WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

My friend asked, “How come you don’t post something on your blog every day, or at least once a week?”

Too lazy.

Busy doing other things.

Nothing to say.

I tend to write more when I am traveling.  Chuckwagon Journal used to be titled Chuckwagon Travels and I wrote about the adventures or misadventures Joyce and I encountered while traveling in our motorhome.  Those days are behind us.  We sold the Chuckwagon in 2008.  We still travel, but in a car and there are fewer adventures to write about.

But write, I must.  After writing a weekly newspaper column (Report Card on Education for the Schenectady Daily Gazette) for 30 years, I just can’t get out of the habit of thinking that people might be interested in some of my thoughts or ideas.  Hence, I must have a thought or an idea before I am motivated to sit at the computer and put something on paper, or on the computer screen, as is the case these days.

I am no longer busy with yard work, garden work, or other household chores, so I have more time to write.  The lazy part is just me being honest.  Sometimes I prefer to whittle, read or do something else besides write, so I procrastinate on the writing.

Today’s blog will be short.  I really don’t have a major topic, just a major burr under my belt.  I am really getting annoyed at receiving chain email and forwarded messages that express the views of some mysterious writer but never invite me to respond – and never include the thoughts of the sender.

There is no discussion, no dialogue, no exchanging of views, no challenge to stated “facts?,” nothing worth my time.  It is usually a piece designed to (1) encourage the faithful or (2) piss off the wayward.  Please, do not waste my time.

These forwarded pieces are electronic garbage best described as cheerleading and at worst as propaganda.  Our president, any president (regardless of party affiliation) would be roasted from one end of the liberal-conservative spectrum to the other – and rightly so – if he published such pap for public consumption.

Political pundits, particularly those on the far right or far left, can use this crap; they can say anything they want.  People do not have to listen to or read their daily rants if they choose not to.  Remember, political pundits are not accountable for their comments, and they really do not expect a reply.  They can and will say whatever will create disagreement, create a stir, get them quoted on the morning news or on some other pundit’s program.  They thrive on controversy.  Controversy generates ratings and they live for ratings.  Ratings determine what they are paid.  Do or say whatever it takes to get people stirred up so long as they tune in every day.  Newspaper, radio and television pundits do not have to be accurate or even honest.  They must be, however, contentious, controversial, and even divisive if it will help with their ratings.

Presidential candidates operate under a different standard, but they still enjoy a measure of freedom in what they say that any incumbent president does not have.  Candidates can say pretty much whatever they want about current policies, conditions or the president’s actions.  THEY do share the same stage as he, a world stage.  They do not have to speak in measured words, as every president must.  What they say, the charges they make, probably will not affect the nation’s economy or security.  The president, every incumbent president mind you, has to watch what he says, knowing that every phrase will have consequences.

You may not like what the current president is saying or do not like some of his policies.  Write me and explain your position.  I will be glad to discuss the matter with you.  If you just want to jerk my chain by sending (forwarding) some propaganda piece that someone else wrote, please do not bother.  As soon as I recognize it for what it is, I delete it.

Unfortunately, our politicians no longer talk to each other.  They posture in front of whatever camera they can command and they quote party-line rhetoric.  They seldom offer actual solutions and they never acknowledge that any solution offered by the opposing party has merit or is worthy of discussion.  Surely, those of us who are neither captive to ratings or polling results nor worried about reelection can engage in courteous, rational discussion of the issues we care about without resorting to fear mongering, demagoguery, or statements that lack basis in fact.  We can compare facts and discuss actual possible solutions.

We all have our biases, sometimes cleverly concealed, even from us.  Often, they are more obvious, especially to others.  Biases, personal preferences, beliefs, and political party affiliations are part of human nature.  They are what make us who we are and how we behave.  And they will certainly enter into any discussion, political or otherwise, we engage in.  But it is impossible to have a rational discussion with anyone who can only spout the ramblings of something they read on the Internet or heard on radio or television.  Their side of the discussion will inevitably default to what they have read or heard, nothing of their own.  Such discussions are a waste of time.

This nation has some serious problems.  What we need to deal with those problems are for politicians to enter into rational discussions about the scope of the problems and entertain possible solutions, regardless of the party affiliation.  Stop worrying about who will get credit (or blame for the problem) and start discussing solutions.

Those of us on the outside, outside government politics, that is, should exercise the same control.  Let’s have more discussions about what WE believe, what we feel and how a particular solution will affect us personally.  The pundits and the self-styled professional propaganda spokespeople may influence us, for sure, but let us vow they will not take over our minds and speak for us. Then share with me YOUR opinion of what I have written in this or any other blog.  You can be sure it is MY opinion and not a position adopted from something I read in a Forwarded email.

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES (Forest Gump)

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-NY, must step down.  He is not fit to be in the House of Representatives.

I say this not because he is immoral.  Hell, if we asked all the immoral elected officials in Washington or the various state Capitols around the country to resign, we would have very few elected officials running the show.  No, Anthony Weiner must step down because he is stupid.

We have always had and will continue to have corrupt politicians.  I understand that, even accept it.  Power corrupts and regardless of their lofty campaign rhetoric, politicians are in the game for the power, for the influence and for the money that power and influence command.  Notice that our coinage has the motto "In God We Trust," not In Politicians We Trust.  We only trust those politicians who are beholden to a cause we hold dear.  We do not need to trust their morality, only their loyalty to the cause.

We know about various politicians' peccadilloes.  But because we have a vested interest in various special interests ourselves (tobacco subsidies, Medicare, corn subsidies, abortion, the military/industrial complex, Social Security, Welfare, big bank bail outs, the Interstate highway system, or some other government run/sponsored/supervised program) we tend to ignore them.  We want OUR politicians -- the ones we support with our money and our votes -- to focus on the issue, while we focus on the crimes and immorality of other politicians.  We know that it is only possible to get elected these days if you have some big money backing you.  And big money goes to those who deliver on big promises.  Promiscuity can be forgiven; straying from the party line is unforgivable.


Let's not be naive.  It's not always members of the other party; it's politicians -- and it is us.  There is more than enough blame to go around.

Why, then, should I pick on Weiner?  Because he is dumb.  He did something dumb, got caught, and then lied about it.  That's just dumb.

I can tolerate his immorality.  As I said, there's plenty of that going on in both political parties, at all levels.  But stupid is hard to forgive.  I would much rather have a smart politician than a stupid one who hides his/her ignorance behind a mask of morality.

Moral politicians will preach to me but accomplish little.  Intelligent politicians, even immoral ones, will try to find a solution to some of the nation's problems.  They are guided by answers, not beliefs.

There is an abundance of politicians claiming to be moral, upright, even religious.  That's an easy act to carry off, as long they keep their dirty little secrets secret.  It is harder to fake intelligence.  A moral politician can talk for an hour about his sense of righteousness.  A stupid politician will be discovered in five minutes.

Half of us are so disinterested or disgusted that we do not even bother to vote.

Look at the chart below.  (This is only part of the chart that may be found at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html.)

National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2008

This page provides information about voter statistics, including age of voting population, voter registration, turnout, and more.

Year	Voting-age population	Voter registration	Voter turnout	Turnout of voting-age population (percent)
2008*	231,229,580	NA	132,618,580*	56.8%
2006	220,600,000	135,889,600	80,588,000	37.1%
2004	221,256,931	174,800,000	122,294,978	55.3
2002	215,473,000	150,990,598	79,830,119	37.0
2000	205,815,000	156,421,311	105,586,274	51.3

Read more: National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2008 — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html#ixzz1OcWEWHat

Just under 57% of the eligible voters in this county bothered to vote in the last presidential election, an election judged by all as historic. 

Political pundits tell us that about one-third of the electorate will always vote Democratic and one-third can be counted on to vote Republican -- regardless of the issues or the qualifications of their party's candidates.  Hence, elections are won or lost not by what politicians stand for or can do, but on how well they appeal to "their party's base" and that roughly one-third of the voters who are independent of intelligent enough to be undecided.

We cannot always know what a politician is capable of or what he/she will do once in office.  (Remember, power corrupts.)  Nor is it smart to talk recklessly about throwing all the bums out.  (And replace them with who?)  But when a politician reveals his stupidity, ala Rep. Weiner, we should demand his resignation and demand that his party, the Democrats in this case, get behind helping him make the decision to resign.

History is full of moral/religious people who have committed heinous crimes.  And certainly, intelligent people can be wrong.  But an immoral, stupid politician is more that we should tolerate.

Rep. Weiner has shown he is both.  Resign your office as a U.S. Representative, Mr Weiner.  It's the decent and the smart thing to do.

WHAT'S A PENNY WORTH?

One of my grandaughters posted a comment on Facebook recently that stated, "The penny was only a good idea when things cost only a penny."  Well, I thought, there is some wisdom in that statement.  Then I thought some more and wondered when was the last time that things cost only a penny.

There certainly aren't many things you can buy for a penny today.  As far as I know, there is no penny candy,  no penny ante (as in a friendly poker game), no penny bubble gum, no penny anything.

Further, you can't even use a penny to by-pass a burnt out fuse when you don't have a replacement.  Ignoring the fact that that was never a good idea, it is no longer possible since nearly all fuse boxes today are actually circuit breaker boxes.  Just reset the circuit breaker after you've determined the cause of the problem; never mind trying to by-pass it.

Pennies are not even much good for paying sales taxes as most merchants round everything off the nearest five cents.  (They always round up; never down.)  For those few times you actually need a penny, many merchants have a small dish on the counter where other customers before you have (or may) toss the pennines they receive in change and you are welcome to help yourself if you need a penny or two.

Probably few people reading this blog can remember when sales tax was paid with mills, as it was in some parts of the country.  I was raised in Missouri and that state used mills to pay sales tax well into the 1940s.  I know this to be true because  I have some of the plastic mills that were minted during World War II when metal was in short supply.  Not only were mills cast in plastics but the copper penny was recast as a lead penny for a short time during that period.

What the hell is a mill?  A mill was one-tenth of a cent.  If you had a pocket full of mills -- as annoying as having a pocket full of pennies today -- you could sell 10 of them to any merchant for a penny.

That little history lesson in coinage aside, I wondered when was the last time one could buy something for a penny.  In other words, when was the last time a penny was good for anything other than paying sales tax.

I turned for this investigation to the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) Cost-of-living Calculator at http://www.aier.org/research/worksheets-and-tools/cost-of-living-calculator.  This handy little calculator allowed me to check the cost of things as they once were compared with now.

I started with 10 cents, since you can still buy a few things for that amount.  What I found using the AIER calculator was that 10 cents in 2011 was worth one cent in 1966 dollars.  Whatever one might has purchased for one penny in 1966 would cost 10 cents in today's dollars.

This started me thinking about other monetary benchmarks.  For example, I began my full-time teaching career in Park Forest, Illinois in the fall of 1961.  I was working on my master's degree at the University of Missouri when our third daughter decided to join the family.  Her emergence on the scene convinced me that I needed to forsake campus life and student loans in favor or a paying job.

I ended up at Rich Township High School, East after they offered me the princely sum of $5600.  This was $200 more than most first-year teachers received since I had completed 19 hours toward my masters in mathematics and math teachers with those credentials were in short supply.  We were in the post-Sputnik era and the US was desparate to improve students' knowledge of math and science.

I was surprised to learn, using the AIER calculator that my $5600 annual pay in 1966 was equivalent to $41,241 in 2011 dollars.  I do not know what starting teachers' salaries are today, but I suspect some (if not most) would be happy to have that amount to start paying down their college-loan debt.

Take away that extra $200 I got for being half way to a master's degree and my starting salary would have been $39,768 in today's dollars, a difference or $1,473.  Education does pay.

As a point of reference, the superintendent of schools at the time was making $25,000, as I remember.  He had many years experience on me, plus a doctor's degree, something I would not acquire until 16 years later.  I dropped his salary into the calculator and it spit out the amount of $184,113 in 2011 bucks.  That's not too shabby, but remember, schools today are considerably more complicated, students less well behaved and state and federal mandates keep school administrators on their toes.

Apparently the penny stopped buying much in the mid-1960s -- other than as a token for paying sales tax.  But we might all use the AIER calculator to compare cost of familiar items with then and now.  You may be surprised at how much (or how little) some items have increased.