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Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 13, 2025 OPINIONOPINION 1212 
Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 13, 2025 OPINIONOPINION 
MOUNTAIN 

VIEWS 

NEWS 

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson 

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR 

Dean Lee 

SALES 

Patricia Colonello 
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WEBMASTER 

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION 

Peter Lamendola 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Lori A. Harris 
Michele Kidd 
Stuart Tolchin 
Harvey HydeAudrey SwansonMeghan MalooleyMary Lou CaldwellKevin McGuire 
Chris Leclerc 
Dinah Chong WatkinsHoward HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Rich Johnson 
Rev. James SnyderKatie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanJeff Brown 
Marc Garlett 
Keely TotenDan Golden 
Rebecca WrightHail Hamilton 
Joan Schmidt 
LaQuetta Shamblee 

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PUT THE LIGHTS ON

STUART TOLCHIN 


IS IT POSSIBLE TO AVOID THE 
CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS AND WORRY? 

As you probably know 

stress and worry are 

damaging to our 

health. Anxiety is the 

most common mental 

disorder and affects 40 

million adults in the 
US alone. I have read that in older adults 
stress significantly impacts physical and 
mental health, worsening conditions like 
heart disease, increasing inflammation, 
and raising risks for stroke, alongside 
causing mood changes,(irritability, depression), 
memory issues, sleep problems,
digestive troubles, low energy, shortness 
of breath, and even dental problems. 

Enough already! This first paragraph 
seems to describe my typical day. Everything 
seems to bother me. Even watching 
sports is less fun. There are continual 
commercial interruptions urging the purchase 
of some medication and increasing 
my worry. I know commercials are just 
trying to sell something and really don’t 
care about anything but making money,
but often the commercials tell me that the 
medical profession is also just interested 
in making money, which is also probably 
true. I miss Tony the Tiger and commercials 
for frosted flakes, and now I learn 
that even frosted flakes are bad for me. 
Sugar, you know, is a disaster for my longtime 
diabetic condition.

 This morning my wife drove me to 
Kaiser to pick up some medication. As we 
drove along Colorado Boulevard, I noticed 
a Buick Auto Dealership. It hit me 
that as we drove along, I saw almost no 
American cars on the road. Most of the 
cars were made in Japan but there were 
occasional Mercedes and BMWs and 
Porsches and Volkswagens, but nothing 
with an American brand. Maybe there 
was an occasional Tesla, but what happened 
to GM cars and Fords and Chryslers? 
The way my mind works, I started 
thinking about the decline of America. 

Yes, the Dodgers won the World Series 
but when I think about it, I realize that 
the great Dodger heroes like Ohtani, Yoshinobu, 
and Yamamoto are all players recruited 
from the Japanese Leagues by the 
promise of money. This puts me in touch 
with the fact that the Dodgers have the 
highest payroll in baseball, and this does 
not make me happy. Yes, I am a Jewish 
Liberal who talks about valuing fairness 
and equality, and I almost always root for 
the underdog except when I don’t. 

Here’s why I feel that the continual quest 
for more money may well be driving our 
human race to extinction. Following my 

HOWARD Hays As I See It 

“We look ridiculous, quite frankly.” – Christie Todd Whitman, EPA administrator 
under President George W. Bush, on the Trump administration’s 
delisting fossil fuels as a cause of climate change on its website 


This past year, as soon 

as I’ve found a topic to 

focus on, all this other 

news breaks – invariably

leaving stories behind 
on my hard drive. Now approaching my 
end-of-year exercise of trying to free updisc space, there are items from the past 
few weeks I can’t let slide without mention. 

First is one I have the hardest time trying 
to wrap my head around. We’re familiar 
with concerns over industrial espionage; 
rival firms engaging in “reverse engineering” 
of a competitor’s product to learn its 
secrets. 

More than 4,000 Lebanese have been killed 
by Israeli attacks over the past two years, 
many by American-made weapons. In an 
attack last month near Beirut, an American 
precision-guided glide bomb (cost $39K)
landed without detonating. Concerned 
about “reverse engineering” that might occur, 
the Trump administration “demanded” 
that those who were meant to be blown 
up now return the weapon to us. As was 
posted on X, “This is so stupid it feels like 
a joke.” 

Former CNN correspondent Kate Bennett 
noted how it’s only female reporters 
that President Trump calls “piggy, ugly, 
stupid, etc.”. The White House responded 
by calling Ms. Bennett a “scumbag”. Press 
Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained it was 
Trump being “frank and honest”. 

President George W. Bush and First LadyLaura Bush presided in 2008 as the two-
stories-tall red ribbon adorned the White 
House in observance of World AIDS Day. 
Last year, President Biden spoke with the 
AIDS Memorial Quilt, forty years in the 
making, laid out behind him on the South 
Lawn – commemorating 700,000 Americans 
who’d died from AIDS, with four 
thousand in the U.S. still dying yearly. 

This year, for the first time in nearly forty 
years, there was no White House observance 
of World AIDS Day. Asia Russell of 
Health Global Access Project decried how 
the “lack of political will was on devastating 
display when the White House announced 
that it would ban commemoration 
of this pandemic. It's truly depraved 
and outrageous.” 

Bloomberg Law reports that “FBI insiders” 
complain how agents in the domestic 
terrorism unit are taken away from going 
after domestic terrorists to instead go after 
Democratic lawmakers who reminded that 
service members aren’t supposed to follow 
illegal orders. 

Trump used the terms “seditious” and 
“treasonous” to characterize those six lawmakers, 
all with records of military and/
or intelligence service to our country. He 
then used those same terms, “seditious” 
and “treasonous”, to describe the New York 
Times’ coverage of his declining health.

Major corporate news was the proposed 
acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery 

last article describing Mahatma Ghandi’s 
well know response to the question 
of “What do you think about Western 
Civilization? to which Ghandi replied, “I 
think it would be a good idea!” A neighbor 
brought me her copy of the book 
ISHMAEL by Daniel Quinn. I returned 
her book and now have my own and it has 
caused me all kinds of stress and worry. 
This book examines the hidden cultural 
biases driving modern civilization which 
the book maintains are leading to inevitable 
catastrophic consequences for humankind. 
The book describes a wordless 
Socratic conversation between the narrator 
and a gorilla. Yes, that’s the book, but 
what is described is the unwarranted and 
incorrect assumption that humans, particularly 
Western humans, believe in their 
superiority to all other creatures. 

This belief has resulted in the destruction 
of the natural balance of the world 
as “civilized” humans continue hostilities 
as they try to take control of more territory 
to grow the food necessary to feed 
their expanding population. The premise 
of the book is that the requirement 
for more area to grow more food to feed 
more people inevitably results in a quest 
for more area to grow more food for the 
ever-expanding population.

 Ishmael, the gorilla, explains that the 
solution to over population is to follow 
the behaviors of tribal peoples who do 
not fight wars for territory and live harmoniously 
within their own families. I 
have doubts about this characterization 
but do agree that overpopulation is a 
great problem. I fear that future solutions 
to that problem might be a moratorium 
of sorts on reproduction or at least a limitation. 
Perhaps wars will be encouraged 
which will result in the death of young 
people before they have the opportunity 
to reproduce. 

Perhaps same sex relationships will be 
encouraged or given benefits if they produce 
no children. Perhaps IVF ferritizations 
will be made unlawful to further 
limit the number of new births. Perhaps 
medications and procedures designed to 
protect newborns will be made unlawful. 
All these possibilities frankly stress 
me out. I love watching little children 
and I firmly believe these youngsters are 
the greatest hope for humankind so long 
as they are not made captive by the need 
for continuing acquisition of power and 
status and wealth. That is what I worry 
about and combined with my fears of dementia 
and Alzheimer's and of Donald 
Trump, it all can’t be doing me any good. 

by Netflix. There’d be the films, studios, 
streaming service HBO and intellectual 
properties (from Superman to Elmer 
Fudd), but not CNN, TBS, Discovery. Sen. 
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is concerned it 
would be “an anti-monopoly nightmare”. 
Another concern is fewer movies seen in 
actual movie theaters. My concern is what 
would happen with Turner Classic Movies. 

There’s also a hostile takeover attempt byParamount Skydance, which would notably 
include CNN. Paramount merged 
with Skydance last Summer, after settlinga lawsuit with Trump, who accused its CBS 
News division of having allowed Kamala 
Harris to come off well. Under new leadership 
from David Ellison, son of the world’s 
second-richest-man Larry Ellison, Trump 
wouldn’t worry about himself coming off 
well - whether on CNN or CBS. 

With family assets over $270 billion, the 
Ellisons should be able to arrange financing 
on their own. But here, once again, is 
the familiar face of Jared Kushner with his 
sugar daddies from Qatar, Saudi Arabia 
and Abu Dhabi. Though they claim not 
to seek “governance” positions, Reps. Sam 
Liccardo (D-CA) and Ayanna Pressley (DMA) 
wrote that the deal “raises national 
security concerns because it could transfer 
substantial influence over one of the largest 
American media companies to foreign-
backed financiers.” 

Mohammed bin Salman was found to have 
approved the strangling and dismembering 
of journalist Jamal Kashoggi – for having 
written smack about the Saudi royal 
family in the Washington Post. If Jared has 
his way, this guy will be among the honchos 
responsible for CNN and CBS. 

Here’s another story I have a hard time 
wrapping my head around, this one about 
ICE/CBP: Agents are being deployed at 
the border to go after those heading the 
other way, from the U.S. back to Mexico. 
Detaining and then formally deporting 
them, rather than allowing them to simply 
cross back to Mexico voluntarily on their 
own, helps their numbers. 

There’s the actress picked up by four 
masked men in Washington State, who 
told her the ID she showed them from the 
Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon 
“looked fake”, and that “anyone can make 
that”. 

The one that sticks with me is on the aftermath 
of the Border Patrol’s incursion in 
Charlotte, N.C. Board of Education chair 
Stephanie Sneed recalled that while they 
were there, some 20% of the public school 
students stayed home. Then after they left,
Latino children returned to school with 
notes pinned to their backpacks, “I am a 
citizen”. “I would never think that’s something 
I would see”, she said. 

Jimmy Kimmel, from last Thanksgiving -
“This year, I am most thankful that we onlyhave five weeks left in this year”. 

RICH JOHNSON 


THERE IS A BRIGHT SIDE 

When I sit down to write my column, my first priority is to create 
something, that at the very least, brings a smile to your face. 
If I get you to chuckle, I feel richer. My goal is to enrich your life 
and if lucky, inspire a chuckle out of you. (Note to those younger 
than me. A chuckle is a reaction starting with a smile and, iflucky, a nanosecond of laughter.) 

I will never know the true success of my column, as my ultimate goal is for you 
to find bite sized bits of feel good information you can read and hopefully pass 
along to your inner circle. 

I stumbled on a website (Brightside.me) that publishes online life enriching anecdotes 
and experiences. The first column I discovered shared acts of unexpected 
kindness that changed peoples outlook…for the better. Here’s two: 

1. A husband lamented that his mother didn’t like his wife. After a number 
of years his wife contracted cancer, started chemo and lost all her hair. The husband, 
in a show of solidarity shaved his head too. When his mom found out, she 
was furious. Told her son he was being dramatic. A week later mom showed up 
unexpectedly, knocked on the door, stepped inside, took off her scarf and her 
head was bald. Mom then told her daughter-in-law shouldn’t be doing this alone. 
2. A man’s son was in a serious accident. His dad was a wreck in the ICU 
waiting room. A little girl, 9 or 10 years old, was with her family saying goodbye 
to her great-grandmother. The little girl walked up to the father and asked, “Sir, 
why are you crying?” He explained his son was very sick. The young girl handed 
her miniature puppy doll, to the father telling him it was lucky and his son would 
get better. The son got better and that little puppy sits, to this day on that father’s 
dresser. And yes, his son recovered. 
This season typically brings out the best in us. Reader’s Digest, always good for a 
few suggestions, put together a list of acts of kindness. Let’s have a goal of helpingincrease people’s brain levels of serotonin and dopamine (our brains neurotransmitters) 
And you thought I was just a pretty face! 

1. The next time you’re in line for your morning coffee, pay for the person 
behind you as well. Who knows? It might catch on. 
2. Have an elderly neighbor? Help them with their groceries. Or bring in their 
trash cans from the curb. 
3. See a parent being a good parent? Compliment them. Who knows what that 
might do? 
4. For goodness sake, call your parents and grandparents for no good reason. 
Just because! 
5. Are you a boss? Give employees their birthday off. Or just a random paid 
day off. Undoubtedly you will get more loyalty out of them. And who knows…
improved performance. 
One of my favorite people in the world is actor Morgan Freeman. He is just plain 
“cool”. He said, “How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a 
time”. 

“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees 
all day.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr. 

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Dalai Lama 

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you 
did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou 

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” Aesop 

I hope your holiday plans are falling into place. A note to guys. Sequential acts of 
unexpected kindness at this time of year will reap rich rewards in 2026. 

TIME MAGAZINE PERSON OF THE YEAR 


1 MILLION LIKES by Paul the Cyberian 

YOUR NEW WINDOWS (11) 

It seems like mere decades ago when we were last in a state of uproar about 
something they didn’t like about the latest Microsoft Windows OS. It probably 
wasn’t that long ago. But don’t worry, Microsoft Windows 11 appears to be giving 
its user base more than a few things to add to their previous lists. Starting 
with strictly enforced hardware and software requirements for installation, 
moving through the mandatory online account, and ending with the forced AI 
Integration for various functions, there’s a lot to not like here. 

A common complaint among new Windows 11 users is the feeling that the 
computer and software that they’ve already paid for don’t really belong to them. 
The mandatory online account required for login is definitely doing its part to 
make that feeling a reality. Users also complained of design inconsistencies and 
sluggish performance from basic Windows features and applications. It was later 
revealed that parts of the OS were recoded to integrate more closely with AI-
enabled applications. Microsoft CoPilot, their AI-powered assistant, was found 
to be slightly less useful than imagined. Some users resented what sometimes 
felt like an app trying to do too much while lacking functionality they enjoyed 
prior to the “upgrade”. 

I wouldn’t worry too much about Windows' demise just yet. First, there’s the 
human tendency to sometimes “misremember” a past event in order to magnify 
a current one. Nearly every IT professional has a few anecdotes about living 
and working through customer revolts over forced upgrades. In some customized 
environments, unplanned upgrades can actually be a disaster of the highest 
order. For most end users, another department will handle the work, and 
when you return the next day, it will be a done deal. For some home users, aforced upgrade could cause legacy applications that have been running for years 
to expire. Renewal or replacement of the expired application will definitely be 
delivered in a subscription-based format, adding to the ever-growing subscription 
services count. Many users will vow to switch to Mac or Linux machines in 
order to be done with Windows once and for all. Some will. Microsoft believes 
that we will do what we’ve always done whenever presented with something 
about their product that their customer base doesn’t like. 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 
Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com