Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Back to 'destroying' ISIL? Yes!

President Obama used a press conference to reintroduce the use of the “D” word in referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

It’s no longer simply “degrading” the terrorist cabal. We’re back to “destroying” it. The president did say the intent is to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIL. I’ll accept the “degrade” comment in that context only.

The president was clear this morning at a press conference at the conclusion of the NATO summit in Wales. The United States plans to lead a coalition of nations to combat ISIL and destroy it.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/president-obama-us-and-allies-united-to-defeat-isil-110635.html?hp=r4

The nations are allied against the terrorist threat, he said.

And just who is Barack Obama enlisting to join in this fight? He wants Arab nations to take up arms against ISIL. He specifically mentioned Sunni-dominated Arab nations that he believes should battle the Sunni extremists who comprise ISIL.

We’re already pounding ISIL strongholds with air power in Iraq. It appears that there is a likelihood of air strikes against ISIL in Syria, where the monsters have killed two American journalists in recent days, provoking horror and revulsion among civilized people around the world.

This fight is going to be a long one. It might never end, given the nature of the enemy.

I hope Americans no longer hear terms such as “degrading” and seeking to “manage” these threats. They need to be eliminated, destroyed and eradicated.

 

Uncategorized

Puppy tales, Part 4

Honest to goodness, I do not intend to keep blogging forever on this canine family member.

It’s just that dog ownership is something new to my wife and me. Yes, we’ve owned dogs before, but the previous dog that entered our lives did so more than 25 years ago. We had him and then he was gone.

Toby, as you know by now, came into our lives just the other day. My wife and I have re-learned something about pooches: They do require attention.

We’ve been cat owners/lovers for our entire married life together, which on Thursday hits the 43-year mark. The two cats we own are now 12-year-old siblings. We’ve had them since they were about 3 months old. They rule our house. They set the boundaries. We follow them. That’s how it goes. Toby is learning that lesson quickly.

Socks is our big male. He’s very sweet. He loves people. He doesn’t like other animals. Toby got a lesson on Day One. He ventured too close to Socks, who then hissed at him, took a swing at him and said, in effect: Stay away, Bub, or else. Toby has gotten the message.

Mittens is our female. She’s much smaller, but that doesn’t mean a thing. She holds her own. She’s also pretty shy — around people and she has even less tolerance for other four-legged creatures than her brother. Mittens and Toby haven’t gotten acquainted formally just yet. They will. I believe she’ll learn to tolerate the little guy.

My wife and I are quick learners. We’ve understood all along that dogs are more labor intensive than cats. So no one has to lecture us on the obvious.

I’ll just need to keep reminding myself how happy Toby is to see us when we walk into a room.

Uncategorized

Increase the minimum wage

President Obama is right to raise a ruckus over the minimum wage.

It ought to be no surprise to learn that a family of four cannot live on $7.25 per hour, the current federally mandated minimum wage. Of course, I’m not convinced that a family of four would try to live on that kind of wage. Surely, the adults in that family would seek second, maybe third jobs.

http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/obama-pushes-minimum-wage-hike-slams-gop-saying-no-everything

Still, the minimum wage has been stuck at its current rate for a long time. Inflation has moved along, making the cost of everything more expensive. College students trying to pay for school are having an increasingly difficult time doing so while working for minimum wage.

Having declared my support for increasing the minimum wage, I also think there should be limits.

Cities across the nation are boosting the minimum wage dramatically. Seattle has nearly doubled it.

The president recently signed an executive order that increased the minimum wage for federal workers to $10.10 per hour. I believe that is a reasonable amount to increase everyone’s wage.

I’m not going to get into the political battle that’s shaping up here. Democrats want to keep control of the Senate and are making the case for boosting the minimum wage. Republicans are resisting, saying it will hurt businesses that would have to pay it.

Whatever. Boost the minimum wage. It’s the right thing to do. Make citizens’ struggle a little less burdensome.

 

 

Uncategorized

Puppy tales, Part 2

1 Comment

The first night of our new dog’s life with us went well.

Toby’s his name. He isn’t exactly the kind of dog my wife and I envisioned getting when we realized the time was right. However, he’s quite sweet and well-behaved. We had talked about getting a medium-sized dog, a mutt, a pet that would require as little care as possible.

What we have now appears to be a young-ish smaller dog, a mixed breed. He appears to be a cross between — and this is just a guess — a Chihuahua and a Dachshund. Our veterinarian will be able to give us a better idea.

Now comes the question with which I am wrestling: Do I confront his former owners and tell them what despicable low-lives they are?

I’ve already told the story of how we came to acquire little Toby.

I’m now torn between two instincts: One is to let the former owners’ horrible behavior go unanswered. It was that behavior that compelled them to turn their little dog loose on the streets, to fend for himself with the hope that someone would come along and rescue him. In that regard, the cretins accomplished their goal. Someone did find the little guy. Our great-niece brought him to us and, as fate would have it, he now has become a member of our family — pending our two cats’ approval, which we expect they’ll grant eventually, albeit grudgingly.

Do I want them to sit in their house, all smug and thinking they had succeeded in their terrible strategy?

No I don’t.

That’s why I’m wrestling with the temptation to find them, introduce myself to them and then tell them why I detest what they did. I also feel as though I need an answer to this question: Why in the world didn’t you take the dog to the SPCA, a no-kill shelter just south of town, and have them put the dog up for adoption? Guaranteed, this pooch would be snapped up immediately at the SPCA’s weekly pet adoption program at Pet Smart.

These idiots aren’t exactly neighbors. They live apparently a couple of blocks north of us and around the corner.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I’m all ears.

 

 

 

Uncategorized

Pet ownership lesson No. 1: Don't let them run loose

1 Comment

Our family today has grown by one.

He stands about 10 inches tall, has four short legs, two large ears and goes by the name of Toby.

That’s what his former owners told us. He’s now ours.

But this tale is about the idiots who gave him away and the method they tried to employ to find him a good home.

It goes like this.

Our 12-year-old great niece is visiting us for a few days. She likes to take walks through the neighborhood. She did so the other day and then returned with a little dog that followed her home. “What do I do with this dog?” she asked. “Put him in the back yard,” I said.

We looked to see if SPCA would be open Saturday. No luck; it would be closed for the Labor Day holiday. “We’re going to take the little guy to SPCA first thing Tuesday,” I told her.

Our niece then took us to the alley where she found the pooch. We talked to some neighbors. They didn’t know a thing about the dog. We brought him home. He spent Friday night in our back yard.

We awoke Saturday and our niece decided to take the pooch for a walk. We had purchased an inexpensive leash and a collar. They went for the walk and a few minutes later our niece returned home — without the dog.

“Don’t ask!” she said angrily. She stormed into her bedroom, then came out a few minutes later to tell us this: “I found the dog’s owners and they still want to get rid of the dog. They told me they just turned him loose at night hoping someone would pick him up. That is just awful! How can people do that to an animal? How can they treat their pets like that?”

She was angry. Then my wife and I got angry.

I declared at that moment that if were a dictator I’d declare those people guilty of animal cruelty and I would send them to jail, throw away the key and feed them dog food. I became so angry that I wanted to hunt those people down and tell them what rotten SOBs they are exposing that dog to harm.

Other dogs could injure him, or worse. He could be hit by a motor vehicle. He could be picked up by someone wishing to do terrible things to him. You name, I thought it.

Well, we awoke this morning. We had a full day at the rodeo. We returned home and our great-niece went for another one of her walks.

A few minutes later, we saw her walking toward the house — with the little pooch at the end of the leash.

She had found the owners yet again and told them that her aunt and uncle wanted the dog. They gave her the dog, told her his name is Toby.

The only remaining issue — and this is a big one — is whether our 12-year-old cats will accept this addition. This has been their house for a dozen years. Cat owners know what I am saying here.

We are cautiously optimistic that they’ll be all right. Toby doesn’t pose a physical threat to them. We’ll get him to the vet soon and he’ll be looked over. The curious thing about this dog is that he appears to be well-cared for. He’s been neutered and he is a loving, affectionate little fella. I guess he’s probably around 2 or 3 years old.

As for Toby’s former owners, it’ll take time for me to cool down. I remain quite angry over what we understand was their strategy for ridding themselves of an unwanted pet.

They have set the standard for what not to do. And for my money, they have disgraced themselves.

Oh, but hey, Toby’s now home.

 

 

 

Uncategorized

Time really does fly by

5 Comments

You’ve no doubt said it yourself: Time flies when you’re having fun.

I know how it goes.

In a couple of days, I’ll be celebrating an anniversary I never saw coming. On Aug. 30, 2012, I was told that my duties as editorial page editor of the Amarillo Globe-News would be handled by someone else. I barely knew the fellow who gave me the news. He was the then-vice president for audience at the newspaper. He’d been hired to fill a newly created position and had been on the job for about two months.

He broke the news to me: “There’s no easy to way to tell you this, but we’ve offered your job to someone else and he accepted.” I asked who it was. He told me.

This was the culmination of a “restructuring” or “reorganization” that the newspaper had initiated. My formerly autonomous department had been rolled into the newsroom operation. Everyone’s job descriptions had been reworked. I looked at my new description and thought, “Yeah, I can do this.” We were invited to apply for any job we wanted and were asked to list two “alternate” posts for which we could apply in case we didn’t get Job One.

I thought, “Hey, I’ve been doing this job for 17-plus years. I can do what they’re asking me to do.”

I was the only one involved directly in this decision who harbored that thought. The VP/audience dropped the bomb in my lap. I sat there, stunned. I caught my breath, said something to him I don’t dare repeat here, walked into my office and called my wife, then my sons. The message was the same to all of them: I’m out.

I went home. Slept well that night. Came back early the next morning and cleared out my office. Rather than apply for another job and hope that lightning would strike and I would get it, I quit. I was qualified to do one thing at the newspaper and I thought I did it pretty well. I’d had an enormously fruitful and moderately successful career over the total span of 37 years.

As near as I can recall, I was the first casualty of this “restructuring.” I was gone, out the door. (Here’s the hilarious aside: The VP/audience quit his job about a week after I walked out and returned to his old employer, the Las Vegas Sun. Suffice to say the individual who runs the Globe-News was not a happy man. My reaction when I got the news? Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?)

Why recall all this today? Well, I guess it’s time to air it out just a little. I won’t waste any effort telling you about the anger I felt at that very moment toward a number of people. Most of that anger has subsided. Some of it remains.

My prevailing attitude, though, is one of thankfulness. I’m thankful to be gone. I hated that my newspaper career ended the way it did. I was hoping for a cake and a party where some folks would say some nice things to me, thank me for my service and my dedication to our craft. Hey, not every dream comes true.

Time flies, yes?

Since then, I’ve discovered a wonderful new life. Semi-retirement is better than I thought. I’ve found new life as a blogger. I’m working part-time for an auto dealer and writing a blog for Panhandle PBS, a gig I started almost immediately after leaving the newspaper. The Panhandle PBS assignment has changed and grown a bit in recent weeks and my hope is that it will continue to grow.

I offer this essay to those who might worry about their future in print journalism. The landscape is changing right under their feet. More papers are going “digital” in their effort to report the news and comment on issues of the day. I was told the Globe-News would be embarking in a “radical new direction.”

My employer said, in effect, that I was ill-suited to take part in that journey. I had reminded him a day or two earlier that journalism today bears little resemblance to what it was when I started out in the 1970s and that the changes he was seeking amounted to a tiny fraction of what I’d already been through. That was my way of saying: I can do whatever you want me to do. Well, that plea fell on deaf ears.

What’s in store for others who are still toiling in daily print journalism? That remains a mystery.

Know this, though. If this old geezer can adapt to a new life rapidly after being punched in the gut, then there’s hope for virtually everyone else facing the uncertainty of a changing profession.

Time has flown by for me the past two years. I’m having the time of my life.

 

 

 

Uncategorized

Yes, reel in payday lenders

Well, what do you know about that? Amarillo City Council is considering an ordinance that regulates payday lenders.

The council had a public hearing today and another is set for next week.

I do hope the council agrees to watch these lenders closely.

Some of the provisions include limiting loans to no more than 20 percent of the borrower’s monthly income; auto title loans would be for no more than 3 percent of the borrower’s gross annual income or 70 percent of the vehicle’s value.

It’s about time the city took up this issue.

I’ve long considered payday lenders to be only a cut — maybe two — above loan sharks. They prey on those looking for quick cash, those who’ve gotten themselves turned upside down financially. They charge significantly greater interest rates than, say, more established lending institutions — you know, banks and credit unions.

What’s equally interesting is that the Amarillo governing council is actually considering a government-mandated regulation. Our city long has employed a hands-off attitude on these matters. Keep government out of legal private businesses’ affairs, the mantra had been.

An ordinance mandating a ban on indoor smoking? Forget about it. Businesses will do it themselves. Put the issue for a vote, the city decided — twice. Voters rejected the ordinance narrowly both times.

Well, a payday lending regulation would help protect those who can become victims of those with cash to throw around while charging the borrowers a huge interest rate in return.

I consider the City Council’s consideration of this ordinance to be a step forward for the cause of consumer protection.

Enact the ordinance.

 

Uncategorized

Strange bedfellows, indeed

What may be about to happen in Syria just might re-define the term “strange bedfellows.”

This one utterly blows my ever-loving mind. The United States apparently is about to start launching surveillance flights over Syria to help pinpoint the whereabouts of ISIS fighters battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, the guy we threatened once to hit with airstrikes after he crossed the “red line” of using chemical weapons on his own people.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/215935-report-us-to-conduct-surveillance-flights-over-syria

ISIS is running rampant in Syria and Iraq. The terrorist organization has beheaded an American journalists, threatened to bring its mayhem to American shores, pledged all-out war against Israel and promised to overthrow the Iraqi government we helped install.

The group personifies evil.

It’s also fighting Assad’s wicked regime in Syria. Assad is another enemy of the United States. President Obama has called on him to step down. He has pledged support to insurgents fighting against Syrian government troops. One of those so-called “allies” appears to be ISIS, if that’s what we’re led to believe.

How can that possibly be happening?

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Remember that cliché?

You want more? Syria now has offered to help the United States by providing intelligence data on the movements of ISIS within that country’s border. No word yet on whether we’ve accepted the offer of assistance.

My head is about to explode as I ponder this amazing tangle of relationships.

Someone help me out. Please.

 

Uncategorized

'One plane ticket away'

U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers made what he presumed to be a profound point about the threat posed by Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq.

ISIS is “one plane ticket away” from striking the United States of America, Rogers said on Meet the Press this past Sunday.

I heard him say that and wondered: That’s news … now?

I get that Rogers is seeking to underscore the threat that ISIS poses. These are truly evil men who, it’s been said by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey, have an “apocalyptic, end-of-the-world” view.

The hard truth, though, is that all terror groups are “one plane ticket away” from entering the United States and doing terrible harm against Americans.

They were one ticket away on Sept. 11, 2001, yes? Nineteen terrorists boarded three commercial aircraft that day in the eastern United States, hijacked them and flew two of them into buildings in New York and Washington, D.C.; the third jet crashed into that Pennsylvania field after passengers fought heroically with the hijackers to keep them from crashing it into another target. 

I also believe we’ve done better at protecting the United States since that horrific day. The measures imposed during the Bush administration have made commercial air travel less fun for passengers around the world, but it has made it demonstrably safer.

The same can be said now, despite the critics’ claim that the Obama administration is doing too little to protect U.S. citizens against terrorist threat. To that I ask: We’ve had how many attacks on our shores since 9/11?

Yes, ISIS and other despicable terrorists are “one plane ticket away” from committing mayhem here. That’s as it’s always been and likely always will be.

The question remains: Are we going to remain vigilant and alert?

 

State news, Uncategorized

Another cop dies in line of duty

Police officers’ image has taken a hit in recent days with the controversy swirling around the shooting death of a young man in Ferguson, Mo., by a police officer. The young man was black, the officer is white. Questions are surrounding the community and the aftershock of the shooting has rippled into police departments all across the nation.

Then something like this happens in a small South Texas town that makes you take pause and ponder the risk that our law enforcement officers face every single day they’re on duty.

Elmendorf Police Chief Michael Pimentel was shot to death while trying to arrest a man. Pimentel had been waiting outside Joshua Lopez’s home to issue an arrest warrant. A man came out and shot Pimentel twice. The chief was taken to a local hospital, but died from his wounds.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Officer-critically-wounded-following-shooting-5707898.php

I’ve long supported the work of good police officers and understood instinctively that every single call they make is fraught with potential danger.

There’s no word yet on the nature of the arrest warrant Chief Pimentel was seeking to serve. I haven’t yet read whether the suspect had a record of violent crime. Perhaps he did. Thus, the chief knew he was putting himself in danger by waiting for the suspect to come out of his house. The chief also might not have expected the suspect to agree quietly to being arrested.

It still brings to light the hazards that police officers face every time they put on the uniform, strap on their weapon, pin on their badge and go to work.

Nothing is “routine” in police work. Nothing at all.