Bent Corner

With the results of Tuesday’s Indiana and North Carolina primaries tallied up, I think we finally have a clear winner for the Democratic nominee for President. It looks like Republican John McCain will be squaring off against Barack Obama.

If you are a Republican, I can’t help but think this is good news to you. It almost certainly assures another Republican President till at least 2012.

I simply don’t think Obama has a chance of beating McCain. I might be wrong. I’ve been wrong before and I most certainly will be wrong again. With that said, I just think comes with a lot of things the Republicans will jump on and capitalize to make him look as though he has no business in the White House.

Most of the time Republicans have to make stuff up about their opponents. They wont have to do that with Obama.

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While I was in the Air Force and stationed in upstate New York, I took a few college classes so I could finish an Associates degree that I started years earlier. One of the local colleges, Utica College of Syracuse University held night classes on the Air Force base. The classes met once a week for about four hours.

They were your typical community college night classes. One of the classes I took was European history. It was taught by a man named John Zogby. He’s the same John Zogby that owns and operates a successful political polling business called Zogby International. He’s frequently on cable TV news discussing how any given politician is doing in any given election. He and his polls are often mentioned by political pundits.

The class took place during the 1992 presidential elections. I guess it was a busy time for Zogby’s polling business. So busy that Zogby presented a somewhat “unusual” proposition to the class: anyone that came into his polling business and did eight hours of telephone polling would have their final grade for the class raised one whole level.

I have to admit the proposition sounded good. Our final grade for the class was based on two things - the midterm exam and the final exam. Both were predominantly essay type questions. Because each test made up 50% of the overall grade, if you tanked the midterm, the best you could hope for as a final grade was a “C”. You could only get that if you absolutely aced the final.

Most of us agreed to his offer. Before any of us could actually go to Zogby’s polling center and work the phones, we had our midterm exam. I got my exam back with an “A”. Getting such a high grade on the midterm guaranteed that I would finish the class with at least a “C” which also meant I didn’t need to worry about raising my final grade one whole grade level. I was getting my 3 credit hours no matter what I did or didn’t do on the side for Zogby.

I decided not to work eight hours at Zogby’s polling business.

It turned out I was not the only one. Two weeks after returning our exams, Zogby went around the room to ask each one of us when we could come in and work for him. Everyone he called upon replied that they had changed their mind and wouldn’t be working at his polling business after all.

He realized something was going on. He stopped asking us individually and instead asked for a show of hands of the people that were still planning on working for him. Nobody raised their hand. He asked us as a group why we had all changed our minds. At first no one said anything. The silence seemed to last for a very long time. Finely one student raised her hand and said, “I thought about it and it seemed wrong to get college credit in European history by working at your polling business. It seemed unethical”.

If I learned one thing in John Zogby’s European history class, it was that John Zogby doesn’t like to be called “unethical”.

The man freaked out. To say he lost his temper is downplaying it. He said that he had never been accused of doing anything unethical before and he resented the implication.

He finally calmed down and even apologized for his tirade. He went on to explain that no one would be required to work at his polling place and that he wanted to just forget the whole thing. He then proceeded with that night’s lesson. That lasted for all of three minutes. He suddenly stopped the lecture and gave in to his anger all over again. He said that he could not get over the fact that anyone could accuse him of being unethical. He claimed that he couldn’t get it out of his mind.

I just remember feeling extremely uncomfortable. Why did he ask the question if he was going to have such a hissy fit over the answer? The whole thing seemed strange, especially considering that his business is based on asking people questions.

He eventually calmed down again. The class continued on. Thankfully, nothing more was said about it.

I ended up finishing the class receiving a “C” for a final grade. This can only mean I received and “F” on my final. There’s no other way for my grade to have dropped so much. I never got my final exam back. The exam was taken the last evening the class met. I only found out my final grade from getting something in the mail a few weeks later.

I remember feeling that the final exam was no more difficult then the midterm. I remember feeling confident after taking it. To think that I was able to score an “A” on the midterm and an “F” on the final seemed a little ridiculous to me.

I think he gave my final exam a failing grade not because I didn’t know the material, but because I originally agreed to work at his business and then reneged on the deal. Being that both tests were predominantly essay questions, he had a lot of room to be subjective. I’m not even sure at this point which of the two grades I deserved the least. The “A”on the midterm or the “F” on the final. For all I know, I only got an “A” on the midterm because I originally agreed to work at his polling center. In my opinion, he was being dishonest with at least one of the grades.

I would have complained to the school, but I had to take one more class to earn enough credits for my Associates degree. Something that at the time I thought was important to have. I didn’t want to rock the boat. Plus, I didn’t really care. My goal for the class was to get my 3 credit hours in history and move on.

I don’t know if John Zogby is unethical. For all I know, it’s completely ethical for community college teachers to base grades on how much unpaid work their students do for them at their place of business. Maybe that’s just the way it’s done.

I just wouldn’t trust anything he says or does.

Evidently Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has a hard time telling the difference between AIDS and a highly contagious and scary disease from the middle ages. Back in 1992 when he was trying to become a U.S. senator, he answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. I have to think somebody at the AP kept Huckabee’s answers in a special file. The file was probably entitled, “WHACK JOB”.

Among the things advocated by Huckabee:

• He wrote that, “If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.”
• He suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies.
• He wrote that, “It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.”

In case you don’t remember, by 1992 we already knew that you couldn’t catch HIV or AIDS from casual contact with those that were infected. As far as infectious diseases go, it’s fairly difficult to contract. You don’t get it from shaking hands with someone or sitting next to them on a bus. Unless you are exchanging bodily fluids with someone who is either HIV positive or has AIDS, you have nothing to worry about.

Even back in 1992, people knew the idea of putting people with AIDS in special camps was a dumb idea. Everyone except Mike Huckabee.

Supposedly the Democratically-controlled Congress and President Bush are heading to a showdown over the future of health insurance for more than 10 million children. Not that I doubt for a nanosecond that Bush is against the idea of health insurance for poor children. I just don’t know if I’m ready to believe congress is willing to actually fight for anything unless it’s a worthless non-binding resolution.

This from the New York Times:

The president says the measure, which would renew and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, costs too much and would be “an incremental step toward the goal of government-run health care for every American.”

An incremental step toward the goal of government-run health care for every American? The government already runs health care in America. They control everything related to our health care. They control who can become a doctor. They control what drugs or procedures a doctor can administer to a patient.

There is a reason doctors in this country cannot prescribe marijuana to their patients suffering from glaucoma. It’s not because marijuana has not proven to be highly effective in treating glaucoma. It’s because the government wont allow doctors to prescribe it.

Americans are already used to having their health care micromanaged for them. The difference is that health care in this country is run by corporations interested in profit, not in the health and well being of the insured.

There is a reason every other country in the industrialized world has national health care.

I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t quite understand what attraction some gay men have with sexual encounters in public restrooms. I don’t even like using a public restroom to go to the restroom. Public restrooms are nasty and I don’t like using them unless I really need to.

Craig claims that he is not gay. Its hard to imagine why then he would plead guilty to disorderly conduct in conjunction to being arrested for lewd conduct in a men’s room.

This whole thing would be so much easier to understand if he was gay. It’s his assertion that he is a woman-loving heterosexual that makes this whole story really creepy. Being gay would only help to explain this whole thing, especially if he was a closeted Republican gay man.

The sad part about all this mess is that some people out there will take this story and conclude from this that all gay men like to troll public restrooms for gay sex. That’s simply not true. Gay men and women can be in committed relationships like anyone else. Why do conservatives so fervently battle the idea of gay marriage? If gay people are not capable of a committed relationship as they argue, why even bother trying to stop gay marriage?

The Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski
Suite 503
Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-4654

Dear Senator Barbara Mikulski:

This concerns the recent email you sent me asking me to shut off my electrical power this past Saturday for one hour. I didn’t see the message until today when I decided to clean out my spam folder. You claimed in your email that by turning off my electricity for one whole hour, I would be fighting global warming.

I have to ask you Senator Mikulski - do you know how hot it is in central Maryland this time of year? Telling someone in Hagerstown to turn off their electricity on a humid 91-degree day is just down right silly. Especially when you realize the air-conditioning will only have to work just that much harder after it is turned back on. You actually conserve more power Senator Mikulski by setting the thermostat to one temperature and leaving it alone.

I couldn’t help but notice you were not in Maryland this past weekend. No, you were on a taxpayer-funded trip to Greenland. It was reported that your trip even included a boat tour of Disko Bay where you witnessed first hand the effects of climate change. You actually got to see ice breaking off glaciers and sliding into the water. That sounds like a nice weekend.

Did they serve snacks on the boat ride?

It’s a shame you couldn’t just do what I normally do when I want to learn about something. Instead of going to Greenland for the weekend to watch big chunks of ice fall into the water, I would just go to Wikipedia and read about it. After reading about climate change over at Wikipedia, I would have then gone over to YouTube and watched videos of the icebergs of Disko Bay. Using the Internet to learn about global warming may not be as exciting as jetting off to Greenland for the weekend, but you have to admit my learn-about-it-on-the-Internet method creates a much smaller carbon footprint then yours.

Using the Internet to learn about things is also much cheaper then your method. Granted, you and I both pay the same amount with our methods - absolutely nothing. Even though you personally didn’t pay for the weekend junket to Greenland, the taxpayers did.

The very same people you told to turn off their air-conditioning on a 91-degree day.

Please do us a favor Senator Mikulski and the next time you decide to take a costly fact-finding trip on the tax-payers dime, stop and ask yourself if you could learn just as much by getting on the Internet.

Democratically Yours,

Rick Rottman

Hagerstown, Maryland

Cindy Sheehan is back. Her retirement evidently is over after only five short weeks. When she announced her “retirement” from the anti-war movement, she chose to make the announcement on Memorial Day. She chose to announce that she was resuming her duties as self-described Peace Mom on Independence Day. This lady certainly likes to get dramatic on patriotic holidays.

I’m only surprised she was able to keep herself out of the limelight this long. Oh well. Maybe she should have just announced last Memorial Day that she was taking a vacation.

Link

“I don’t believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own.”

George W. Bush explaining why he signed death warrants
for 152 inmates while governor of Texas.

Rudy Giuliani should have been spending less time flying around the country giving paid speeches on the 9-11 terror attacks and spent more time actually learning more about them. Including the reasons we were attacked.

This following is a partial transcript from the recent Republican South Carolina Presidential debate.

REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think Reagan was right.

We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we’re building an embassy in Iraq that’s bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?

REP. PAUL: I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said, “I am glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.” They have already now since that time — (bell rings) — have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don’t think it was necessary.

MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)

And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Congressman?

REP. PAUL: I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. And if we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem.

They don’t come here to attack us because we’re rich and we’re free. They come and they attack us because we’re over there. I mean, what would we think if we were — if other foreign countries were doing that to us?

Congressmen Ron Paul is correct. Bin Laden didn’t attack the United States because of our love of apple pie and baseball. He didn’t attack us because we love Jesus.

Rudy Giuliani has made a lot of money off of 9-11. You would think he would try to learn a thing or two about it. Instead he comes off looking like an idiot.

Congressman Ron Paul was right. The so-called “America’s Mayor” was wrong.