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Angels were watching over us

SOMEWHERE ON INTERSTATE 40, N.M. — My wife believes in angels.

After what happened to us today en route home from four nights in Santa Rosa, N.M., I think I’m going to join her in that belief.

We set out this morning from the RV park where we had camped out and headed east in Interstate 40. We got about 25 miles down the road when a couple came along side and began pointing frantically toward the rear of our RV. They were yelling something that sounded like “rear berries.”

We pulled over. So did they. We got out and looked at the rear of our fifth wheel. One of the left rear wheels was smoking. The “rear berries” turned out to be burned rear bearings. The couple offered us a kind word of support.

We didn’t get their names, so I’ll refer to them as Mr. and Mrs. Angel.

Mr. Angel told us he’s a retired California Highway Patrol trooper who in his retirement years hauls vehicles here and there. He and Mrs. Angel were towing a trailer carrying a pickup headed for Texas. “I’ve seen a lot of these things over the years, ” Mr. Angel said. “It’s a good thing you didn’t go any farther and had the wheel fly off,” he added. Gee, do ya think?

“Are you folks all right?” they asked. Yes. We’ll be fine.

It was around 9:15 a.m.

We called the RV club to which we belong, as it has a roadside assistance program we purchased.

As luck would have it, we happened to be on a spot on the freeway with excellent cell phone service. We got an operator on the line, told her of our dilemma and waited for her to look up someone who could help us.

She found someone — in Santa Rosa!

“He’ll be there in 30 to 35 minutes,” she said.

Nearly an hour later, he arrived. His name is Joey Muniz, owner of Big Rig Truck Service. “I’ve been doing this for 36 years,” Muniz told us, “and two times I’ve been involved with semi trucks rear-ending me on the highway.”

That was about the first piece of information he gave us. I’m not sure why he said that — whether to warn us to be alert or to assure us that it’s only happened twice in 36 years. Neither motive gave me much comfort, truth be told.

He tore the wheel apart. Good news. There was no damage to the hug or to the axle. Joey — the third guardian angel — echoed what Mr. Angel had said: “If you went much farther, the wheel would have flown off and you have been in a world of hurt.”

He told he’d have to take part of the wheel assembly back to his shop, find new bearings and pack them in grease. “I’ll be back in two hours, maybe less,” Muniz said.

Seventy-five minutes later, he pulled up. He had the bearings. He packed them in grease. He put the assembly back on the fifth wheel. But he had to improvise just a bit. The hub cover had flown off when the bearings burned up, so he had half of a Dr Pepper soda can that fit perfectly over the hub. He clamped it tightly so it would keep the dirt from getting inside.

“This’ll get you home, I promise,” he said, to which I responded, “If it doesn’t, I’m calling you.” He then said, “I’ll come fix it … again.”

After more than four hours stranded on that stretch of I-40, we finally were on our way home.

Just one final thought: Have you ever wondered, “Where are the police when you need them?” We sat there for hours and didn’t see a single New Mexico State Police trooper drive by. Hey, just wondering … you know?

OK, Joey didn’t work his magic on our RV for free, but I still consider him a guardian angel. As for Mr. and Mrs. Angel — wherever they are — many thanks for being there at just the right time.

You’ve made a believer out of me.

 

national news, political news, Uncategorized

Trump: Deport ’em all … now!

alg-donald-trump-jpg

Donald Trump is going to unveil his immigration reform package.

It shouldn’t take long for him to tell us his plans if he is elected president of the United States. As I understand it, the plan will look something like this:

Build a wall and then deport all the undocumented immigrants immediately.

If there is anything that resembles a centerpiece of the Trump campaign, immigration appears to fit that description. He made quite a splash regarding immigrants when he announced his candidacy in June. Mexico, he said, is “sending” criminals to the United States. Murderers, rapists and drug dealers are being sent here. “Some, I assume, are good people,” he added as an afterthought.

Trump said he plan to rescind President Obama’s executive order granting temporary amnesty for as many as 5 million illegal immigrants, which of course has drawn high praise from Republican audiences. “We will work with them. They have to go,” Trump said. “We either have a country or we don’t have a country.”

I have just a couple of thoughts regarding the Trump Immigration Reform Plan.

How much will it cost to build an impenetrable wall across our southern border? Do we have the money?

How does he intend to search for and locate every one of the undocumented immigrants who are living here? And what does he intend to do with the children of those undocumented individuals who were born in the United States and have earned U.S. citizenship just by being born in this country?

And what might Trump propose to do with those individuals who entered the country illegally but who have become successful businessmen and women?

All of this is going to require the detail, nuance and thoughtfulness that’s been missing in Trump’s campaign to date.

Then again, why should he provide it now? Those polls that show the real estate mogul leading the GOP field suggest many of the party’s primary voters don’t care about those things.

 

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Get rid of the land line? Not just yet

landline-std-code

My cousin has just announced she’s pulling the plug on her telephone land line.

She and her husband are going totally cellular.

Oh, my. My wife and I have struggled with the idea of getting rid of our land line. Neither of us is ready to make the leap.

Our sons are both land line-less. They enjoy the mobility. They are among millions of Americans who no longer use a phone book. Need a number? Go to some app in the cell phone and look it up.

I admire them for the courage it took for them to cut the cord … so to speak.

Me? I am a bit spooked by the commercials by our telephone and Internet provider about the unreliability of cell phones if you have to make an emergency medical or police call. You’ve seen ads like them, with the little kid calling 9-1-1 on a cell phone, but the connection is breaking up. The dispatcher can’t understand what the kid is saying. The voice-over tells you that land lines are more reliable. Don’t give ’em up.

OK. I’m a believer.

My wife and I will reach that point in our lives when a land line is no longer applicable. That’ll be when we hit the road in our fifth wheel for points as-yet unknown. We plan to spend extended periods on the lam.

For now, though, we’re tethered to the land line. I’m a bit of an old-fashioned guy, so I’ll keep the home phone until we no longer need it — at all!

Good luck to my cousin who’s made the leap of faith.

 

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Let’s not call them ‘debates’

Dan Rather did a lot of things wrong when he was a network news anchor.

He did a lot of things right, though.

One of the things he did right was he declined to use the word “debate” to describe the events featuring two or more candidates running for the same office. His view is that they weren’t debates as most of us understand the meaning of the term.

He called them “joint appearances.” Which is what the event Thursday turned out to be with 10 top-tier Republican presidential candidates fielding questions from a Fox News Channel panel of journalists. Seven more second-tier candidates took part in an earlier event.

The term “debate” has been misused, therefore, in this context.

I think I’ll adopt the Rather model and refer to future joint appearances as what they are … and they are not debates.

 

national news, political news, Uncategorized

Blue suits: uniform of the day

blue suits

My wife likely would be the first — and maybe the last — person to tell you I have no business being a fashion consultant.

She reminds me on occasion that I tend to dress like a stereotypical journalist — whatever that means. I’m often a bit rumpled and not quite “pulled together,” to use her description.

Still, am I the only Republican presidential “debate” viewer Thursday night who noticed that all 10 members of the GOP “A Team,” the guys at the top of the polls, were dressed essentially the same?

With the obvious exception of Ben Carson (third from left in the picture), all these guys even kinda/sorta looked the same. Most of them have dark-ish hair — although Sen. Rand Paul’s (second from right) style is sort of, um, one of a kind.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s ‘do stands alone.

It seems as though they all talked to the same media consultant who issued the memo: blue suit, plain shirt, red or blue tie; Old Glory lapel flag pins are optional.

But the sameness among all of them — yes, even The Donald — looks a bit creepy.

I’m betting the three Democratic male presidential candidates will consult with the same media guru prior to their debate.

 

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Now, let’s bring on the Top 10

Here’s my major takeaway from the just-completed debate featuring the seven “second-string” Republicans running for president of the United States.

It’s the absence of cheering, hoots and hollers.

Did anyone else notice that we actually could hear some intelligent answers to questions from the two Fox News questioners.

If only the Top 10 GOP candidates can achieve the level of seriousness exhibited by the Second-String Seven.

I’ve been dismayed by the show-biz quality of these debates. The 2012 GOP debate season was the worst. My hope is that if we’re going to have another series of debates this election season — with Democrats and Republicans scheduling them — then we can have them without all the cheers.

***

OK, my second takeaway?

I believe Carly Fiorina emerged as the winner of tonight’s showdown.

She was sharp, incisive, commanding, articulate — and she took dead aim at Donald Trump, suggesting that the GOP frontrunner doesn’t have a philosophy or set of standards by which he’d govern.

Now it’s on to the Top 10.

I hope it’s as serious and edifying as the preliminary matchup.

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They may be right

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Mencken

Someone once told me years ago that the Bard of Baltimore, Henry Louis Mencken, used to end arguments by telling the other person, “You may be right.”

Then, I suppose, he and his foe would go on to something else.

Well, in this new age of social media, I think I’ve discovered a 21st-century version of that old dodge.

Every now and then — and it’s becoming quite a frequent occurrence these days — I get into these snits with Facebook “friends,” and actual friends with whom I have a relationship on the social medium.

I like using Facebook — along with Twitter, Google and LinkedIn — to share my blog posts. Some folks like getting these musings on Facebook. Others, I reckon, do not, to which I only would say: Don’t read ’em.

But the individuals with whom I argue on Facebook sometimes get pretty relentless in their attacks. They cling stubbornly to the idea that they must have the last word. I don’t mind ceding that honor to these folks. I generally don’t have the time, not to mention the patience or the intestinal fortitude, to keep going back and forth on a topic.

Quite often, we end up talking past each other, with the point of the initial post getting lost when folks take the discussion down some blind alley.

So, when that happens and I grow tired of engaging individuals on endless — and seemingly pointless — discussions, I simply hit the “Like” button on my Facebook news feed.

Look, I know I’m not going to change their minds. They won’t change mine.

What, then, is the point of continuing?

When I get tired of the back-and-forth, I’ll tell my “friend”/friend/foe that I “Like” what they’ve said.

Then I’ll move on.

Mr. Mencken, wherever you are, I hope to have made you proud.

media news, national news, political news, Uncategorized

Candidates looking like horses

horse race

Democrats’ symbol is the donkey.

Republicans’ is the elephant.

Both beasts are looking more like horses, especially as pundits discuss the upcoming 2016 presidential political campaign.

Since most of the chatter is on the GOP side, let’s focus on that one.

How much do we really know about all 16 people who are seeking the Republican nomination? My hunch is not much … at all, if anything. No, we’ve been hearing a lot about polls. Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s on the move — up or down? What happened to the formerly formidable candidates? How can they get themselves back up again?

Horse-race politics is back with a vengeance.

We keep hearing about it and about how much of a negative influence it has on the nature of the campaign to become leader of the Free World, commander in chief of the greatest military in world history, chief executive of the federal government — all that stuff.

We get fixated on the leaders. Can they keep their lead?

Then we zero in on the statements they make in order to become one of the leaders. That’s been at the top of the discussion list of late. I admit to joining that pack. I’m not proud of it. I’ll try to mend my ways.

But the commentary today must focus on why the media keep covering these campaigns as if they’re races to the finish line.

I’ll blame two of the major news networks for feeding the 2016 version of this frenzy. Fox and CNN are going to be hosts for the first two GOP joint appearances. They set down some ground rules that include poll-driven data: Only the top dogs are allowed.

Don’t all the candidates deserve to be heard? Don’t all of them have something of value to say? Aren’t the media obligated to give them all a chance to state their case before as many people as possible?

Isn’t that what our political system is supposed to foster, a free exchange among all the individuals running for the most important political office in the land — if not on the planet?

That’s not happening. We’re focusing instead on the horse race, which has been the norm of political coverage perhaps since the advent of television as a major information source.

I want to hear more from and about the candidates and how each of them intends to fight the war against terror, keep the country’s economy moving forward … you know, the stuff that matters.

The sound bites that seek to elevate candidates’ polling standing? The analysis from the talking heads about whether so-and-so will be in the debate based on his or her polling?

Honestly, I find it boring to the max.

I might need to take a vow to ignore the polls and concentrate on the policy statements. I now will ponder precisely that. I’ll get back to you.

 

 

 

 

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Jihad John on the run … where does this man hide?

Jihadi John

Mohammad Emwazi — aka Jihadi John — is on the run.

But this guy is no ordinary fugitive. He’s the individual believed to be responsible for the beheadings of Islamic State captives. He reportedly has fallen out of favor with the monstrous terrorist organization.

Oh, my. Where does this individual go now?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/jihadi-john-on-the-run-from-isis/ar-AAdvEy0?ocid=ansibt11

Emwazi has become arguably the world’s most hated man. He reportedly beheaded aid workers and journalists captured by ISIL. He’s a United Kingdom resident who was born in Kuwait but educated at the University of Westminster.

He’s now at the top of the list of the men being hunted by U.S. and other intelligence agencies for his dastardly deeds.

A former friend said this about Emwazi: “The jihadist had not been ‘a good Muslim’ and never wore the Islamic dress he has been seen wearing in the beheading videos. ‘He smoked drugs, drank and was violent towards other boys,’ said the friend, who was not named in the report. ‘The fact he portrays himself as a strict Muslim is laughable and shameful.’”

Actually, Emwazi and his former ISIL colleagues aren’t “strict Muslims.” They are Muslim perverts.

Whatever. Some analysts now believe Emwazi has become a target of ISIL and well could end up meeting the same kind of fate he delivered to so many of his victims.

Well, as the saying goes: Karma can be a bitch.

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Red-light cameras don’t blink

red light cams

A legal challenge to Texas cities’ deployment of cameras to stop red-light runners has come to an end.

It was tossed out. The case had been filed out of Fort Worth, but it affected all the cities that are using the cameras.

That includes Amarillo.

Now, can we just stop yapping and yammering about these devices?

I continue to support the use of the cameras. It’s not that I cherish the thought of people getting pinched. It’s that I hope knowledge of the cameras at specific intersections eventually will deter motorists from running through the red lights and putting other motorists and pedestrians at risk of getting injured … or killed!

I keep falling back on the comments delivered by my one-time favorite Amarillo City Council member, Ellen Robertson Green. She scolded protesters who were griping about the red-light cameras, telling them flat out that all they to do to avoid getting caught was not obey the law and not run the red lights.

State law is clear: Money raised by the devices must be dedicated to improving traffic in the city. The Legislature tinkered and toyed with the idea of revoking cities’ ability to deploy the cameras. Then it backed off for lack of support. That was a good deal.

Cities should be allowed to determine whether to use the cameras if they perceive a red-light running problem. Amarillo identified such a problem and took steps to deter it.

Let’s allow the system to keep working.