Friendship

“Friendship is often an amusement, sometimes an education, at least a reprieve from loneliness, at best a human connection of the highest and grandest kind. Contradiction is implicit in the very nature of modern friendship. F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the sign of an intelligent person is the ability to keep two contradictory ideas in his head at the same time and still function. With friendship, the two contradictory ideas are these: first, friends can be an immense complication, a huge burden, and a royal pain in the arse; and second, without friendship, make no mistake about it, we are all lost.” Epstein, Joseph. Friendship – an Expose. (Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston-New York., 2006, 270 pages, $24.)

Sports Note

A guy whose wife ran off with his Mercedes, his best friend, the family dog, all the money, and all the booze and grass laying around the house has better prospects than the Red Sox.

The beat goes on at the Post Office

They are still at “it” at the local Post Office. “It” being a callous attitude toward customers, (AKA: citizens and taxpayers.) Back in June I wrote about this problem (On Improving the Post Office) and yesterday I visited the same place again to mail five flats and see if the service had improved. They were looking good when I walked in, but it all went to hell-in-a-hand-basket quicker than a bodice is ripped from a well-endowed Southern maiden in a romance novel. The line of customers had 12-15 people waiting. Four uniformed clerks were working, and one in street clothes announced a couple of times that if anyone was there to pick up packages or mail to come to end of the counter. She served a couple of people. Then it all broke down. With three people waiting, two clerks closed their stations and commenced to do some kind of paper work important, I assume, to the Postal Service. They did this without checking what the other two clerks might be doing. One was serving a customer with a big carton (it originally held ten reams of office paper) full of large brown envelopes, each one of which had to be individually weighed and a postage sticker printed and posted on it. The other clerk was doing her best to handle all the other customers. Within minutes the waiting line of three customers had swelled to almost 20. When I left the Post Office it was two clerks closed down for paperwork, one continuing to work the box of large brown envelopes and one soldiering on. The person in street clothes had disappeared. Why do they act like this? If they must close down and do that all-fired important paper work, they ought to go in the back room and not stand there ignoring customers. No cell phone usage was noted.

New Police Chief-Former OSI

Gregory G. Mullen, a former special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Deputy Chief of the Virginia Beach (VA) Police Department, has been selected as the new police chief in Charleston, SC, America’s most historic city. Mullen was selected by Mayor Joseph P. Riley after a nation-wide search and consideration of 137 applicants. Riley interviewed Mullen three times before selecting him “as an agent of change” for a city recently gripped by gun violence.
Mullen worked in Virginia Beach for 21 years, starting in 1985 as a beat cop and working his way up to Deputy Chief. His OSI service preceded his long career in Virginia Beach. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2002 after 22 years of active and Reserve Service.

Under cover of darkness

After the sun went down and brought on the dark of night, 230 cheapies in the House of Representatives couldn’t do the right thing and simply increase the minimum wage for the first time since 1997; no these avaricious panderers had to crank in some tax breaks for the richest families in the United States and exempt all estates below $10 million dollars (for a couple) from taxes. The package deal increases the minimum wage to $7.25, up from $5.15. Not many individuals can live on that, much less support a family. (By the way, this same Congress recently voted themselves a pay raise of more than $3,000 annually.)

(The favorable vote included 196 Republicans and 34 Democrats. The “no” votes were Democrats 158, Independent 1 and Republicans 21. Twenty-two did not vote and one voted “present”.)

The estate tax changes will likely cost the treasury an estimated $268 billion over the next ten years, and diminish chances to lower the deficit which grows daily due primarily to costs associated with the war in Iraq. Three Republican members of the South Carolina delegation, Henry Brown, Bob Inglis and Joe Wilson, voted for the legislation. They will soon be home for the August recess and probably bragging how they struck a blow for the common man and senior citizens. They ought to be ashamed to masquerade as fiscal conservatives, which is how they campaigned. It is no wonder they waited until after midnight to cast their votes and slip out of Washington.

The legislation now goes to the Senate where it faces strong opposition from some committee chairmen whose feathers have been ruffled by combining the wage hike with estate tax and private pension reform (employers will have to more fully fund pension plans.) The allure of the minimum wage increase and the pension reforms may be too much for senators to ignore and a majority may hold their noses and vote for the House measure. The rest of us will have to tolerate the smell.

50th Anniversary of our Church

The official observance of the 50th anniversary of our church, Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, in Hanahan, SC, took place July 18 with the Most Reverend Robert J. Baker, Bishop of Charleston, celebrating Mass at 7 pm. Over 400 people crowded into the church and following the Mass went to the school auditorium for a reception. Father Jerome C. Powers was appointed pastor of the parish on June 15, 1956; early Masses were held in an athletic field clubhouse owned by the Paper Company (Westvaco) and later in a trailer donated by a benefactor. Ground was broken for the church on July 14, 1957 and the first Mass in the church was celebrated by Father Powers on February 23, 1958. Following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the church had to be re-built, almost from the ground up and today continues its 50-year old role as the spiritual centerpiece of Catholic life in Hanahan. Father Edward W. Fitzgerald is the current and tenth pastor.

Representation by cheapos

A majority of our Congressmen and women have refused to raise the minimum wage again (the last time was nine years ago) but have agreed to take another 2 percent over their current $168,500 for themselves. Is there no shame in this Republican controlled Congress?

For a family of three, the (annual) minimum wage of $10,700, set in 1997, is now more than $5,000 below the federal definition of poverty. In that same time, a lawmaker’s salary rose $31,600— better than 20 percent — while the purchasing power of a minimum-wage earner deteriorated by 20 percent. (From The New York Times editorial, Earning That Congressional Raise, July 13, 2006).

A raise in the national minimum wage to $7.25 per hour would go a long way for the poorest of the poor who struggle daily in this great land of opportunity. In my opinion, the argument that such a raise would break the backs of the small businessman and woman in America doesn't hold water, except in, apparently, this Republican controlled Congress. It is an embarrassment to be represented by such cheapos.

The Room

The building at 34 East 62nd street in New York which was destroyed by an explosion on July 10 was built in 1882 and was once site of The Room, a secret hideaway complete with a mail slot and an unlisted telephone number. It had no full-time occupant. Access was limited to a select few successful, rich, powerful and patriotic Americans. These were friends, neighbors and confidants of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, both Republicans and Democrats, who kept the President informed on world affairs, carried out intelligence duties for him and delighted in playing secret agent man. It is easy 70 years later to laugh and dismiss these businessmen, bankers, lawyers, and publishers, but in the 1930s and until World War II the United States had no OSS, CIA, DIA or other national intelligence service. (The FBI’s overseas intelligence activities in South America would not come into play until after WWII started.) One of the early visitors to The Room was William Donovan, a Republican lawyer, and contemporary of FDR’s at Columbia Law School. He undertook missions for the President in the mid-thirties, served as Coordinator of Information, director of the Office of Strategic Services, and is remembered today with a life-size statue in the lobby of the CIA headquarters. Members of The Room, it has been reported, gave President Roosevelt, among other things, secret access to banking information and telegraphic communications – similar to two intelligence gathering efforts the current President is catching hell for.

The latest waterfall

Having tried to improve the postal service (see preceding blog), I turned my attention to my pond and its waterfall. Since I built the pond in March 2001, I've had a narrow waterfall in various configurations and earlier this year a daughter-in-law told me about a commercial spillway with a wide (18 inches) throat. This presented two problems: how to position it so the water would drop directly into the pond (and avoid loss of water into the rock and soil) and also camouflage the black plastic appearance. I could not achieve both objectives satisfactorily with the rip rap stone wall I preferred so I built a 20 inch wide spillway using cedar (which should eventually turn grey and blend with the rip rap). I positioned the commercial spillway in the rear of this to regulate the flow of water through the cedar spillway into the pond. The water is pumped from the pond through a Laguna UV sterilizer to suppress algae. To the rear of the pond I cleaned out the brush, laid in some weed suppressant cover and topped this with a layer of cedar chips. The waterfall offers a soothing sound both while sitting on the back porch or sleeping with the window open, and it helps to oxygenate the water for the more than 35 fish in the pond.

About the postal service: A supervisor called to say that signs (Please turn off cell-phones) are on order from Washington and another clerk will be called from the back room when the line builds in the service area. We will check on this and report back.

On improving the Post Office

Recently I visited the local branch of the United States Postal Service. This is one of those 38,000 beleaguered outposts of citizen service that our congress years ago in its infinite wisdom simultaneously put under the control of something called a Board of Governors and washed its hands of the only service in the United States that was (is) more hard-pressed than the DMV. (That is if you don’t count the welfare office in New York.)

Only two counter clerks were working and my wait time was between 20-25 minutes. The clerk who serviced me said another clerk was on vacation, something I could appreciate. What I don’t understand is why one of the 100,000 part-time workers who back up the 800,000 full-time workers couldn’t be pressed into service at our local post office. Look at the numbers: 38,000 post offices, 100,000 part-time workers, an almost three to one worker ratio.

And another thing. Every one of sound mind and body agrees that smokers do not have the right to pollute our air space. During my wait at the post office I had to listen to a blond haired woman in tight jeans and wearing high heels, about 50-55 years old, with a German accent, talk on her stupid cell phone to another female dimwit on the other end and dispense advice on to how to correct, improve and put up with some male dimwit who had the unfortunate luck to be connected somehow to these two female dimwits. She was two customers ahead of me and only stopped talking on the cell phone when she was next to being called to the counter. Cell phone usage in post offices by patrons should be outlawed until the wait time is reduced to two minutes or less.

I have communicated these views to the Postal Service and I am sure they will be on the agenda at the next meeting of the nine-member Board of Governors. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Weather

Last night on the local news (Charleston, SC) we had a substitute weatherman who said the regular guy was on vacation and the weather would be good for a couple of weeks. This brings up two questions: Did the regular guy arrange the weather to accommodate his vacation schedule and if the weather is going to be good why do we need a substitute weatherman?

We miss you, Duke

Died: June 11, 1979
Born: May 26, 1907

Criminal Activity

When I was a city judge in Hanahan I had authority to issue search warrants and did so upon affidavits by sworn police officers which usually took up less than one page and often related to minor criminal activity. The judge who issued a search warrant on Congressman William J. Jefferson was given an 85 page affidavit from the FBI alleging major offenses. This is not an issue about the separation of powers, it is about possible major criminal offenses and no one - not even a Congressman - ought to be beyond the law. (Published as Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, June 6, 2006.)

THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE

THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLEIt is a source of wonder that rising five years into the AFGHANISTAN story, (21st century edition), we find that Allied soldiers lives and nations' treasure, are being expended in a country whose principal contribution to the world was to have been the base HQ and training centre to the terrorists of 9/11; which remains the world's prime source of opiates, and whose citizens are grouped into tribal and religious factions that hate each other - almost as much as they hate foreign soldiers on their soil. The end game from the point of view of the west is to stay until the fledgling democracy is secure, the terrorist threat is no more and, well, hopefully not until they all love one another. Is it just irony to observe that the Taliban government, (pre 9/11) in their final year 2001, under some persuasion no more, from the west, had reduced the poppy harvest to a mere74 tons? Last year with US and NATO forces in country, a new national army and all manner of inspectors and mercenaries tasked with destroying the crop in the ground, the harvest ran out at about 4,500 tons, just 2.4% down on the previous year. It is true that alternative crops have not been forthcoming and that the farmers just have no other crop. That problem needs bigger brains working on a permanent solution than seem currently to be deployed, because the billions squandered on a clearly failed mission might be better used in intervention purchasing to keep the farmers alive, whilst alternative crops are propagated. (Published by Newnations (a not-for-profit company) PO Box 12 Monmouth United Kingdom NP25 3UW Fax: UK +44 (0)1600 890774  enquiries@newnations.com )

Who gave...for the land

Today we pause to recall the sacrifice of all who gave their lives for the land we love and live in; for the men and women who have served and are proudly called veterans and for those serving in our Armed Forces around the world today.

Our family is proud to call Mom and Dad (USAF) and sons Frankie (USMC) and James (USAF) "Veterans." A grandson, Trey Turner is serving in the USMC.

Anne's Kids - Reunion 2006

On Mother’s Day I left my wife and mother of our five children behind and headed off from Charleston to Maine for a reunion with my four siblings. It wasn’t planned that way but my wife opted out of making the trip and I flew off totally oblivious to what was happening in New England. By Tuesday, after almost three days of rain, the papers reported the area was having the third worst rain storm since they began keeping records back somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century. In our home town of Lowell, MA, about 3,000 people were evacuated from homes along the banks of the Merrimack River. Only the 1936 flood that caused the Merrimack to overflow its banks and put much of Lowell under water was worst than last week's rain storm.
We gathered in Wells Beach, ME, and had a grand time. One brother, coming by car from Staten Island, was unable to get to the reunion because of the weather. He was missed, and we told him by phone that we faulted him for all our youthful misfortunes. Somehow, although he was only three or four, we said he caused an older brother to fall off the top of a bridge across a canal near our home. Similarly, in his absence, he was at fault when a bus threw a board up from the street breaking a sister’s leg. He accepted all this with good humor, although I suspect when he got to yakking it up later with his friends we would be somehow responsible for his youthful injuries and ailments.
I had planned to stop in on a few friends and e-mail acquaintances unannounced but once on the ground in Maine the weather made all that impossible. Maybe some day soon.
This was the first time we got together since our mother died four years ago. Families get caught up in what they do and times passes ever so swiftly, especially, it seems, as people age. I suggested the gathering last December and it turned out to be a happy time for catching up, reminiscing, updating on the kids whereabouts and accomplishments, and discussing future plans. We ate a lot of fresh fish, especially haddock and lobster. Fresh cold water fish is the best eating, I believe, and difficult to come by in South Carolina. My sisters had some fig squares, also not readily found in Charleston, when I arrived and to take home with me. I ate them in the airports at Portland, LaGuardia and Raleigh Durham. None made it to Charleston.
It was a good time for all and although about 12 inches of rain fell on Wells Beach during the storm we minded it not a wit. After all, we four on hand had survived the ’36 flood.

Fantasy (or insanity)

In a moment of fantasy (or insanity) I was attracted to a car ad in The Wall Street Journal today by the price: $3,995 per month. This is for 35 months at 7.75% APR, one final payment of $215,000 with $42,648 down. The car: A Rolls-Royce Phantom offered by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Miami. My wife came into the kitchen where I was reading the paper and sipping coffee and she broke the spell bringing me back to the real world, "the truck needs to be filled up with gas."

Why I'm in the Gulag

Ran across this old Soviet Union joke earlier today: Three guys in the Gulag are talking about why they are there. The first man says, "I came to work five minutes late every day and they charged me with sabotage." The second prisoner says, "I came to work five minutes early every day and they charged me with spying." The third, "I came to work on time every day and they charged me with owning a western watch."

Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Add this to your list of strange behavior in Wal-Mart parking lots. Someone apparently bought a pair of shoes, sandals, slippers, or some kind of footwear at the Wal-Mart in North Charleston, SC, and changed into them in the parking lot. Evidence: The saddest looking pair of beat up, worn out tennis shoes were set side-by-side in one of the shopping cart corrals. These shoes had more miles on them than hairs on a gorilla. My late mother thought wearing new footwear out of the store was gauche; what would she think of putting them on in the parking lot.

Red Sox Slugger Breaks Car Window; no arrest

Last night (May 6, 2006) at Fenway Park, Manny Ramirez broke the rear window of a sedan parked on a garage roof across the street from the Green Monster when he belted a tape-measure home run in the fourth inning of a game against Baltimore, according to the Boston Globe this morning. (Photo from http://www.RedSox.com)