to see one speak his mind.

Re-living the memories

The great treasure of pictures which appeared over many years in Life magazine are now becoming available to the public thanks to Life and Google. You can visit this web site and see for yourself. You can also put the site on your screen for frequent visiting or put it in your favorites list so you can find it in the future. This will be a great opportunity to re-visit some of the greatest pictures taken in the last century. Truly a cornucopia of images. And remember these were all done with film cameras, many in black and white - the true medium of the art.

Vox Populi

Two days ago I blogged the subject of bailing out the auto industry and asked for comments. Readers responded from across the country (Las Vegas to Virginia, New England to Florida ) to the question asked on November 19, 2008: Should we bail out the big three Detroit automakers? The responses (following) reflect the same ambivalence as currently reported from Capital Hill:

1. No, unless there is a Chapter 11.

2. Yes with restrictions.

3. My vote for the Car Manufacturers is NO BAILOUT. Let them reorganize like all the other big industries, like the airlines etc. etc.

4. I can't believe I'm saying this, but someone should carefully craft a way of letting them hang. There must be a way to chastise them severely, and yet not let the economy collapse. Our railroads exhibited a similar amount of blindness after World War II and they have suffered for it, but they are now surviving and with the energy crunch it's possible they will have a strong re-growth. Glad I'm not the one who has to make these decisions. They are tough, but there are a lot of little guys who if they fail to keep abreast of things they drown. No one bails them out!

5. As a long-time Honda and Toyota fan, I hate that the Detroit guys got themselves into this pickle, but they have a history of getting us into lemons.

6. Yes, but only with caveats -- total change of top mgt. in all 3, commitment to Hybrids, decreased salaries and benefits for workers, markedly lower CEO salaries, and a reduction of dividends to stockholders. If we were in a normal market all 3 should declare bankruptcy and start over

7. No. (Although regardless of what this administration does, Obama will lend them a hand when he gets in.)

8. Not only no but as Albert would have said, hell, no!

9. No bailout for the Big 3.

10. Absolutely NOT!!! I vote NO.

11., 12, and 13. NO.

Auto industry bailout - yes or no?

The only thing more depressing than a man with a cup begging outside a bus station was the sight of the big three auto executives groveling before a congressional committee and seeking a bailout of the auto industry.

GM wants $10 to $12 billion, Ford $7 to $8 billion and Chrysler $7 billion. This is on top of the earlier $25 billion congress earmarked for auto industry loans.

Opinions are like noses, everybody gets one. The nose is the easy part. It already protrudes from the front of your face when you come screaming and kicking out of the womb and grows as it pleases. Opinions on the other hand take an effort to finalize. Conflicting information and data complicate the formation process. So it is with the prospective bailout.

First, we are told the alternative is too horrible to contemplate. Michael Gerson, op-ed columnist, writing in The Washington Post this morning quotes economists' estimates “that a rapid auto industry meltdown could cost up to 3 million jobs – perhaps sending the jobless rate as high as 9.5 percent.”

Even worse is the “bottomless psychology of panic” that would ensue.

Like every coin there is another side to this story. The big three developed, promoted and sold cars and trucks so big they lost sight of the world trend. Americans who bought them because of the dual macho mentality “bigger is better” and “we’re Americans” got caught up in their own hubris and lost interest fast when the vehicles didn’t hold up, gas prices soared, the economy soured and their own incomes took a hit.

I was part of that group at one time. I was going to be the first on my block to get the Lincoln Navigator. I was as excited as a ten-year old at the prospect of a new bicycle at Christmas. When they were delivered I went to the showroom and gradually came to my senses.

But even when I got “too soon smart” I did so only in part. I drive a Lincoln Towncar, like many Americans over 65 to whom the car was heavily marketed in recent years. Known as the OCM (Official Car of the Mafia) the Towncar will soon be used exclusively as a limousine to take rock stars and divas to Vegas openings and championship fights.

Meanwhile every auto maker based outside the fifty states makes cars smaller, more fuel efficient and less troublesome. And they make them cheaper with non-union labor - but don’t blame only the American unions for Detroit’s troubles. It took two sides to negotiate and approve those now expensive labor contracts. The executives also took the big salaries, stock bonuses and other comps and never looked back. Shareholders took the dividends and profits when the sold appreciated stock.

Now these same executives say they have gotten some of that old time religion and are on track to compete with foreign based auto makers…it is, they claim, only the turmoil in the broader economy that threatens them, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bailout, yes or no? How would you vote? Send your response to arch@archibald99.com.

No to Quantam of Solace

It has been a long time since I watched a movie I liked less than Quantam of Solace, the current James Bond flick which reportedly has already grossed more than $200 million in world-wide release. It is as if dozens of car chases - and ultimately an airplane chase- are strung together and sandwiched around kicking the daylights out of people. When it really gets going God is left with the difficult task of sorting out the corpses.

Early Bond films protected the free world from the evil Communists and other assorted nut jobs who somehow gained control of nuclear weapons. Bond was the star and the American CIA came across as a friend.

In Solace, the gig is about finding the man who killed Bond's early love and who will contol the water supply in Bolivia. I like water as much as anyone else, but who controls it in some far off land is not high on my list of prime items of interest. Unless Bond ceases his efforts against the bad guys, it is said, "the Americans will take him out."

The film reportedly has at least two dozen factual and continuity flaws, although I did not spot all these during my two hours of boredom. There was a time when a scene ended Hollywood took a still picture of the actors and made sure when the next scene was filmed the actors were dressed exactly as they were earlier. This was especially important to the flow of the finished film. This must be a lost art.

Pigeon-brained espionage

With the election over I turned my attention to other news to catch up on the important, the mundane, the inconsequential and the weird. The Israel News (ynetnews.com) had a report that in late October Iranian security forces had seized two “spy pigeons” near two nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran. Reportedly “metal rings and invisible strings” were attached to one of the birds. (Iranian sources did not clarify how the “invisible strings” could be seen.) Iranian sources say it is possible these birds were being used to spy on the nuclear facilities. They have been turned over to defense officials.

This in itself is not evidence of paranoia in Iran or of a breakdown in mental health or over indulgence in Columbian pharmaceuticals. Last year Iranian police commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam reportedly confirmed that 14 squirrels were arrested for espionage and found equipped with the spy gear of foreign agencies. They were stopped before they could act; another triumph for Iranian intelligence services.

I have no first-hand knowledge of spy pigeons, metal rings, invisible strings or squirrels equipped with spy gear. But, in a book* earlier this year, Robert Wallace and Keith Melton told of a CIA plan years ago to use a cat to eavesdrop on an Asian head of state during strategy sessions with his aides. Cats wandered in and out of the rooms and were so common in the region they were usually ignored. The Agency came up with a plan to put a microphone in the ear of the cat, run an antenna wire through his fur and down his back and implant the transmitter and power supply in the base of his skull. A veterinarian’s skillful hands made all this feasible, but after testing and recognizing that the cat handler in the area would have no control over the cat, the project was judged impractical and closed. Maybe the Iranians are reading this book. (*Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s spy techs from communism to Al-Qaeda, Dutton, The Penguin Group, New York.)

Mr. President: Another something to work on

As if we needed another reminder of the terribleness of Alzheimer's, The Wall Street Journal today published the story of a 45-year old man, father of three and former chief financial officer of a hedge fund, who was "diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, capping nearly five years of uncertainty and fear about his increasing forgetfulness and difficulty with language."

Yesterday, in a discussion with a Mt. Pleasant, SC, dermatologist, he told me years ago he suspected a connection between patients' reactions to injections and surgery and the likelihood of the onset of Alzheimer's. He suspected patients who openly expressed themselves in often vulgar language about the pain and discomfort were likely to eventually be diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Years later his continuing experience in his practice supports this early assessment.

Earlier this year a retired minister at an Alzheimer's conference said when his wife came down with the disease she often uttered words which shocked him, their family and close friends. This was the release of inhibitions exhibited by some Alzheimer's patients.

After the Journal article appeared I looked at the WSJ web site for comments. I was not unduly surprised. Alzheimer's " is the worst disease to which I have ever been exposed, " wrote one daughter whose mother was stricken.

Another wrote, "It destroyed my father who fell into isolation, alcohol and depression at the loss of his life partner and died a year later believing he was being punished by God. What could he have possibly done to deserve this?" Alzheimer's is "a thief of the present and works backward taking your life one grain of sand at a time."

A third said "always keep your eye on the spouse because it takes a horrible toll. We focus on my dad and are helping him move to “Act II” of his life without mom."

After the onset of my wife's Alzheimer's, I spoke with a care giver's advocate. She told me the most important thing for me to do was "to take care of" myself. There is no cure for Alzheimer's - although the search goes on in limited ways. "If the caregiver goes down, everyone goes down," she said. "

So it is in the Journal story today. The wife's life has been turned upside down; she has had to return to the work place; her children's lives have been affected (no one can accurately know the short and long term effects); her husband takes cabs to the golf course and hitches rides home from strangers thereby threatening his own security.

(A friend of mine was found one day more than 100 miles from home and did not know how he got there or where he was. His Alzheimer's diagnosis came shortly thereafter.)

We need a national effort to unlock the secrets of Alzheimer's and discover a cure. The Journal estimates there are more than 500,000 people living with the disease and other forms of dementia "at an atypically young age." We ought not to dress it up with the language of war (e.g. war on poverty, drugs, crime, illegal immigration, etc.) but we need fresh eyes on the disease and potential preventatives or cures.

I hope this will become part of the new administration's efforts to restore America to humane greatness.