International news

My heart is broken

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Menashe_01_Na

Information travels quickly — especially, it seems, when it involves a message you don’t want to receive.

I just got word from a friend of mine that another friend — someone many of us grew to love — has died.

His picture is here. His name is Menashe Livnat. He was an Israeli gentleman who served 10 foreign visitors as their guide, father confessor, counselor, troubleshooter, fix-it man. He was everything to us. He became our friend for life.

I first laid eyes on Menashe the evening of June 10, 2009. I had just traveled from Amarillo to Israel with four friends; I was team leader of a group that comprised a Rotary International Group Study Exchange team that would stay in Israel for four weeks with host families. Menashe was at David Ben-Gurion International Airport to greet us, along with another Rotary GSE team from The Netherlands.

We exchanged handshakes and greetings, along with a few gifts we brought over from West Texas.

Then we were off, on our way to enjoy the adventure of a lifetime — which I have described several times over the years on this blog.

Menashe made it happen for us.

He was coordinator for the host Rotary district that welcomed us to Israel. He made sure we got to where we needed to be. We met with professionals in Israel, exchanged ideas on how we did our jobs.

We went non-stop for virtually the entire length of the exchange tour.

Menashe was the Indispensable Man.

We grew to adore him and his wife, Miri.

My friends and I each, I’m quite sure, have countless stories of what Menashe did for us during our time in Israel. As we toured through the country with our new Dutch friends, we learned much about ourselves and each other — and about Israel. Menashe was there every step of the way, even when he wasn’t physically present.

I’ll share this particular event.

There was one time during our tour in which we hadn’t seen Menashe for several days. We had encountered some hiccups along the way. We were growing tired. Our hosts had filled our days with activity from dawn to well past dusk.

Then he appeared at the place where we were gathering. Menashe was like a vision.

Menashe and I managed to get some private time and I told him we were running out of gas. He said “no problem.” He then canceled the activities for the next day and then we spent an entire day swimming in the Mediterranean Sea at Caeserea. He found time to allow us to relax, catch our breath, soak up some sun and think of nothing but how to enjoy the relaxing day in a beautiful Middle East vacation spot.

Menashe embodied the Rotary International motto of placing “Service Above Self.” He was a big-hearted, generous man who enabled five Americans and five Dutch to take in the experiences only found in one of the world’s most exciting and intriguing regions.

The news of his passing saddens me terribly.

I will miss this good man.

media news, national news

‘Courageous and brave’? Not even close

CNN news anchor Fredericka Whitfield needs — I think — some lessons in how to use the English language.

She attached the terms “courageous” and “brave” to describe the actions of a man who laid siege to the Dallas Police Department headquarters building before he was shot to death by a police sniper.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/cnn-anchor-calls-dallas-attack-brave/ar-BBl6wpK

My goodness. My head is spinning over that.

The diver of an armored van opened fire on the police building. He was committing at least two serious felonies: attempted murder and firing a gun in the city limits come to mind most immediately; there might be a dozen more criminal acts involved here. She said: “It was very courageous and brave, if not crazy as well, to open fire on the police headquarters, and now you have this scene, this standoff.”

Huh?

The terms “courageous” and “brave” are intended to put a positive description on one’s actions. The actions of this guy never — not ever — should be labeled in the manner described by this news anchor.

local news

It’s official: ‘Change’ has arrived at Amarillo City Hall

Let’s call Amarillo City Councilman-elect Mark Nair the “man who brought change” to Amarillo municipal government.

Tonight he was elected to Place 4 on the five-man City Council. trouncing runoff opponent Steve Rogers.

So, what does “change” look like? That remains to be seen.

But here’s what we know. Two of the new guys on the council, Place 1 Councilman Elisha Demerson and Place 3 Councilman Randy Burkett campaigned aggressively against the “status quo.” That means, I guess, that they oppose some of the key policy decisions made in recent years by the council. The highest profile set of decisions involves downtown redevelopment.

Now we have Nair joining the new three-member majority that advocates change … whatever it means.

I keep hearing a lot of rumblings around town about “The Ballpark,” or the multipurpose event venue. Will there or won’t there be a citywide referendum to determine if voters want to build the MPEV? Why even put it to a vote? Well, it involves spending “public money,” derived from hotel-motel tax revenue, which is how the city intends to finance construction and upkeep of the venue.

Here, though, is the irony: The money comes from those who visit the city, not from those who live here.

But, by golly, there just might be a vote on it, just to gauge residents’ feelings about building it.

If voters say “no,” the council — while not obligated legally to abide by the result — would commit political suicide by ignoring it.

If the MPEV gets derailed, what happens to the downtown hotel being planned? Developers say the MPEV must be built for the hotel to proceed. Oh, and the parking garage — the third wing of this three-part package? Who needs it?

So, will “change” mean the end of this downtown effort?

Congratulations, Councilman-elect Nair.

Proceed with wisdom, young man.

 

entertainment news

It wasn’t a ‘Shawshank’ escape

I keep reading references to that New York prison escape that compare it to the film “Shawshank Redemption.”

And then I keep wondering: Where does that comparison come from?

http://news.yahoo.com/joyce-mitchell-arrested-dannemora-york-prison-escape-case-220005633–abc-news-topstories.html

Joyce Mitchell has been arrested and charged with helping murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt escape from the maximum-security prison in upstate New York. She is accused of providing hacksaw blades to the men, who then sawed through steel sewer pipes and wormed their way outside the walls.

Does that sound like “Shawshank” to you? It doesn’t to me.

In the film, Tim Robbins’s character, Andy Dufresne, is imprisoned wrongly for murder of his wife and the man with whom she was cheating.

He’s sent to prison in Maine and then for the next 19 years he chips his way out of his cell, using homemade carving tools.

Andy didn’t have any help. No one supplied blades. No one distracted prison guards.

Sweat and Matt will be caught. Searchers are narrowing the area where they’re looking, although I’m guessing the two men won’t give up without a fight.

Andy ended up on a beach in Mexico, refurbishing an old boat and lived happily ever after.

 

national news

Clear it up, Rachel: Are your white parents lying?

rachel

Rachel Dolezal is going to set the record straight Monday … she says.

The head of the Spokane, Wash., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is going to tell us whether she’s white or black.

This clearly is one of the stranger stories any of us — white or black — has seen in, oh, since the last strange story burst on the scene.

? http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/naacp-leader-to-speak-monday-parents-say-she-lied-on-race/ar-BBl53nJ

Dolezal’s parents, from whom she’s estranged, says their daughter has been lying about her race. She claims to be black. Her parents, who are white, have produced pictures of her as a fair-skinned blond girl. Her hair now is curly; her skin is considerably darker.

She’s been strangely coy about answering a direct and succinct question: Are you white? He answer to a question from a Spokane Spokesman-Review reporter: “That question is not as easy as it seems. There’s a lot of complexities … and I don’t know that everyone would understand that.”

“We’re all from the African continent.”

What the … ? My head is about to explode. Actually, the question seems more than “easy.”

The NAACP is backing Dolezal. Her parents, who live in Montana, said she’s been misrepresenting herself.

I’ve noted already that the NAACP’s very name doesn’t require one to be African-American to join, let alone assume a leadership position. Indeed, the organization was founded by a white person.

But as I look at Dolezal’s picture as a little girl — that’s her in both frames attached to this blog post — she looks pretty darn white to me.

Please, please, Rachel … explain yourself.

 

State news

Castro’s VP stakes on the rise

Julian Castro has the chops to be vice president of the United States.

I’ll lay that out right now. He’s as qualified to be VP as, say, Dan Quayle or Spiro Agnew. Heck, even Richard Nixon was considered a young buck when Dwight Eisenhower selected him to run as vice president in 1952; then again, Ike could have run with a trained chimpanzee and still been elected in a landslide that year.

Castro’s stock as a potential running mate on a Democratic ticket led by Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be rising.

The Big Question: Does Castro’s presence on a Democratic presidential ticket deliver Texas to the Democrats? It’s not going to happen.

However, it could make Texas more competitive than it otherwise would be.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/12/houston-castro-avoids-veep-chatter/

Castro is the highly charismatic former mayor of San Antonio who now serves as housing secretary. He’s had his federal job for less than a year and wasn’t mayor of Texas’s second-largest city all that long before moving to Washington.

He did light up the Democratic National Convention in 2012 with a stirring keynote speech.

Castro’s ties to the Hispanic community are quite obvious, given his name. What’s more, the name “Castro” doesn’t carry quite the negative political baggage it once did in this country, given that Fidel Castro is now out of power in Cuba and the United States is on the verge of establishing normal diplomatic relations with its former enemy. Sure, it’s still a commie state, but it poses no threat to the United States of America.

These things occasionally have a way of reversing themselves. Someone else could emerge from nowhere to become the next favorite to join Hillary Clinton. Heck, someone else also could emerge — from the same nowhere — to bump Clinton out of her shoo-in status to become the Democrats’ next presidential nominee. Do I think either event will occur? Umm, no — definitely not the latter.

For now, it’s fun to watch Julian Castro navigate his way through the treacherous world of political punditry and speculation.

The young man already is adept at dodging the obvious questions that keep coming at him.

 

local news

Looks like a dismal turnout is on tap

If the utter silence at the place where I vote is any indication, it looks as though the turnout for today’s municipal runoff election is going to be a yawner.

I just cast my vote. It was 9:05 a.m. The polls opened at 7 at Arden Road Baptist Church.

My vote was the 20th cast. Twenty votes in 2 hours and 5 minutes of voting!

The runoff is for Place 4 on the Amarillo City Council. The two candidates are Steve Rogers and Mark Nair. They finished in the top two spots in the May 9 election.

The winner will fill out the five-member City Council.

Hey, it’s a big deal, man.

Whoever joins the council will be one of three new members. Voters have shaken things up a bit at City Hall, defeating two incumbents. The third new guy will replace an incumbent, Ron Boyd, who didn’t seek election to the seat to which he was appointed.

The day is still young as I write this brief blog. Maybe it’ll turn around once everyone wakes up, shakes the cob webs out, gulps down a cup or two of coffee.

Believe me: It takes all of about 2 minutes to vote.

That’s it.

How about voting today?

business news, International news

Greece: the downside of globalism

Economists have hailed the era of globalism, the interconnectedness of nations.

One nation’s failures and foibles affect others, just as their triumphs do.

Greece is in trouble — again! And the world is holding its breath.

Man, it pains me to watch what’s happening to the country of my ancestors. I’ve visited the place three times: 2000, 2001 and 2003. I’ve seen the good side of the country. My wife and I have experienced its charm, swallowed up its physical magnificence, gotten a taste of its cuisine and seen first hand the antiquities left over from when it was the “cradle of western civilization.”

Now this.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/salvation-to-catastrophe-what-might-happen-to-greece/ar-BBl1S4d

Greece owes billions of dollars to creditors. It must pay them back or else default. It joined the European Union, converted its currency, the drachma, to the euro, but the EU might kick Greece out. Germany, which has played a huge role in bailing the Greeks out, already is making plans for Greece’s default on the loans it has taken.

International financial markets are on edge. They’re teetering, putting retirement funds — such as mine and my wife’s — at risk.

Why is this all happening? Globalism.

Look, left to its own devices, Greece’s influence on the world shouldn’t be that impactful. It’s a small country. It’s a modern country. Its people are sophisticated and well-educated. But it comprises about 10.5 million citizens, contributing to a gross domestic product of $284 billion annually, which is chicken feed compared to, say, nearby Italy, with its $1.9 trillion GDP.

Still, the countries are linked by common currency, common trade practices and common pressures that ripple their way across Europe — and around the world.

Greece has made a mess of itself and the world might be forced to clean it up.

The push to join nations together in international trade arrangements and alliances by itself isn’t a bad thing. I remain all for it.

These alliances, though, depend on everyone doing what they must to ensure they hold together. Greece hasn’t done it. It continues to resist the austerity measures that others have imposed on it. Its left-wing government also is on the brink of collapse.

Doomsday hasn’t arrived in Athens. It’s getting dangerously close.

 

local news

Is there a cure for cell phone addiction?

cellphone toon

Alcoholics have support groups to help them cope with their addiction.

Same for those who abuse drugs and those who gamble impulsively. A member of my family belongs to a widows/widowers group that offers friendship and fellowship to those who’ve lost spouses.

Is there anything for those who are addicted to cell phones?

Probably not. I think I need counseling, however.

I did something I usually don’t do: I left my cell phone at home this afternoon while I worked at one of my four part-time jobs.

It usually is clipped to my belt. I reach for it constantly. I don’t pull it out and look at it all day long, although I spend my share of time looking at news apps and monitor the traffic on my blog, High Plains Blogger.

I didn’t have it all day. I was going nuts.

My closest friends and family members know about my love-hate relationship with cell phones. I hate hearing them go off, I hate being distracted by individuals blabbing their big mouths on cell phone conversations, and I hate seeing people talking on the thing while they’re driving their vehicles along public streets; we have a law against that in Amarillo, you know.

My first cell phone was of the flip variety. It was small. It didn’t work too well. My wife and I had identical phones. Hers didn’t work well, either.

I had declared my intention to be the last man on Earth with a cell phone. I declared victory in that quest some years back, then got the phone.

We eventually graduated, thanks to some cajoling from one of our sons, to a “smart phone.” It’s a fancy little gizmo. I use only a fraction of the apps on it. For all I know, I could launch a rocket to Mars with the thing.

I use my smart phone to make and receive phone calls, text messages (to which I usually respond in no more than six words), check the weather app, check a couple of the news apps and — of course — look at my blog traffic.

But today, I went all day without doing any of that. I went into a form of cell phone withdrawal about halfway through my work shift. I didn’t break out into cold sweat, or start shaking, or develop a craving for chocolate. As the day wore on, I realized more and more how much I missed the thing. It’s become like a friend.

But …

Enough, already!

I’m prepared to go through an intervention.

OK, I’ll start: My name is John and I am a cell phone-holic.

State news

So much for Texas ethics reform

Gov. Greg Abbott wanted the Texas Legislature to improve the state’s ethical conduct rules.

The first-term governor didn’t get anything close to what he wanted. Indeed, the just-concluded legislative session drew some barbs from members of the Texas Ethics Commission. And when those guys ding you, well, you’ve been dinged.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/12/brief-june-12-2015/?mc_cid=d31223e1d7&mc_eid=c01508274f

It appears that the Legislature went the other way. According to former Ethics panel chairman Jim Clancy, some bills awaiting Abbott’s signature “scare me to death.”

One of them makes it easier for political spouses’ financial statements to be hidden. According to the Texas Tribune, the bill repeals an earlier reform aimed at requiring such disclosure.

Nicely done, legislators. Just kidding, of course.

The Texas ethical code is pretty loose as it is. Lawmakers can leave public office and move directly into lobbying positions, where they can persuade their former legislative pals to back bills in the best interests of the new lobbyists’ clients. Cooling-off period? Forget about it.

The governor can try again in 2017 when the next Legislature returns. He’ll have logged some time in office. Perhaps he can use that time to persuade his friends in the Legislature that he really means it.

Reform, improve and tighten the state’s ethical code, or else. What’s more, Gov. Abbott, make the “or else” mean something.

 

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