Who caused the global fiscal crisis?

I'm still neck deep in dialog with my conservative Republican friend who is continuing to carry the Republican mantra that the global fiscal crisis is solely due to the actions (pressure) from Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

I have been debating this issue for a couple of days now. As a former politician I fail to see how two pols could have had this kind of power and influence left unchecked by the other side. If Barney Frank pressured the lender to make predatory loans to those who could not afford them, why did the Republicans not expose what was going on?

As I said to my friend, the directive to the bankers to cease red lining and not making loans to low to moderate income areas of the country was good policy. No one directed the bankers to make faulty, and in some cases illegal, loans.

You have any thoughts on who might be responsible?

Regulations and regulators

I'm giving some thought to doing a column on regulations and regulators. I'm one who believes that keeping track of entities and corporations is probably not a bad idea, because arguaby, left to their own device some corporations and corporate executives will gladly do wrong.

These guys bear watching. That said, should they all be treated as guilty until proven innocent? I have some first hand knowledge on the subject and would welcome your thoughts on the matter.

I expect to write the column on Sunday and publish it in the Bennington Banner a week from Saturday.

Stay tuned

Merry Christmas in America

Good morning folks,

It's Christmas in America.  For most of us it is the most joyous time of the year. For others less fortunate that may not be the case.

So take just a few minutes out of your day today to ponder on what it might be like to be someone else on this Christmas. Then, think about what you might be able to do to make a difference. After all, isn't that why we're all here?

Enjoy the day and Happy New Year to all of you.

Welfare - who needs it?

I'm way deep in an email conversation with a dear Republican friend of mine (no that's not an oxymoron) and I'm not sure I'm making any headway in converting him.  (He's desperately trying to convert me as well; to no avail).

I think in my next round to "talks" with him I'm going to agree with him on his stand on welfare and social programs (he hates them - big surprise).  I'm going to suggest that we make the tax cuts for the rich permanent and that we abolish any and all social welfare programs.  All those deadbeat moms out there who are having more and more kids just so they can get a raise on their welfare checks are going to be in for a big surprise.  Those new mothers counting on a little help from the W.I.C. will now have to compete at the dumpster right along with the rest of the poor.  Medicare???  Nope, that'll be gone so your parents and grandparents who are just barely hanging on as it is, will just have to suck it up and go without their meds; or maybe they could sell the last remaining family heirlooms and give their last few bucks to the big pharmacuticals.  Hey, those companies have a high overhead and need the money.

Cutting back on these programs will save a lot of money.  Sure, people will be out in the street and we'll be able to see a real-life Tiny Tim gimping around the streets of your town, but too bad.  The rich need their tax cuts.  But there'll be a catch.

When George Bush wants a new stadium for his Texas Rangers baseball team, he's going to have to dig into his pocket to pay for it.  No more government money for that stuff.  Tit for tat.  When the oil companies say that they cannot possible exist (along with their record-breaking profits) without a government handout for exploration, bummer.  Go to your rich banker friends and see if they'll give you a loan.  Oh, and speaking of loans, no more loan guarantees for the 70 year old nuclear industry.  If you can't stand on your own two feet by now, then you'll have to fall right along with those unwed mothers.

Think of the money we're going to save.  We'll be on a roll.  We can privatize our schools, which will save us even more.  Fire all those old, union teachers and bring in the young, not-quite-certified teachers.  You won't need to worry about how dismal these private schools are because if you're rich it won't matter.  You'll be sending your little Johnny to a great private school, just like you were going to do anyway.

Now you workin' people who are going to save a bundle can go right out and spend your $5 or $10 grand on a new motorcycle or snowmobile.  You'll never have enough to by the much needed medication for your parents, so what the hell, you might as well go blow it.  Those old people are going to check out anyway.

You rich folks, well here's a different story.  You're going to have to struggle and it's not going to be easy.  You may end up with an additional $400,000 or $500,000.  It might even be a couple of million if you're wicked rich.  You already have a ton of money and every single thing you've ever wanted.  Think of the burden that comes with this money.  You'll be up late at night drinking a glass of imported Cognac fretting away on how best to invest this money so you don't lose it.

Of course, you could always consider giving it to the poor who could use a little help.  Oh, sorry, what was I think.  That ain't gonna happen.

Merry Christmas

The Morning After

Good morning.  As we get ready to celebrate Christmas in America we should take a moment to ponder on what just happened in Congress over the past couple of weeks.

Many of us had just about counted Obama out of the game.  He's not been quite as impressive as many of us thought during the campaign.  All that changed as of yesterday.  This president has ended his first two years in office with arguably as one of the most accomplished presidents of all times.  Miraculously he has done almost everything that he set out to do and the one or two things he didn't complete he has now vowed to come back next year and fight for.

And that's what many had hoped to see; a little more fight from this man.  But he's smart.  He knows not to push too soon.  He has been resoundingly underestimated by friends and foes.  The Republicans were even opining yesterday that Obama was getting everything he wanted. 

To get what he wanted, though, he had to hand over 100's of billions of dollars to the nation's most wealthy.  That's a big trade and hopefully one that the American people will not stand for.  If people firmly grasp the implications of shelling out China's money to pay billionaires and leaving the middle class with a huge debt, they may not be quite so happy about it.  They may just start calling their Reps & Senators and shouting "No Way".

Should that happen, Obama would win it all.  He'll be in great position at the end of the next two years and we'll look forward to having him as our president for another four years.  But a lot could happen between now and then.

In the meantime, best to you and yours for the Holidays.

Obama

I will admit that I was one of those people who was pretty down on our president.  I voted for him, but have not been real happy with his performance.  We're getting more involved with Afghanistan and its corrupt leader.  We're getting out of Iraq, but we're still there.  He caved on tax cuts for the rich.  He compromises way too soon for my liking.  It hasn't seemed like he's had a lot of fight in him.

That's all changed in the last two weeks.  I have watched him achieve more in the past two weeks than some presidents in their entire presidency.  Yes, I'm still unhappy about extending tax cuts for people who don't need any help, but the trade was definately a good one.  He got a lot, which shows just how committed the Republicans are to the mega-rich and just how much they could care less about you and me.

He got "Don't ask; don't tell" repealed.  He got a nuclear arms treaty with Russia.  Neither of these wins were imaginable three weeks ago.

Obama's performance of the past couple of weeks reminds me of the Martial Artist about to be attacked.  He stands there, cool, calm, collected, showing no fear.  He waits patiently for his opponent to strike.  He stands still as he watches his opponent throw the first strike.  He waits as the punch comes directly towards his face.  He slows it all down still not moving or showing any emotion.

Just as the fist is about to hit his face he faints his head to one, just slightly while bringing up his hand and lightly perrying the punch off center; not a lot, just enough to miss the target.  The attacking opponent's momentum causes him to fall forward, off balance.  It is at this precise moment that Obama strikes landing devastating blows to his opponent knocking him out.  The opponent never knew what hit him.

Success of this nature can only be achieved by maintaining calm and control; two qualities we all know that President Obama possesses.

Let 'em eat cake

I'm still into a protracted email conversation with my conservative Republican friend.  As I was about to type this I just saw Sen. Mitch McConnell on TV saying that Americans want him to cut spending.  That may be true, but which spending is he talking about?

I would be thrilled if we cut back on our military spending and the spending on subsidies for huge corporations and industries such as the oil companies, the coal companies, the nuclear industry, and the unnecessary wars we have going on.

But somehow I don't think that's what McConnell has in mind.  He's looking at Social Security, Medicare, the new health care bill and any/all programs that help people.  In the perfect world for these folks who are very well off, there would be no such thing as a social program.  If you can't make do, tough luck.  These guys are the Scrooges and we are the Tiny Tim's, except that there's no happy ending to our story.

Look at this AP story and ask yourself if it makes sense to borrow money from China (or cutting programs for the poor, sick and aged) to give huge tax breaks to people making millions of dollars.  Mitch McConnell has no problem with this and he's now standing up and saying that the American people are on his side.

Are we?

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CHICAGO - In Illinois, a pharmacist closes his business because of late Medicaid payments. In Arizona, a young father's liver transplant is canceled because Medicaid suddenly won't pay for it. In California, dentists pull teeth that could be saved because Medicaid doesn't pay for root canals.

Across the country, state lawmakers have taken harsh actions to try to rein in the budget-busting costs of the health care program that serves 58 million poor and disabled Americans. Some states have cut payments to doctors, paid bills late and trimmed benefits such as insulin pumps, obesity surgery and hospice care.
Lawmakers are bracing for more work when they reconvene in January. Some states face multibillion-dollar deficits. Federal stimulus money for Medicaid is soon to evaporate, and Medicaid enrollment has never been higher because of job losses.

In the view of some lawmakers, Medicaid has become a monster, and it's eating the budget. In Illinois, Medicaid sucks up more money than elementary, secondary and higher education combined.
Medicaid costs are shared by the federal and state governments. It's not just the poor and disabled who benefit. Wealthier people do, too, such as when middle-class families with elderly parents in nursing homes are relieved of financial pressure after Medicaid starts picking up the bills.

Contrary to stereotype, it's the elderly and disabled who cost nearly 70 cents of every Medicaid dollar, not the single mother and her children.

In California, Medicaid no longer pays for many adult dental services. But it still pays for extractions, that is, tooth-pulling. The unintended consequence: Medicaid patients tell dentists to pull teeth that could be saved.
"The roots are fine. The tooth could be saved with a root canal," said dentist Nagaraj Murthy, who practices in Compton, Calif. "I had a patient yesterday. I said we could do a root canal. He said, 'No, it's hurting. Go ahead and pull it. I don't have the money.' "

Murthy recently pulled an elderly woman's last tooth, but Medicaid no longer pays for dentures.
States can decide which optional services Medicaid covers, and dental care is among cutbacks in some places. Last year's economic stimulus package increased the federal share of Medicaid money temporarily. But that money runs out at the end of June, when the federal government will go back to paying half the costs rather than 60 to 70 percent. So more cuts could be ahead.

In Arizona, lawmakers stopped paying for some kinds of transplants, including livers for people with hepatitis C. When the cuts took effect Oct. 1, Medicaid patient Francisco Felix, who needs a liver, suddenly had to raise $500,000 to get a transplant.

The 32-year-old's case took a dramatic turn in November when a friend's wife died, and her liver became available. Felix was prepped for surgery in hopes financial donations would come in. When the money didn't materialize, the liver went to someone else, and Felix went home. His doctor told him he has a year before he'll be too sick for a transplant.

"They are taking away his opportunity to live," said his wife, Flor Felix. "It's impossible for us or any family to get that much money."

Prescription drug coverage in states is an optional benefit, another possible place to cut, Rowland said. "But if you cut back on people's psychotropic drugs, is that penny-wise and pound-foolish? Do they end up in institutions where Medicaid pays more for their care?"

In Illinois, late payments became the rule.  Tom Miller closed his pharmacy in rural southern Illinois this summer and is going through bankruptcy, largely because the state was chronically late making Medicaid payments to him. Most of his former customers are in the program.

Fox in the Hen House

Why do people watch Fox News; an organization dedicated to dishing out the most bias, right wing, dose of misinformation of any other network TV.

I just learned that 30% of Fox viewers think that Obama was not born in this country and 35% think that global warming is a hoax.

Why is this?  Well, the correspondants of Fox TV constantly ask the question as to where Obama was born and continally question global warming, in spite of the fact that our president was born in Hawaii and every credible scientist in the world says that global warming is a reality.

Where will Fox TV be when the polar caps melt completely?  They'll simply say that the world is heating up but that it's not global warming and has nothing at all to with humans.  This, of course, is not true, but getting out the truth is not the agenda of Fox TV.

It's agenda is to poison the American well and discredit the reality of our climate and the fact that we have too many people on this planet.

I am watching 4 9-11 responders who are asking why are Republicans in the Senate refusing to help those who have incurred illnesses as a result of their work.  Jon Stewart just showed a great clip of Sen. Mitch McConnell getting emotional (apparently the new "In-Thing" for Republican males) at the departure of Judd Gregg of N.H., but not shedding a tear who are sick and dying as a result of their good work trying to save people at the World Trade Center.

What's wrong with this picture?  You can rest assured that Fox News will be right there opposing any help for those workers who the former Republican president, George Bush, exploited at every turn during his time in office.  These people are breathtakingly hypocritical and should be ashamed,  but as we've seen, they have no shame.

Demise of America

I'm in a protracted email conversation with a good friend of mine who coincidentally a very conservative Republican.  He's pretty convinced that the Democrats are responsible for our debt, our regulations and all of our troubles.  He doesn't see the tax cuts for the top 0.01% of the nation's wealthiest people as a tax break, since, as he says, they pay all the taxes.

I've tried my darndest to explain to him that the problem(s) aren't that easy.  My contention is that leaving the world to the rich isn't necessarily the best answer.  The mega-rich never have enough money or enough power.  Without regulation and oversight the end game would be that we'd end up back to the days of the Pharaohs.  One person rules a nation of slaves, which is great if you're the one person.

The fact is that governments came into being so that we would have the playing field appropriately lined and boundaries set.  Lately the lines have been blurred.  In America the gap between the extremely wealthy and the middle class is widening more every day.  Power and greed are replacing reverence for our country.

The time is fast approaching when Americans will have to decide who will run/rule the nation.  Is this going to continue to be a nation of the people, for the people and by the people or are we simply going to hand the keys over to the mega-corporations and allow them to year in and year out take our hard earned tax dollars for their own corporate gain?

Your thoughts?

Whose Ox will get gored

There much for all Americans to think about in the coming months.  Below is a quote that appears in today's NY Times.  Yes, the Republicans did a great job in creating a movement called the Tea Party.  That was the handy work of Dick Armey.  Now they control the House here's what Mr. Boehner has to say:

“Beginning in January, the House is going to become the outpost in Washington for the American people and their desire for a smaller, less costly and more accountable government,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the incoming House speaker.

“I will tell you,” he added, “we are going to cut spending.”
-------------------------------------
OK, this is wonderful.  Let's see where they start with spending cuts.  For 50 years Republicans have wanted to gut Social Security and Medicare.  They say they don't, but they really do.  They've tried to privatize SS, which had they been successful the recent recession would have decimated the program.  They just have a real aversion to any program(s) that help people; regular old Americans.  They are all about subsidies for mega-corporations that have no business being subsidized, like the nuclear industry, the farm industry, the oil industry.  These industries have been around for decades.  Why do they need you and me to subsidize them?

I guess that's obvious.  Why spend your own money when you can spend taxpayer dollars.  Frankly, the D's are just as bad in many regards.  They, too, bow at the feet of the corporations and have no problem handing over your money to them in exchange for some of it coming back to them so they can run for re-election.

On one level I agree with Boehner.  We should cut government spending and the first place we should look is corporate subsidies.  The next place is the military.  The last place we should look is at programs that help the weak, the sick and the poor, but rest assured that'll be the first place Boehner will look.  And while he

eviscerates programs that help people, I'll bet he won't even shed a tear, which will be quite an accomplishment for a guy who cries at the drop of hat...a rich man's hat.

Choices

Hello Americans and Happy Holidays,

We've got some choices to make.  The Christian radical right in this country are now looking to demonize those who think protecting our environment for future generations is a good thing.

There is most certainly enough craziness (and crazies) going on out there to make me think that perhaps it is time for Vermont to seriously consider withdrawing from the Union.  I know, I know....that's a little over the top, but this is the state that is recognized as one of the nation's cleanest states.  We take protecting our environment seriously.  Why?  Because it matters not just to those of us who are here today, but to those who will be here 100 years from now.

This stellar record impacts other things as well.  For instance, Vermont's unemployment rate is 4 points lower than the national average.  Being clean and green is also good business.

In a world where greed now runs rampant and people are only concerned about themselves and the here and now, it's really nice to live in a state with people who genuinely care about tomorrow.  Which leads me back to the idea of going it alone.  If the rest of the nation wants to follow the lead of Christians who have the nerve to demonize anyone then perhaps we should leave you folks to yourself.  Go pollute your waterways, let the big corporations have their way with your environment so that they can increase their profits.  Just stay away from Vermont.  We don't tolerate that nonsense here.

The Day Before

Tomorrow's the big day.  Our daughter and son-in-law are arriving tomorrow with our granddaughter, Thyra Grayce.  We are on the threshold of grandchild overdose.

It's amazing to contemplate how a three month old person who is only 22" long and weighs like 11 lbs. can dominate so many lives.  I can assure you that as soon as they arrive all things important will cease to exist.

Christmas shopping?? It better be done, because once the baby shows up, that's it.  I spent part of the day making vegetable beef stock for what I hope will be a delicious soup for tomorrow night.

Nothing else matters.  Once the baby arrives it won't matter that the Christian right are now declaring that all environmentalists are threatening the world and hurting the poor.

It won't matter that Congressman Issa is about to go nuts on the Obama Administration for whatever he can.  He'll spend the next two years and millions of our tax dollars on nothing more than a fishing expedition.

It won't matter that the Republicans have demonstrated breathtaking hypocracy on deficits and earmarks.

Nope, nothing really matters except a tiny person who can make her grandparents melt with a simple smile.

The Weeper

If you're born and raised in Vermont you learn at a very early age to worry.  You worry about everything.  You worry about the weather.  You worry about your car or tractor breaking down.  You worry about an early frost that will then cause you to worry about whether or not  your crops are going to fail.  You worry about sugaring season.  You worry about sliding off slippery roads.  You just worry.  Goes with being a Vermonter.

As if we don't have enough to worry about these days we're about to have a guy running the US House of Representatives who cries at the drop of a hat.  After his appearance on 60-Minutes this past Sunday he has rightfully gained the title "Weeper of the House".  If Pelosi cried one-tenth as much as this guy does Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck (if he could hold back his own tears) would be all over her.

John Boehner said on 60-Minutes that he can no longer go to schools because he cries when he sees children.  He said that he's worried they won't experience the American Dream.  Meanwhile, he works overtime with his corporate lobbyists friends to ensure that our jobs go overseas and that there's no hope of anyone experiencing the American Dream except the Chinese.

He weeps for our troops being deployed to war, but does not shed one tear for the workers at the 9-11 site who now need health care.  The guy is an unstable hypocrite

If he were to come to Vermont, sit in a bar and start blatting away to a Vermonter about his sorry childhood and the tough jobs he had to do, he'd get his ass knocked off the bar stool and tossed out the door.  That would be because the grown man/Vermonter is still doing that menial job here in Vermont.

The simple fact is that this guy is unstable.  It's not natural for a man or a woman to cry as much as this guy does and in public no less.  Tammy Faye Baker was the last person I knew who cried this much and most people thought she was a loon-ball, because she WAS a loon-ball.

So suck it up, America.  Don't shed a tear for the guy who'll cry enough for all of us.  But you should be worried.  You should be worried about the safety of our president and vice president, because, heaven forbid, anything should happen  to these two guys, Mr. Cry-Me-A-River-Weeper-Of-The-House will be your president.  So much for sleeping at night now....

Vermont's new administration and Garrison Keillor

Gov-Elect, Peter Shumlin, is continuing his mission of building his administration.  So far, his picks are being met with praise.  He has chosen Lawrence Miller to head up the Commerce Agency.  Miller is the founder of Otter Creek Beer.  This man knows what it takes to create and market a product as well as how to create jobs.  He's very familiar with the State's permitting process and stated on VPR just now that the process is as onerous as many make it out to be.  It just needs to be more predictable.

People want to come to Vermont, because of what Vermont stands for and what it is about.  It's a state that was created by independents; people who grew tired of religious fanatics and simply wanted to live life in peace.  Obviously, they didn't care how tough their life would be or else they would have moved south instead of north.

I had the occassion to see Garrison Keillor on Monday evening at the Paramount Theater in Rutland, Vt.  If you've never been to a show there; go.  It's a wonderful, restored old Vermont theater, which is gaining in popularity every day.

Keillor was outstanding.  There are few people on this planet who can sit on a bar stool and tell a single, convoluted story for two hours and hold a pack house in the palm of his hand.  You could hear a fly fart in the balcony the place was so quiet.

It was a Christmas show, which began with Keillor singing a Carol about an atheist who had been forced to go to church every year at Christmas.  After all this time the atheist was opining that maybe it would be a good thing if there was a god so that all that time spent in church didn't go to waste.

I have written my next column on the man who has hosted "A Prarie Home Companion" for three decades.  Once it's released in the Bennington Banner I'll post it here.  In the meantime, here is a column that I wrote some time ago.  Enjoy...

Priorities

There are more than a few things that I find more than a little annoying these days.  First, we have yet another person who says that he’s pastor; a man of the cloth, who is allegedly involved in a sex scandal.

Pastor Eddie L. Long of Lithonia, Georgia, is a man who founded church and built it up into an empire.  He’s an archconservative who condemns homosexuality and calls for a ban on same-sex marriage. His church holds seminars promising to “cure” homosexuality. 

He’s more than welcome to his beliefs, but now we learn that he coerced some of the younger members of his flock into having homosexual relations with him.  This is another example of people of power and influence who pretend to be holier than thou proving to be otherwise.  I thought that we had had enough of this with some Catholic priests going down this road. 

Pastor Long now joins the ranks of former Congressman Mark Foley and former US Senator, Larry Craig; two men who also decried homosexuality while simultaneously being a closet homosexual.  What is it with these men who speak out so stridently against homosexuality only to be the person that they rail against?

I was born to family that believed what other people did was their business.  My parents may, or may not, have approved of homosexuality in their day, but whatever they believed they kept to themselves.  They were pretty tolerant of others, well, unless you messed with their property stakes.

What galls most of us is that folks like Pastor Long tend to be so darned sanctimonious.  Do we really need to be preached to on sexual orientation by the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and now Mr. Long; especially when some of those doing the preaching are latent homosexuals?

The world would be a much better place if these folks would simply worry about their own lives and let others live theirs.

I’m not sure if this bothers me as much as getting ripped off by people that we’ve spent a trillion dollars trying to help.  I’m talking about our friends in Iraq who we decided needed liberating whether they wanted it or not.

You and I recently paid for a shipment of laptop computers to go to school children in Iraq.  Of the over 8,000 computers that we bought only a few ended up in the hands of kids.  The rest were stolen by a corrupt regime.

According to a story in the New York Times: “The computers — 8,080 in all, worth $1.8 million — were bought for schoolchildren in Babil, modern-day Babylon, a gift of the American taxpayers. Only they became mired for months in customs at the port, Umm Qasr, stalled by bureaucracy or venality, or some combination of the two. And then they were gone.   Corruption is so rampant here — and American reconstruction efforts so replete with their own mismanagement — that the fate of the computers could have ended as an anecdote in a familiar, if disturbing trend. Iraq, after all, ranks above only Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Somalia on Transparency International’s annual corruption index.”

This disturbing news reminded me of L. Paul Bremer’s colossal bilking of the American taxpayer.  You may recall in January of 2005 we learned that this upstanding citizen who was in charge of overseeing the reconstruction of Iraq lost $9 BILLION.  And what were the tough penalties for losing $9 billion?  He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Where was the outrage over wasteful government spending when all this nonsense was going on?  I don’t recall a Tea Party movement going ballistic over a genuine and serious waste of money.  $9 billion would go a long ways towards helping out the average American, but there was hardly a peep when this went down.

To be sure, there is plenty to be angry about in the world today and we are now seeing some citizens becoming animated about life in America.  But I wonder if they aren’t angry at the wrong people.  Should we be madder at those who created a health care bill that will now guarantee children cannot be dropped by insurance companies, because they have a previous illness?  Or should we be madder at those who lose $9 billion and get medals they don’t deserve?

Maybe instead of being persuaded and manipulated by people who preach to us about morality we should just strive to be the best person that we can be and let the other guy try to do the same.  If a person living in either northern Vermont or next door to me is gay I don’t think that impacts my life.  If the man condemning homosexuality, while taking your money, turns out be gay than you were a fool and he a hypocrite.

If a government we support steals 8,000 computers meant for children then we should stop supporting that government.  There are kids right here in America that could put those machines to good use.  We really need to get our priorities straight, don’t you think?

Bob Stannard 9-26-2010

The Day

It's just about as miserable a day as one could ever hope for here in Vermont.  It snowed this morning and it's drizzling rain now.  Damp, dreary, cold, but the woodstoves are going and we're about to start to get ready to commence to begin decorating our tree.

The tree this year came from a tree farm in Shaftsbury; about a mile and a half from the middle of nowhere.  It's up and the lights are on it.  That's it.  Things are going to progress here shortly.  I just have to go out to my shop (man cave) and turn off the heat.  I have two end tables that I've poly'd and they're drying.

Days like this are good for the head.  It's not a bad thing to hunker down, safe and sound from the elements.  It allows us to reflect on how lucky we are that we're not deer and have to sleep under a spruce tree in hopes of keeping dry.  It always could be worse....

Following up on yesterday's column

In the past 15 hours I have received numerous emails, FB messages and phone calls on the column that appears in the Bennington Banner, where I write a bi-monthly column.  You can read the column by going here http://www.benningtonbanner.com/columnists/ci_16832523

One message I received was from an old friend I've not seen in decades.  He said that he was at the Dorset Quarry the day Buddy Baker died.  On one level I felt badly that I had conjured up those old memories in my friend's head.  On the other, I was delighted that I presented him with an opportunity to remember his childhood friend; a young boy he liked very much and who he watched die as the result of a foolish prank.

Bad things happen to good people, sometimes by good people, in this world every day.  I think it's good to keep this in mind.

Bear with me...

I'm desperately trying to figure out how to be able to copy the url from this blog and paste it into Facebook without having the pic of John Lennon continuously appear. 

Old dogs; new tricks.  Hang in there...I'll figure it out eventually.

Hard Times

“Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone” – Gospel of John.

I am not a religious person but I do believe that some biblical quotes are good words to live by. 

On Monday, November 28^th I received a call asking if I would be willing to play “Amazing Grace” at the funeral service for Jeffery Charbonneau the following day.  This was an honor to which saying “no” was not an option.  The last, and only, time I had played this song was on September 7, 2005, at the funeral service for my mom, Thyra Laird.  That was hard.  This was harder.

Over the years Manchester has had its share of tragedies and hard times.  We have lost our chief of police, many stalwart citizens and way too many kids.  When I was a young teenager, in the summer of 1966, I was on my way to the Dorset Quarry; a great local hangout for kids since the day it filled up with water.

It had rained in the morning and the sun was just coming out on what was to be a great, summer day.  As is customary with young men in their early teens some fooling around ensued.  Before too long a spit-fight developed with one kid spitting at another, who spit at another.  No one worried too much about a “hawker” landing on their shoulder, because they could just dive in the reasonably cold water and wash it all away.  For now, they were all content to spit and get spit on.

One young man decided to take a different tack.  He thought it would be a good idea to climb up a tree and spit down on the others from on high.  It wasn’t long before that idea took hold and other kids were finding trees to climb.  One decided to climb the same tree as the first young man chasing him up the tree in hot pursuit.

The tree in question was a poplar tree.  For those of you who don’t know much about the poplar tree it’s a slender, quick growing tree with very smooth bark.  For some reason horses love to eat the very thin bark.  When it’s wet it’s also quite slippery. 

The pursuer came too close and first young man stepped out a little too far on the wet branch with the too thin bark.  He lost his balance and fell.  I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say that his was an untimely, careless, senseless death.

There was a lot of discussion during the days that followed as to what might happen.  The boy who died was from a family of little means.  The people who owned the quarry were pretty well off.  Would the parents of the fallen child sue?  Would the quarry be closed forever?  Questions upon questions.  Why did this have to happen?  Shouldn’t these kids have known better?  There are always plenty of questions; it’s answers that are generally in short supply.

The parents met with the owners of the quarry to tell them that they intended to do nothing.  What happened should not have happened, but it did happen.  Poor judgment had ruled one day when the young man perished.  The parents decided it need not rule other days.  That was four and a half decades ago.  Most of you reading this never knew Buddy Baker.  That’s what time does.  Time allows for healing.

Manchester, once again, finds itself in a hard place; a dark place.  We have lost one of our favorite sons.  In one quick moment of time all things have changed; all bets are off.  It’s a different day than yesterday.  Questions upon questions are being asked by all of us.  Yet the answers are always elusive.

I am in no position to pass judgment nor will I.  All positions, opinions and feelings are equally justified and justifiable.  Many lives were impacted on Thursday morning.  One son is lost forever; one son’s life will never be the same.  The people who have made up the Town of Manchester before us, the people who are here today and the people who will be here long after we’re gone will always be the ones who decide what the Town of Manchester will be.  Hopefully it will always be the loving and compassionate community in the future that it’s been in the past.

We have experienced a lot over the years, but rarely are we exposed to such profound sadness as we are today.  We will all have to deal with our individual emotions in our own way.  It is my sincere hope that both families directly involved, as well as all of the rest of us, will one day find peace.  As the old saying goes, what does not destroy us will make us stronger.

I offer my heartfelt condolences to both families.  As I said at the beginning of this column, I am not a religious man, but I will do my best at praying for all of you.  I hope others can do the same.

Bob Stannard 

December 2, 2010

How to Survive the Recession - A Vermont Perspective by Bob Stannard

The following is the opening of my new book.  I am going to be (slowly) sharing excerpts from the book on this blog.  Love to hear your feedback!

Dedication

Inasmuch as this is the first (and most likely ONLY) book I have written I feel compelled to uncharacteristically exercise some caution in dedicating it to anyone.

That said, I would like to dedicate this book to Joe Allen of Joe Allen Restaurants http://www.joeallenrestaurant.com/.  Had he not asked one simple question back in 1982 I doubt I would have ever written anything.  Through a terse exchange on his lawn he challenged me to write.  For almost thirty years I pondered that challenge.  Things happen slowly in Vermont, but they get done after a while. 

I would further dedicate this book to my friend Jay Hathaway who passed before the book was released.  I know he would have said, “How cool is that”.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the world’s greatest political cartoonist, Jeff Danziger for his generosity, wonderful talent and friendship.

I would like to recognize Louis Porter for his input on this book.  Editing is hard enough on a well written book.  It took him forever, but fortunately he was much faster at editing than I was writing it.  Also to Frank Bryan, Evelyn Wilde Mayerson and Don Hooper for their thoughtful comments and guidance.

Thanks to Ed Woods who called me out in an editorial in the Bennington Banner suggesting that I start writing a column.  I am grateful to Ed and the Bennington Banner for allowing me a forum to spew out thoughts to the world twice a month.

Extra special thanks to Sandy Taylor who did a very thorough job in editing this book. She is the primary reason I don’t sound like a complete moron.  This was not an easy book to edit.  She probably saved my marriage; for that I am grateful.

Lastly, I want to thank my wife, Alison, who notwithstanding would prefer that I do most anything else but waste time in front of a computer doing useless things like writing a book that few will ever read, seems to not only support me, but on occasion encourages me to write. 

Bennington Banner Column Nov. 2010

How About that Wristwatch

“You can’t handle the truth” – A Few Good Men

We live in fast times that are getting faster every day. Maybe I’m getting older, but I don’t think that’s entirely it. As time passes it does feel as though it picks up speed along the way. It doesn’t slow down much thanks to technology that has become lightning quick.

If you’ve been around long enough to remember characters like Dick Tracy who had a special wristwatch where he could actually call and talk to other people in the police force, you know what I’m talking about. Back in the 50’s and 60’s the idea of talking to anybody far away on anything other than on a telephone tightly secured to the wall in your home (and most likely the ONLY telephone in your home) was absurd. It was the stuff of science fiction and only believed possible by geeks who were reading those hideous comic books that your parents (and presumably your teachers) wanted banned from the face of the earth.

In the time that it takes to raise a couple of kids we now carry little rectangular devices in colorful cases that allow us to call our kids living miles away. The kids of today are living the science fiction of yesterday, and it seems like that happened over night.

Now we know how Buck Rogers might have felt after falling into a coal mine, remaining in suspended animation for over 400 years and waking up in a futuristic world; a world in which information now travels at warp speed.

If a policeman’s son in China ran over a peasant with his automobile and killed the peasant girl chances are that my generation would never had heard of the story. When this happened a week or so ago it was flashing around the world in a matter of seconds. The Chinese government did its best to suppress the story to no avail. Technology of today has given us incredible access to real-time data. With this access comes the responsibility to make sure that the story flying around a chunk of dirt 8000 miles in diameter is accurate. Because the length of time in takes for information to get from the other side of the globe to your telephone is now only a matter of seconds, the opportunity arises for mischief.

Look at what happened recently when our president went on a scheduled international trip 10-day trip to India, Indonesia, China and Korea, with a side visit to Spain. Most Americans think it’s a good idea for their president to reach out to other nations and have face to face communications (verses talking to them through a wristwatch). Apparently, not those Americans whose goal it is to see our president fail.

As soon as Obama took to the skies “news” stories began appearing immediately that Obama’s overseas trip; a trip similar in nature to every other president in history was costing taxpayers $200 million per day; more than the Iraqi or Afghanistan War.

The fact that this story was false did not deter Rep. Michele Bachmann; R-Minnesota, FOX News, Rush Limbaugh and the nation’s right wing crazies from circulating it. Even some of the mainstream media folks got caught up in fervor. Hey, why not? It might help to increase viewers/readers. Had it not been for CNN’s Anderson Cooper the story would probably still have legs (and most likely does for those who still want to believe a false story is true).

With a little investigation Cooper learned that the original cost numbers came from an anonymous quote. The anonymous quote was then picked up by The Drudge Report; a right-wing publication and Rep. Bachmann ran with it.

In Vermont, during the recent elections, we saw the same thing happen. There is a conservative, right-wing website known as The Vermont Tiger. They reported an unsubstantiated and unconfirmed story of a meeting that had taken place in a Senator’s store in Colchester. The anonymous quotes were that Sen. Shumlin, a candidate for governor, had reversed a long held position on the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

The report was then picked up by Corry Bliss, Lt. Gov. Dubie’s campaign manager, who shopped it to local TV stations and off to the races went the opposition. The news circulated around the state and within minutes the Shumlin campaign was put on the defensive. The responsible journalists in Vermont (and thankfully there are many) refused to run the Vt. Tiger story, because it could not be substantiated. Only one person would speak on the record and he said the story being pushed was false.

Turns out Vermonters, unlike the rest of the country, are not easily fooled. Could be because our kids are highly educated. Smart people are harder to fool. Smart people check out a story before they run with it. Smart people generally prevail, but not always. It’s up to you to decide what to believe.

Maybe we need to pay more attention to the geeks out there; the ones who are reading those hideous comic books. They still have comic books, don’t they?

Bennington Banner Column Nov. 2010

How About that Wristwatch

“You can’t handle the truth” – A Few Good Men

We live in fast times that are getting faster every day. Maybe I’m getting older, but I don’t think that’s entirely it. As time passes it does feel as though it picks up speed along the way. It doesn’t slow down much thanks to technology that has become lightning quick.

If you’ve been around long enough to remember characters like Dick Tracy who had a special wristwatch where he could actually call and talk to other people in the police force, you know what I’m talking about. Back in the 50’s and 60’s the idea of talking to anybody far away on anything other than on a telephone tightly secured to the wall in your home (and most likely the ONLY telephone in your home) was absurd. It was the stuff of science fiction and only believed possible by geeks who were reading those hideous comic books that your parents (and presumably your teachers) wanted banned from the face of the earth.

In the time that it takes to raise a couple of kids we now carry little rectangular devices in colorful cases that allow us to call our kids living miles away. The kids of today are living the science fiction of yesterday, and it seems like that happened over night.

Now we know how Buck Rogers might have felt after falling into a coal mine, remaining in suspended animation for over 400 years and waking up in a futuristic world; a world in which information now travels at warp speed.

If a policeman’s son in China ran over a peasant with his automobile and killed the peasant girl chances are that my generation would never had heard of the story. When this happened a week or so ago it was flashing around the world in a matter of seconds. The Chinese government did its best to suppress the story to no avail. Technology of today has given us incredible access to real-time data. With this access comes the responsibility to make sure that the story flying around a chunk of dirt 8000 miles in diameter is accurate. Because the length of time in takes for information to get from the other side of the globe to your telephone is now only a matter of seconds, the opportunity arises for mischief.

Look at what happened recently when our president went on a scheduled international trip 10-day trip to India, Indonesia, China and Korea, with a side visit to Spain. Most Americans think it’s a good idea for their president to reach out to other nations and have face to face communications (verses talking to them through a wristwatch). Apparently, not those Americans whose goal it is to see our president fail.

As soon as Obama took to the skies “news” stories began appearing immediately that Obama’s overseas trip; a trip similar in nature to every other president in history was costing taxpayers $200 million per day; more than the Iraqi or Afghanistan War.

The fact that this story was false did not deter Rep. Michele Bachmann; R-Minnesota, FOX News, Rush Limbaugh and the nation’s right wing crazies from circulating it. Even some of the mainstream media folks got caught up in fervor. Hey, why not? It might help to increase viewers/readers. Had it not been for CNN’s Anderson Cooper the story would probably still have legs (and most likely does for those who still want to believe a false story is true).

With a little investigation Cooper learned that the original cost numbers came from an anonymous quote. The anonymous quote was then picked up by The Drudge Report; a right-wing publication and Rep. Bachmann ran with it.

In Vermont, during the recent elections, we saw the same thing happen. There is a conservative, right-wing website known as The Vermont Tiger. They reported an unsubstantiated and unconfirmed story of a meeting that had taken place in a Senator’s store in Colchester. The anonymous quotes were that Sen. Shumlin, a candidate for governor, had reversed a long held position on the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

The report was then picked up by Corry Bliss, Lt. Gov. Dubie’s campaign manager, who shopped it to local TV stations and off to the races went the opposition. The news circulated around the state and within minutes the Shumlin campaign was put on the defensive. The responsible journalists in Vermont (and thankfully there are many) refused to run the Vt. Tiger story, because it could not be substantiated. Only one person would speak on the record and he said the story being pushed was false.

Turns out Vermonters, unlike the rest of the country, are not easily fooled. Could be because our kids are highly educated. Smart people are harder to fool. Smart people check out a story before they run with it. Smart people generally prevail, but not always. It’s up to you to decide what to believe.

Maybe we need to pay more attention to the geeks out there; the ones who are reading those hideous comic books. They still have comic books, don’t they?

Welcome

Hello people. It's December 8, the day John Lennon died and the day that I have decided to (finally) do a blog.

There is much to talk about in this world today. A president who is a little too eager to compromise on tax cuts for our nation's wealthiest people. Losing Lennon. Losing Jeffrey Charbonneau. Losing summer (we now have snow on the ground).

I will be using this venue to post my columns that appear in the Bennington Banner as well as my thoughts on Vt. Yankee; a nuclear power in Vermont that I have been hired to close down, as scheduled, in 2012.

I will also, most likely make some comments on Thyra Grayce Hairston; my new granddaughter, but I will desperately try to keep this blog pertinent and of interest.

Stay tuned. Tell your friends. Mark the page