WHY IS COMMON SENSE SO "UN-COMMON?"

"Never drink and drive!"  We've heard that for years and the reasons, the common sense of it, are so obvious..yet many do. One Kentuckian did so recently and now he's dead..and so are 4 innocent people in the car he hit head-in. Nor is this example an isolated one.

"Never shake a baby."  But people do..and babies die, or live on with stunted brains and lives for many years. It's common sense, but apparently is overwhelmed by crying infants.

The media keeps running stories (and  many public service announcements) about these common sense situation..you know people see, read, hear them...but..shaken babies happen. Even more so drunken driving.

More innocent people die...victims of UN-common sense.

"Don't leave children in cars unattended."  Happens in cold weather and hot---and kids die. Saw several news stories on this very recently, in Kentucky and elsewhere. Is it "I'll just be gone a few minutes", or the lack of common sense?

Don't use fireworks on a nightclub stage. Not just in Rhode Island, or Argentina, or Brazil, but anywhere.  The latest inexcusable lapse of common sense came in a university town and students were among the many, many victims.

I will bet you, sometime in your life you may well go to a club or some "venue" where pyrotechnics will be used in a confined space. If that happens, please...walk quickly (don't run) and leave.

Lest you and your friends be the latest victims of uncommon sense.

I'm just sayin'...

WELCOME BACK NON-JOCKS--HERE'S NEW$$$

While you may have been on break, a study sent to NCAA presidents shows its public members spend, on average, six to 12 times as much on athletes each year as they do on you "regular" academic students.

 

Nowhere was the disparity worse than in the SEC, where the ratio was 12 times as much!!!

 

Biggest single item: coaches salaries, and the growth of athletic staffs.

 

While these are "averages" and will vary by acdemic department, the report continues the growth in jock spending over mere academic students..and covers the period from 2005 to 2010..when most public schools were pleading poor mouth to state governments (with reason)..yet in Division 1 schools, such as UK,, athletic spending went up twice as fast as academic spending.

 

Median SEC athletic spending in 2010 was $164,000 per athlete, versus $14,000 per academic student. The lowest paid SEC football head coach just got a $500,000 raise..about 33%.

 

At UK, let it be noted the Athletic department often diverts money from its budget to help the school in academic and non-athletic ways.. (Under some past ADs,  this wasn't entirely voluntary. Some presidents engaged in arm twisting to get the needed funds..but at least UK's program, often the richest in the conference, could do so).

 

But the ratio---and what it implies--is very much out of whack. Corrections need to be made. Many presidents are understandably reluctant to cede any powers over any school budget (or ratios) to the NCAA, and I am dubious the NCAA will gain even a modicum of such powers.

 

But, this puts the responsibility right where it belongs..on the individual school and its president and board. Can we get a "Committee of 1,000" started to act as academic boosters for UK, not to raise funds for more luxurious  locker rooms or executive suites at stadii?

 

I am not holding my breath, but how can any thinking Cat fan look at the NCAA report and not know things have to change and more emphasis must be put on academics.  Must. Now. 

I'm just sayin'...

WHAT TO DO???

When governments violate the law?

It's a question that needs study, because America is supposed to be a nation of laws.

This was called to my attention, again, by a weekend AP story. It pointed out that, the law to the contrary, two major "climate assessments" were NOT issued under the last President Bush. (Bush didn't like the global warming argument; wonder if that had anything to do with it?) Now that Obama is president, who is concerned about global warming, the reports have been issued..and, surprise!, they show serious climate problems.  (What you don't know CAN hurt you.)

In the fiscal cliff debacle, Congress violated its own law by not deciding on time.

(BTW, they're at it again, the bill for Sandy relief is, at this writing, loaded with pork and earmarks that have zip to do with Sandy relief..and they promised they wouldn't do this.)

We need a National Citizens Whistle Blower.

It ought to be the courts, but they usually can't originate anything on their own initiative. It might be the Justice Department, but the Attorney/General is named by the President.  Would Bush's A/G ask.."Mr. President, where's that climate assessment report?"  Somehow I doubt it.

OK, I've raised the issue. Do I have a solution? No. But we need one.  Just another of democracy's unanswered major issues. And, as Churchill reminded us.."Democracy is the worse form of government ever devised--except for all the rest."

I'm just sayin'....

A BAD END & A BAD START

Congress fell off the cliff, UNnecessarily, but as many had predicted, until 2 old pros, Biden and McConnell crafted an omnibus solution to some of the problems and got it thru the Senate. The House balked for a while until Democratic votes saved the compromise and Speaker Boehner's bacon.

 

As usual there were some good things in that plan and some bad. But as CBS News first pointed out (and only lately have the Kentucky print media used the story!) that bill contained $74Billion--that's Billions--in pork projects and earmarks..totally UNrelated to  fiscal cliff topics. One source estimated the bill saved perhaps $85Billion, which the earmarks largely took away.

 

It was a bad ending to the fiscal cliff saga..and, since the bill originated in the Senate, McConnell had to have known about the earmarks (which both parties and both chambers have pledged to either cut drastically or eliminate). He needs to be mercilessly questioned about these by all the media and especially by his Kentucky constituents..

 

Slow forward a few days to the new Congress, which then voted on $9B in emergency aid to Sandy's victims in NJ, NY, and CT. Our new 6th district Congressman, Andy Barr, in his first major vote, voted against this aid!  Makes you wonder if he had gotten 650 more votes two years ago and taken office then, would he have voted against emergency aid for the tornado victims of Kentucky?

 

This is neither "compassionate conservatism" (remember that phrase of not too long ago?) or even intelligent conservatism..and it is a bad start to his term as our representative.

 

I'm just sayin'...

WAR IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

Figures at the end  of 2012 indicate 295 Americans died in Afghanistan, which is down from the year before..with our troop deaths since 2001 now totaling 1701..in another war we fought based on (1) bad information, or (2) deliberate policy mistakes in DC...or both.

 

Meanwhile, so-called "insider"  attacks in 2012 went up..to 65 deaths from 45 the year before. These are attacks from Afghan "friends" on U-S/NATO troops. Some friends. Some "ally!"

 

Figures aren't yet available, if they ever will be,. but indications are: drone attacks, in most cases illegal violations of international law, went up..as did deaths of innocent Afghan civilians, including many children. The U-S just can't seem to find a way to stop this "collateral damage", one of the most heinous phrases in all of human language.

 

There is no justification for remaining there. We should pull out as fast as transport can be arranged..saving our troops lives, saving innocent civilian lives, and saving over $100 Billions a year in either taxes..or Chinese borrowings (it's the same thing).

 

Much of the fiscal cliff would not have happened had BOTH parties had any guts in 2001..turning down one more wrong war, one more bad fiscal decision (the first time in American history taxes went down, not up, in wartime)..

 

 May we start 2013 on a note of fiscal sanity...get out of Afghanistan NOW..and plow the savings into improvements at home..and take the pledge..No more wars when we don't know what we're doing..(as in Iraq)..and maybe hold this recent history before us when the DC hotheads talk about new wars with: North Korea, Syria, Somalia, Iran..we have been here before..and we should have learned!

 

I'm just sayin'...

 

 

WE CAN CONTROL GUNS.....BECAUSE WE HAVE!!

Have we forgotten the ten year period when making new assault rifles was banned, and strict rules were placed on their sale and use?  It worked, limited though it may have been. The ban was passed under President Clinton and extended into Bush 2, ending in '04 when a GOP Congress refused to extend it.  For shame, as Jim Brady told his fellow Republicans.

Hunters and "sportsmen" do not need assault rifles to kill deer, bear, rabbits,  pheasants, foxes and the like.  Perfectly ordinary rifles and shotguns will do thank you. Assault rifles are civilian versions of military weapons..and that's where they belong..in the hands of our military and police..not in every home.

So first, we need to reinstate the ban on assault weapons--the weapons of choice of Columbine, Aurora, Virginia Tech, and Newtown.

Second, we need to end the gun show loophole. It is totally unfair to legal arms dealers (of which there are more in America than there are McDonald's!!!) It allows sellers at shows to by-pass the FBI check and other rules required if you buy the exact same weapon from a brick-and-mortar shop.  Totally unfair to legit businesses; are you listening GOP? (Let's ask Andy Barr where he stands on this unfair business situation!)

If we can pass these two basic laws, we can break the NRA stranglehold, much as Grover Norquist's ill-fated tax pledge is shriveling up. We might even get meaningful mental health programs designed to try to spot the potential mass killer early.

Remember, not even the Supreme Court has said you have a right to own machine guns (though some assault rifles come very close..) or bazookas. Even the Second Amendment has its limitations.

But our anguish after Sandy Hook should not be limited..nor our determination to do something.

It can be done because it has been done! 

I'm just sayin'...

THE CLIFF, CITIZENS, THE CLIFF!!!

First, this "cliff" mess is all our fault..and by "our" I mean the 2 parties in DC and we citizens at home. I shall explain, but first:

Entitlements are much misunderstood.  You and I who worked, had money taken out of our paychecks and socked away by the government for our future use. The 2 main programs being Social Security and Medicare. It's a good system,  though many objected when introduced that they could invest their own funds better. Maybe. But the point is we are "entitled" to them because we EARNED them.  The government is not giving us something. It manages the programs, that's all...except when Congress takes money out of our 2 accounts to balance its budget, which it does frequently, and which is part of the problems with these 2 funds.

The budget is a statement of public policy...basically we should spend money here, not there. So when we decide to go to war, the most costly and inefficient of all human endeavors, we have decided to spend money on war and not schools, roads, health, etc. When we citizens let this type of budget policy be made we are both supporting the war and NOT supporting spending limited funds on schools, roads, health, etc.

I supported the senior Bush's war in Kuwait. You cannot let a powerful neighbor swallow up a smaller one, or the lessons Hitler taught us from Czechoslovakia on have been unlearned.

I did not support junior Bush's wars in Iraq  (what WMD???) or in Afghanistan (another intelligence failure..the Taliban had NO role in 9/11) Worse, for the first time in U-S history we CUT taxes in wartime. In all past wars we raised taxes to support the war effort. Not during these two wars and it was a monumental mistake.

Now, bring all these broad strokes together and you have...The Cliff!  And we can only blame..Bush, Obama, the GOP, the Dems, and above all..ourselves for putting up with 2 foolish wars and even more foolish policies to pay for them: cutting takes. Now, of course few want their taxes raised. Where were they to oppose the wars, at a $110 Billion per year cost???  (That's a lot of schools and roads or..ta da!..tax cuts.)

Don't rely on "Washington" to get us away from the Cliff. Lexington and Stinking Creek and Owensboro and Salyersville go us into this mess...and must get us out. Tell your Congressman.

I'm just sayin'...