Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 17, 2012

11

OPINION

Mountain Views News Saturday, March 17, 2012

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

PRODUCTION 

Richard Garcia

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lina Johnson

Ivonne Durant

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

Jeff Brown

Pat Birdsall

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Stuart Tolchin

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Chris Bertrand

Ron Carter

Rev. James Snyder

Bobby Eldridge

Mary Carney

La Quetta Shamblee

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Wellborn

Dr. John Talevich

Meaghan Allen

Sean Kayden

HAIL Hamilton My Turn

STUART Tolchin......On LIFE 


THE SCARIEST 
MORNING OF THE 
YEAR

ARE RUSH’S 
REMARKS 
THE 
BEGINNING 
OF THE END?

 I rarely listen to Rush Limbaugh. When I do it’s 
only to check my sanity. If I turn him off within 
two minutes I know I am still a sane, rational 
person not in need of immediate psychiatric care. 
So I wasn’t familiar with who his sponsors were. 
But now that I know I’m appalled that so many of 
Rush’s sponsors who pay big bucks to advertise 
on his show are quite reputable companies.

 Geico, Constant Contact, J.C. Penny, and 
AOL are just a few legit companies that sponsor 
Rush’s in-your-face chauvinist conservative 
talk radio show. There are also some “do 
good” organizations like The American Heart 
Association, The Girl Scouts of Oregon and 
Southern Washington, Goodwill Industries, and 
St. Vincent’s Medical Center that sponsor his 
EIB--Excellence In Broadcasting--network.

 Even prior to the latest multi-day tirade against 
a private U.S. citizen, Rush had demonstrated 
that his “brand” of shock-jock commentary was 
something I thought most reputable companies 
and organizations would find repugnant. I guess 
I’ll have to hold my nose for a week or two, listen 
in periodically, and wait to find out what other 
companies are willing--eager, even--to continue 
to be associated with this load-mouthed buffoon.

 And it doesn’t take more than two minutes of 
listening to “RushBo” to realize his program is 
pure political smut. The other day at Beantown 
a female friend of mine hit the nail on the head 
with this succinct and accurate assessment of 
Rush’s most recent attack of hoof-in-mouth 
disease. 

 Rush’s asinine assertions that Susan Fluke is 
some sort of liberal “plant” placed at Georgetown 
Law School to effect their policy is patently 
ridiculous. She is a law student who spoke her 
mind and I a applaud her.

 I am also certain 99.9% of women--Catholic or 
not--who use birth control would agree that both 
political parties and chauvinist pigs like Rush 
should stay the hell out of women’s personal 
reproductive business!

 Rush has gotten rich being shameless, immoral, 
unethical, anti too many things, and just plain 
un-American. He habitually derides women and 
minorities. He has no respect for the office of the 
presidency. Any candidate, from any party, that 
is afraid to blow off this bully, is not capable of 
being president. If he or she can’t stand up to the 
Rush of foul air that permeates his show certainly 
can’t be expected to lead this country and deal 
with its very serious domestic and foreign policy 
issues.

 Could this possibly be the start of the end of 
the “King of Hate?” Could the America be that 
fortunate? Whatever Rush’s fate is, unfortunately 
there’s plenty more where he came from. They 
slither through the slime everywhere. There’s just 
too much money in hate mongering!

 Rush apparently thinks free speech is without 
limits and that he should be allowed to say 
whatever moronic, incendiary thing that enters 
his bulbous head. But as an employee of Clear 
Channel Communications -- the parent of EIB -- 
he is responsible for the fallout his words create. 
If I say racist or sexist things at work, I won’t 
have a job for very long. I have never--nor will I 
ever--regard this as a loss of my free speech.

 The venomous remarks Rush spews into the 
political discourse in America on a daily basis do 
nothing to improve the lives of anyone; they serve 
merely as a divisive instruments that force the 
left and right further apart. His ignorant remarks 
undermine the dialogue we should be having by 
inserting his own extreme viewpoints; and if that 
was enough, he is a bigoted misogynist to boot.

 When Rush made his reprehensible remarks 
against Ms. Fluke, he slandered not only her 
but everyone who has ever used any form of 
contraception or stood up for something they 
believed in. He’s a liar, and a racist; he’s a sexist 
and a homophobe of the worst kind. Now he 
is reaping what he’s been sowing for years. The 
chickens have finally come home to roost.

 It’s pathetic that Missourians are adding Rush 
to their pantheon of very honorable people-
-alongside such American icons as President 
Harry S. Truman, CBS anchorman Walter 
Cronkite, humorist Mark Twain, animator 
Walt Disney, and botanist George Washington 
Carver. While they’re at it, Missourians should 
change the state motto from “The Show Me 
State” to “The How Low Can We Go” or “The 
We Hate” State.

 Come to think of it... I’m glad they are erecting 
a bust of Rush in Missouri. It will stand as a 
permanent reminder to all who come to see it of 
what happened to the Republican party and why 
it went extinct. 

 This 
happens 
every year 
and, just 
like all the other years, I wake 
up early in the morning very 
frightened. At first I just know 
something’s wrong, but I’m not 
sure what it is. It’s that terrible 
morning when they’ve pushed 
the clocks ahead and I know I’ve 
already fallen forward and am 
behind the times. I’ve already 
lost an hour and there’s nothing 
I can do to get it back. What 
can I do to calm down? What 
am I doing awake anyway? I 
can’t get back to sleep and keep 
thinking about the TV movie 
“Game Changes” which my 
wife and I, watched around my 
normal falling asleep time last 
night. As she fell asleep and the 
clock raced its extra hour ahead 
I was left alone to experience 
this frightening cinematic 
version of recent American 
history. 

 The film portrays in almost 
documentary fashion the 2008 
selection by the Republican 
Party of its Vice-Presidential 
candidate. The Republicans 
are in the position of needing 
to shake things up and go 
searching around for someone 
who will be a “Game Changer” 
and will bring national 
attention to their candidate. 
Maybe this as yet unknown 
someone will distract potential 
voters’ attention away from 
the economy and the wars in 
Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

 The selection, training, 
and attempt to control this 
eventually discovered candidate 
and displaying her to the public 
is almost the total content of 
the movie and that is what has 
me so frightened this morning. 
Long ago I stopped believing 
in God but I have always 
believed that there exists some 
benevolent force that protects 
my country, my family 
and me. I think, without 
thinking about it very 
much, that I just assumed that 
the American political system 
with its entrenched democracy 
and responsible political parties 
would guarantee that whoever 
was eventually elected would 
be a responsible, competent 
person able to do what had to be 
done. Sure the parties seemed 
to have different agendas but 
deep down I always believed 
that they stood for the same 
sort of thing. Go to school, 
follow the laws, work hard and 
the system would do the rest.

 Of course Republican 
candidates say weird things, 
like when Ronald Reagan 
said that pollution was caused 
by trees, but now everybody 
seemed to think Reagan was a 
great President. I think I know 
better but the Soviet Union 
is gone and we’re still around 
so I’m willing to concede for 
the moment that perhaps he 
wasn’t as bad as I thought 
he was. Underneath I need 
to believe that even without 
God, my country and I remain 
in responsible hands. Well, 
the movie has destroyed that 
illusion. Some political guy 
discovered the previously 
nationally unnoticed Governor 
of Alaska and they brought her 
in and assured themselves that 
she would do whatever they 
asked her to do and presto—she 
was anointed as the Republican 
candidate for Vice-President. 
Nobody took the trouble to 
notice that she didn’t know 
anything and was completely 
unqualified for the job. Worse 
than that, she had a mind of 
her own and was stubborn 
and uncontrollable and had 
her own agenda. The movie 
has left me with the realization 
that I am not in safe hands and 
that there is no one or no force 
really protecting me.

 The thing that was so 
scary about the movie was 
the realization that not only 
was Sarah Palin completely 
unqualified, but also the 
pressures of her position 
brought her close to a complete 
nervous breakdown. Could 
such a thing be possible? 
Could a crazy person be elected 
President? I then made a 
terrible mistake and, in an 
attempt to reassure myself, 
searched the internet for 
materials relating to American 
Presidents and mental 
health. According to studies 
using historical materials, 
responsible psychologists 
have determined that pretty 
close to half the American 
Presidents have suffered from 
mental disabilities while in 
Office. Surprise, surprise—
just like Sarah, they were often 
depressed, anxious, unable to 
sleep, irrational, and for prolong 
periods of time unable to not 
concentrate on their duties. 
You can do your own research 
if you don’t want to believe me. 
I certainly understand, because 
even I don’t want to believe this.

 So what has this year’s clock-
meddling done to me? I am 
left with the realization that if 
the future is to be safeguarded 
only by the behavior and 
abilities of fallible, vulnerable 
humans, we had all better take 
care. Maybe this unwelcome 
wisdom is inevitable given my 
own aging, health problems, 
and the experience of the 
recent death of a close friend. 
Maybe I’ve been living in a 
kind of protected dream-world 
all along and should see this 
all as a fortunate wake-up call. 
Oh thank you Sarah Palin and 
thank you Republicans. If I 
can believe this maybe I can go 
back to sleep. 

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OUT TO PASTOR A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James L. Snyder


AROUND THE 
WORLD IN 90 
MINUTES

 I was snuggling down 
in my easy chair with a 
riveting book in hand 
when the Gracious 
Mistress of the Parsonage shared with me an 
observation.

 “I just was thinking,” she began very seriously, 
“that we have not taken a trip lately.”

 We once went to Thailand for several weeks, 
which was wonderful. One of the delightful 
things of that trip was visiting the elephant 
ranch and riding the elephants.

 As we were in line to ride the elephants the 
person in charge took one look at me and said, 
“No, no.” He said something in some language 
I could not understand and then proceeded 
to pair my wife up with another woman and 
insisted I ride the elephant alone. From what 
I got out of his gestures and tone of voice was 
he thought I was too heavy to ride an elephant. 
Being compared with an elephant and being 
on the losing side of the comparison, is not 
something I enjoyed experiencing.

 I have been insulted quite a bit throughout 
my life, and this certainly was one of them. 
Being the congenial gentleman that I am, 
I submitted to his evaluation and rode the 
elephant by myself. I did a lot of bouncing, 
deliberately, on my elephant ride. I hope that 
elephant remembers me.

 We have had other trips and have enjoyed 
ourselves tremendously. But when she asked 
about the last trip we took, I could not bring 
into focus our last trip.

 Not world travelers, of course, but we do 
like to take little jaunts here and there just to 
get away from the rat race. To participate in the 
“rat race” I suppose you have to be a rat. It is 
good to get away from other rats and associate 
with rats you do not know.

 Nothing really came of my wife’s observation. 
She just mentioned it, then the subject was 
dropped, and we went on to what we were 
doing.

Several days later I was about to take the trip 
of my life.

 I bought some ink cartridges for my printer 
and happened to buy the wrong kind. The way 
the world operates today is that you cannot 
make a mistake and then take the product back 
and exchange it for the right one. The only way 
I could get any satisfaction about this was to 
call the company and put in a request to have 
this ink exchanged for the right cartridge.

 I got the number and called the company. 
That was the beginning of my trip around the 
world.

 The first stage of this trip was punching 
in numbers. I am not sure of the purpose 
for punching in numbers in order to get to 
somebody that can help you. What happened 
to the good old days where you actually talked 
to a person you could understand what they 
were saying?

 For about fifteen minutes, I punched in 
number after number after number. I thought 
for a moment that I was reading the book of 
Numbers in the Old Testament. I do not mind 
numbers when they add up. However, what I 
really do not like are arbitrary numbers that 
absolutely make no sense to me. Of course, 
many things do not make any sense to me.

 Finally, after punching numbers until my 
fingers began to bleed, I got an actual human 
voice. Ah, the great satisfaction of actually 
encountering a living, breathing human being 
on the telephone. I took a moment to enjoy the 
moment. It was not to last long.

 As I began listening to the voice on the other 
end of the phone, I became a little puzzled. I 
heard the voice, she came through loud and 
clear but I had no idea what she was saying. I 
said quite a few times when the conversation 
warranted, “Huh.”

 After a few minutes of this, I realized the 
person I was talking to was in the Philippines. 
How I got to the Philippines, I will never 
know. I am not saying that the young woman’s 
English was bad, just that my ears were not 
able to catch the nuances of her phrases.

 Not getting any satisfaction from this young 
woman in the Philippines, she transferred me 
to someone in India. I had just got accustomed, 
or so I thought, to the Filipino accent and now 
I was hearing someone talk to me from India 
with a completely different accent.

 I spent a few minutes in India and what 
we talked about I have no idea. I just wanted 
to exchange my ink cartridges for the correct 
ones. I am not sure what somebody in India 
has to do with my problem.

 Not getting any satisfaction from the chap in 
India, I was transferred to someone in Idaho. I 
wanted cartridges not potatoes.

 After some quasi-delightful minutes in 
Idaho, I came to the excruciating conclusion 
that it would be worth my while, not to 
mention the cash involved, to just forget the 
whole thing and throw those cartridges away 
and buy new ones.

 On my way to buy a new cartridge, I 
thought of a verse of Scripture. “For now we 
see through a glass, darkly; but then face to 
face: now I know in part; but then shall I know 
even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12 
KJV).

 I am looking forward to that final trip where I 
will see Him face to face, no misunderstanding 
then.

 

The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family 
of God Fellowship, PO Box 831313, Ocala, FL 
34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, in Silver 
Springs Shores. Call him at 352-687-4240 or 
e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. The church web 
site is www.whatafellowship.com.


RICH Johnson

1951 TECHNOLOGY…
AND MORE 

 I came 
across an 
issue of 
“Popular 
Mechanics” 
magazine from the month and 
year of my birth, October 1951. 
It is chock full of interesting 
information.

 It talks about these new 
fangled electric stairways being 
installed on aircraft carriers. 
We know them today as 
escalators. 

 Believe it or not a car 
designed for amputee drivers. 
Built by a German racecar 
drive, Egon Bruetsch, it is a 
single seater which requires no 
gears or sifting. It’s small and 
comes equipped with a 15 cubic 
inch engine that gets 70 mpg. A 
top speed of 50mph, this little 
baby will set you back $450.

 Backyard bomb shelters 
were the in thing in 1951. And 
you could have one made of 
reinforced concrete. Walls are 
from 12 to 18 inches thick and 
the roof has a thickness of 36 
inches. A protected entrance 
stairway at one end and an 
emergency escape hatch at 
the other end. It offers 110 
electricity and a stand-by 
battery in case the atomic blast 
knocks the power out). Prices 
range from $2500 to $6,000 
depending on size. Hmmm, it 
also says thorough studies of 
the effects of atomic weapons 
were made on these shelters.

 The air force has developed 
(1951) a fold-up rifle-shotgun 
for airmen forced down in the 
arctic (or elsewhere). The gun 
has two barrels one - fires a 
22 caliber bullet and the other 
a .410-gauge shotgun shell. It 
weighs 3 pounds 11 ounces 
and folds to measure 15 inches. 
BTW, it has no trigger guard so 
it can be shot wearing mittens 
in the cold weather.

 Many inventions of the 
last hundred or so years didn’t 
fare very well. Otto Lilienthal 
worked on single person glider 
designs. The bad news: His last 
glider design did him in during 
testing. The good news: The 
Wright Brothers credit Mr. 
Lilienthal with inspiring their 
development of the airplane.

 The Rong Zun 758 Mobile 
Phone with built-in shaver. 
Yep, you guessed it. A product 
out of China that incorporated 
a cell phone with an electric 
shaver. It was even endorsed 
by David Beckham. No, the 
Motorola Razr phones will not 
shave you.

 Motor Powered Roller Skates. 
The skates had a handheld 
throttle and would reach 
20mph in less than 20 seconds. 
The problem was there were no 
real brakes affixed to the skates. 
They did have an “emergency 
stop” button that would 
immediately look the wheels. 
No wonder these babies aren’t 
available at Toys ‘R Us.

 The explosive, TNT, makes 
this list because of its original 
intent. Trinitrotoluene (TNT’s 
real name) was created to 
be used as a yellow dye, by 
German Joseph Wilbrand, to 
color German flags. Invented 
in 1863 it sat until the early 
1900’s when scientists realized 
its other quality (I wonder how 
they discovered that it goes 
boom?)

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