SOME THOTS ABOUT THE TUBE

I recently got one of those BIG flat screen sets…and I still can’t read the fine print at the bottom of some ads. How can they be legal? (I guess because in most cases they are reprinted, hopefully in larger type, in a sales agreement to be signed. Still…)

Thanks to the new set I did learn:

The lawyer in this ad is NOT licensed in Kentucky.

APR (Annual Percentage Rate) for this mattress  is 29%  (yes, the interest rate on the loan is that high; how can this be legal?)

Needed at closing: $3000.  (It may be $199 a month, but…)

Some Buicks cost more than some Mercedes.

You will be entered for a gift card worth “UP TO…$50.”  $50 seems hardly too much; what’s “up to?"  10, maybe?

Congrats to WKYT for airing the tenth anniversary memorial for flight 5191 live. This is what local stations should do more of. Full disclosure: KYT is my former  employer.

And even more congrats to KET which in a few weeks will observe the 40^th year of Comment on Kentucky, one of the nation’s longest running public affairs shows. Thanks to KET, Mark Hebert and Chris Galligan a lot of former hosts (myself included) and panelists and staffers got together to thank Len Press, founder of KET, and Al Smith, host for 30 plus years, for the contributions this program has made to issue discussion in our state.

Then there was the network anchor who, referring to the arrest of 2 drunken pilots in Glasgow, Scotland—before their flight to the USA—called this a “trans-continental” flight. No, that would take it the wrong way, east across Europe.  Trans-oceanic is the word.

And, sadly, Charles Osgood will soon leave as host of the top news program on the air..Sunday Morning on CBS. I was a little unhappy when he took over for founder Charles Kuralt, but he proved me wrong and the show’s audience has increased. Good luck to CBS to find another “Charles” as good. May the third time be charm.

I'm just sayin'...

NOTES AND THOTS, LARGE & SMALL

1. Gov. Bevin has come up with $500,000 dollars and hired one of America’s most Republican law firms (though as all good firms do, they contribute to both parties) to probe possible law violations in Democratic Gov. Beshear’s administration. (The firm is Taft—yes That Taft from Ohio who ran for President--- Stettinius & Hollister.)

Where did this half million bucks come from..OK, from where did this money come? We were told Kentucky had a very, very tight state budget, and now, up pops all this money. Hope it wasn’t diverted from “widows and orphans.”

2. May I commend two articles in Sunday’s Herald-Leader to you. One is the history (very current history) of vote buying in Eastern Kentucky, by the Center for Investigative Reporting---practically “torn from the front pages" tho our local tv stations gave the latest (but not the last) federal trial very little coverage.

Second is Paul Prather’s religion column, headlined “Yes, it’s true: Evangelicals used to be Christianity’s liberals.” (Gasp.) And it is true. Much food for thought here, and in a second column to come later.

I have always believed Jesus was one of history’s great rebels. (A revolutionary for good.) And if you contrast his “platform” against that of the Roman “party”, he certainly was the Liberal of his time.

Do read them both.

3. A lot has been made in the media of the recent death of John McLaughlin, ex-Jesuit priest and founder/host of the “McLaughlin Group” on PBS. Other than the death of any person to his family and friends, I do not mourn his passing. His was the MOST UNCIVIL discussion program of public issues on the air, where discourtesy and impoliteness ruled..and trumped any discussion of merits or non merits. I once asked KET to take it off the air because it was contributing zero to public manners and understanding of issues. Not a chance was the reply; it’s our most popular program.  (Says a lot about Kentucky, doesn’t it?)

4. Finally, just as Kentucky says it may study reinstituting private prisons , the U.S. announces it will no longer use them. Why? They don’t work. (And that’s just one of several reasons I have in opposition, including that some private prison officials have been charged with bribery in order to get state contracts.)

The more things change,…..

I'm just sayin'...

TRUMP IS CORRECT, OUR ELECTION IS RIGGED

But not the way he means it.

It’s even worse.

Your vote in Kentucky does NOT count as much as one person’s vote in  MANY other states.

All because of a quirk in our constitution that MAY have been OK 200 years ago, but not today.

It’s that “college”; the Electoral College.

Basically states get votes in the college equal to their house and Senate members. The House is supposedly based on population, but even updated every ten years, the proportion between the total in Congress and the college votes become not only out-of-whack, but the disproportion grows among the states.

There is NO ratio that even a super computer can set up that will ever allow 1 vote in Kentucky to be equal to one vote in every other state.  Solution: end the Electoral College and elect the president by popular vote. Then 1 vote in Rhode Island equals 1 vote in Nevada, and in all the rest, no more, no less.

Either you believe in one person, one vote or you don’t. I do. ALL other attempts to modify the “College’ will NOT provide for one person, one vote. It’s far past time to bring our ideal of democracy into our actual practice.

I'm just sayin'...

(To hear other views, maybe even express your own, watch “Kentucky Tonight” Monday 8/15 at 8pm on KET)

LONG DISTANCE THOTS ON FANCY FARM

“There is a mysterious cycle in Human Events.”  FDR  (Mitch belives that also, see his new book “The Long Game.”)

For years the GOP dominated our politics. Then, as FDR and Mitch know, the political pendulum swung to the Dems. Now, it may, or may not, swing back---tho the actions of the state Democratic party and leaderships are certainly giving the GOP every reason to believe it will happen.

Meanwhile, what needs to change is: Fancy Farm!

(GASP—you want to change a sacred Kentucky tradition?)

Dang right.

Have you listened to the UNcivil discourse from there?  (Watch KET Monday night at 8).

The catcalls, boos, even bull horns (til they were banned) try to drown out what the “other guy..or gal” is saying.  That is not the way America progresses. We need to hear all voices in order to decide on the best candidates and the best way to solve our most pressing issues.

I think Fancy Farm has woefully failed here…and will continue to do so.

It’s time for a new, non-partisan, civil Fancy Farm…and I nominate the Bluegrass as where it should be held. Whether centrally located, non partisan Lexington, or Centre College (which has considerable experience in these things,) or Father Jim and his experience in grabbing the big names (sorry he’s leaving but his Richmond church might easily outpace St Jerome’s, in time,) or area League of Women voters groups, or…various coalitions.

America needs something like this. Lord knows Kentucky needs something like a civil Fancy Farm. So let’s get an umbrella group formed, and maybe by the next Presidential election it will be cold craft beers and warm burgoo...and speeches people can hear…from here.

I'm just sayin'...