DADvocate

I've been debating whether or not to write this particular post but I couldn't resist. I hate to brag about my kids and rarely do in conversation. But I'm about to bust. If you don't want to read, please visit on of the blogs on the left hand side of the page.

While I'm always proud of my kids just because they're my kids, sometimes they show me just how lucky I am that they are my kids. I don't consider myself to be a stellar parent. Maybe I'm better than most but that's not necessarily saying much. Mostly I just try to give them enough guidance to keep them steered in the right direction and enable them to develop their talents and abilities.

So far, this school year has been great. My oldest son brought home the best report card he'd had in a year or more. The two youngest made straight A's. For my daughter, this was not a surprise but still wonderful. For my son in the 8th grade it marked a greater success as he was put into the Gifted and Intellectual program this year. Despite that the curriculum is more difficult, his grades went up.

In sports, my 13 year old son also had a landmark year. He began playing football in the fourth grade. During the first half of the season he played a variety of positions: offensive tackle (both sides), defensive tackle (also both sides), center, and eventually linebacker. He had always wanted to play linebacker and this was his first opportunity ever and he made the most of it. As middle linebacker, he made it virtually impossible for opponents to run up the middle. The coaches believe he has what it takes to play in college. Being 6 feet and 200 pounds at age 13, he certainly should have the size.

He was also Student of the Month for September and has been invited to participate in the Tri-State Honor band (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana). Guess he's a renaissance boy.

My other son is in his last year of high school. He began basketball practice last week. Although he is only 6'1" he can dunk with two hands. (Incredible vertical leap) He should be a blast to watch. I'm hoping for a great year for him.

My 10 year old daughter's school has an intramural girls basketball league from which the best players advance to the school sponsored 5th grade AAU team. Last Saturday, my daughter played in the last intramural game. She plays well at both ends of the court but is a exceptional at shot blocking and rebounding. After the game, the parents of local hero and University of Tennessee All-American Chris Lofton sought out my daughter, shook her hand, told her she was a good player and to keep it up. Naturally, my daughter beamed with delight.

One of the advantages of a small town with only one school at each level is that everyone in the town supports you. You don't just represent your school. You represent the entire community. This may seem like a lot of pressure but it's just the opposite. People give you so much support that it's a pleasure.

My daughter tied for the highest score on the qualifying test for the academic team. She also is an academic team captain. The girl with whom she tied for the high score is her cousin. They are good friends. Their gimmick is that they are "best buds" and cousins, so they are "bousins."

Being a parent isn't always this wonderful. Of course there are many trying times. But times like this more than compensate for the trying times.

I simply hope and pray that the dream continues.

A badgered husband sent "Ask Laskas" at Reader's Digest this letter.

When we married, my wife and I agreed to keep our finances separate, but twice I've had to pay off her credit card bills -- big time. Now she's in debt again to the tune of $9,000. I told her she has to pitch the plastic. She snapped back that I'm the problem -- I should bring home more money. I'm about ready to call it quits. What can I do?

Laskas points out the wife shows no remorse and needs to take responsibility. Laskas gives him the typical advice: see a financial planner, get into couples therapy.

Forgetta about it, mister!! You don't mention kids, so I assume you don't have any. Make sure you don't create any kids. Start your secret savings account. Hide assets. Consult with an attorney on how to get out of this marriage with the least damage.

I doubt a woman with this behavior and attitude will change enough for this marriage to work. All problems will always be your fault, buddy. Do everything you can to protect yourself and your assets and tell her to take a hike.

I came across this short article, "Forgetting Fathers," at the North Carolina Division of Social Services and Children's Resource Program. A sad story of a woman leaving her husband for parts unknown and taking their two children with her.

Her estranged husband, a limousine driver, searched obsessively for his children. He posted rewards, enlisted help from a retired police officer, and hired a private detective, all to no avail.

As six years passed, he took to driving slowly through residential neighborhoods, looking for two blond children who looked like him.

[---]

Instead they were in foster care. In 1991 the authorities had found the children alone in their mother’s apartment. They were emaciated and had evidently been abused.

But for three more years, through 33 court hearings, multiple foster placements, and the children’s complaints of new abuse, the foster care system failed to tell their father.

[---]

In fact, the father was living nearby with a listed telephone number.

By the time the children were re-united with their father, they no longer remembered him and failed to adjust.

To many social service agencies and worker, fathers are less than afterthought. The lives of two children ruined because social workers didn't think to call the parent.

Some people have no life at all. While ordinary folks concern themselves with meeting the monthly budget, keeping the kids on the straight and narrow, what they can afford for Christmas, and then there are the clueless, activist fools who believe it is their duty to police the toys McDonalds gives children in their Happy Meals.

We're not talking about dangerous toys, not toys that pose a choking hazard or toys that might inadvertently severe the carotid artery. Nope, just a toy Hummer vehicle. What danger is a toy Hummer?

So why did they give away 42 million toy Hummers in Happy Meals? The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth cut a deal with General Motors to sell future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV originally built for the military. Use the Ronald McHummer Sign-O-Matic™ to say what you think of this misguided marketing marriage.

Yes, that's all it takes to brainwash a 5 year old so that he/she will buy a certain product 20 or 30 years down the road. I'm negotiating now to have dolls with my likeness put in all the girl's Happy Meals. Once those girls hit 18, they're mine!

Years ago my son received a toy NASCAR racing car in his Happy Meal. This fully explains why he races around the roads like Richard Petty. I still can't figure out why he does it in a '94 BMW instead of a Mopar product.

The site carries a disclaimer stating it is a "parody" site. But the message seems quite serious. You can make your own McDonalds sign too! However, if the sign isn't insulting to McDonalds, corporations, carnivores and the such, don't expect to see it posted. My sign saying to get a life and leave the kids toys alone never showed.

Frankly, I'm continually amazed that so many people have so much time and energy to spend on so little. I suggest they read Plato's Analogy of the Cave and try to decide who's laughing at who about what and in what the quality of the laugh is. This should keep their small minds occupied for several decades.

Having lived my first 38 years in Tennessee, I keep up with some of the politics there. When Bill Frist (R) has decided not to run for re-election for Senate, he created a wide open race to fill his seat.

Harold Ford, Jr. (D) and Bob Corker (R) are vying for that seat. One quality I like in an elected official is to represent the best interest of those who elected him or her. An important part of being able to do this is not to be obligated to those outside the electorate. Perusing www.opensecrets.org, I found some interesting information.

Here I found: Bob Corker ($7,347,548) received about a million more than Harold Ford ($6,357,993). Of course, what do you expect from a rich Republican? Ford received $935,735 or 35% of his total funds from PACs while Corker received $86,875 or 1% of his total.

Where did this money come from? $3,383,815, or 68%, of Ford's money came from outside of Tennessee. $476,800 or 8% of Corker's money came for outside of Tennessee.

The table below shows the top metropolitan areas in money given to the candidates.

Bob Corker (R)
CHATTANOOGA, TN-GA	$907,417
NASHVILLE	$906,963
KNOXVILLE	$886,998
MEMPHIS, TN-AR-MS	$394,695
JOHNSON CITY- KINGSPORT- BRISTOL, TN-VA	$275,200

Harold E. Ford Jr (D)/td>
NEW YORK	$899,673
MEMPHIS, TN-AR-MS	$894,297
WASHINGTON, DC-MD-VA-WV	$464,157
LOS ANGELES-LONG BEACH	$438,074
NASHVILLE	$399,123

All for metropolitan areas for Corker are within Tennessee. New York gave Ford more money than any place in Tennessee. The Washington, DC and Los Angeles areas also provided lots of money for Ford.

If I was still a voter in Tennessee I would be quite concerned whether Ford would represent those who voted for him or those who gave him the money he needed to finance his campaign. In Corker's case almost all of his money came from the areas where his voters live. In Ford's case, the money did not. Will Ford represent the voters or the money?

My thought line for the post started yesterday while listening to a local talk show host. Cynthia McKinney was scheduled for an interview on his show. This host, Mike McConnell on WLW, Cincinnati, has interviewed many celebrities and public figures including at least one President. When his staff called McKinney's office of the interview she wasn't available.

McConnell noted that this sort of behaviour, being late, missing appointments, etc. was common among liberals but conservatives were quite the opposite. He said conservatives would often call in early and wait on hold until the time of the interview.

This brought me to thoughts of my father. My father was so liberal I doubt he ever entertained thoughts of voting for someone other than a Democrat. While he kept himself "well informed" on the issues, he, somehow, never gathered any information that lead to considering changing political affiliation at all. He was also chronically late, as is and was my equally liberal mother.

Throughout my childhood, whenever I was to be picked up by my parents, I could depend on waiting past the allotted time. In the third grade this led to an adventure from which, without going into detail, I was fortunate to emerge with my life. In high school I would wait as long as two hours after basketball practice to be picked up. My school was over 8 miles from my home which made walking home out of the question.

My thoughts continued to wander in this area. One other belief I've held concerning my father is that he was more egocentric than most. Perhaps "egocentric" is the wrong word but what I mean is that he interpreted almost every situation in terms of its impact on him.

When I first began playing basketball in the fourth grade, my father was angry because it meant taking me to practice and games. When his father-in-law died he didn't go to the funeral because he didn't "like funerals." I found this especially horrendous because after over 30 years of marriage my father divorced my mother for a younger woman. When the younger woman left my father after a few years, my mother took him back.

My grandfather died a year or two later and my father couldn't find it in his heart to accompany my mother to the funeral and related activities. My oldest daughter and I drove 800 miles after I got off work in order to be there the next day for the funeral.

All this brought me to Maslow and Erikson. It seems many have heard of Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. The "highest" need is "self-actualization." By definition, at least superficially, Maslow's theory puts an emphasis on self. Much of popular and scholarly psychology follows this path. Indeed, this is the primary direction of psychology today.

Erikson developed a theory of personality which consisted of 8 stages of psychosocial development. I would hazard that Erikson is less well known than Maslow. Of course, Erikson's theory doesn't have a lofty "self-actualization" stage.

But it does have a stage that particularly interests me: "Stage Seven Middle Adulthood: 40-65 years, generativity vs.stagnation, parenting. "Through generativity, adults promote and guide those who follow by parenting, teaching, leading, doing things to benefit the community." Generativity is not necessarily mutually exclusive from self-actualization but it is easy to see the difference of emphasis.

And, in my mind at least, all this ties in with a post at Shrinkwrapped that DrHelen linked to.

A third leg of our cultural antipathy to appropriate aggression arose from the culture of Narcissism (which includes entitlements and fear of aggression except in the pursuit of one's own limited pleasures.) A thesis I have been developing on this blog (Demographics & Narcissism) is that a unique combination of sociological and historical trends intersected in the early 1950s (and have persisted, with some blips, through the 1990s) which have had the effect of accentuating the development of Narcissistic character traits.

Is it mere coincidence that Maslow first presented his theory in 1954, during the same time frame that Shrinkwrapped identifies as the beginning of the "culture of Narcissism?" Shrinkwrapped's post is a must read. It delves into dealing with terrorism, attacks on masculinity, and more.

In another post, Shrinkwrapped states "The Narcissist sees no one outside of himself as having enough worth and value to risk any of his own gratification." Is this why liberals oppose the war in Iraq and truly fighting terrorism, because it's not worth risking their own gratification?

Is this why the liberal states do so poorly on the Generosity Index?

Is this why we have Learjet liberals flying around the world screaming about global warming? And local liberals shouting about global warming while driving SUVs?

Is this why, when Dick Cheney donates $6,869,655 to charity, NPR focuses on his tax refund amount?

Perhaps Maslow, unintentionally I'm sure, has led many down the wrong path.

What I know best is from my personal experience which I do not pretend is the least bit objective. I rarely meet a liberal that lives up to their expectations of others and I've seen and received much more generosity and compassion from conservatives, including fundamentalist Christians, than left wingers. In deed the comparison isn't even close.

Shrinkwrapped also links to a post at Dr. Sanity regarding narcissism.

UPDATE: Almost forgot, is this why liberals have fewer children than conservatives?

BTW - My father was a humanistic clinical psychologist, a strong follower of Maslow, Carl Rogers, et al.

Yesterday, Woody at GM Roper's wrote about Air America filing for bankruptcy. While this is no surprise to anyone who vaguely follows such things, a sure method to save Air American struck me while posting a comment: play tapes of The Randi Rhodes Show to "induce" captive terrorists to talk.

Much has been debated about the CIA's and other U.S. agencies treatment of prisoners and interrogation techniques. By using tapes of Randi Rhodes, and possibly other Air America shows, we could get two birds with one stone.

First, the tonal quality of Randi Rhodes' voice lies somewhere between a screaming banshee and a whining 2 year old. Simply listening to her voice for an extended period of time would bring a terrorist's brain to the point of explosion as the yodeling did to the Martians' brains in "Mar's Attacks."

If a terrorist actually tried to listen to the words and tried to discern some sort of logical argument the terrorist would experience levels of confusion such that they would willingly talk to any reasonable person about anything including divulging much needed information. Hearing Randi's commentaries laden with sexual innuendo and hate would frighten terrorists into begging for mercy if led to believe they would actually be put in the presence of this devil person.

The little I've listened to Al Franken and those two Air America adolescents in the morning, their tapes might also create similar results.

Because Air America owns the rights to these tapes and the U.S. government is desperate to destroy terrorism, Air American could receive millions in royalties for the government's use of the tapes. Liberals would no longer be able to complain about torture of prisoners as the voices of their heroes are being used as the primary component in interrogation.

However, part of the deal should be that Air America is no longer allowed over the public airways but limited to broadcasts in terrorist prisoner camps.

This story about elephants with a mariachi band crossed the river from Mexico into the U.S. circulated around the blogacube today.

The story is about more than illegal immigrants. It's about national security. The stunt points out what a joke the whole national security/anti-terrorism "effort" is.

I'm sure the CIA, FBI, NSA, et al know much more than I do about what's going on in the world. But why are we eavesdropping on phone calls, scrutinizing every passenger on airplanes, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and pouring billions into these efforts while allowing entering into our country from Mexico to be ridiculously easy?

My personal feeling is that it has to do with big business. Liberals love to accuse Republicans of being in the pocket of big business. But I believe Democrats are equally so. They talk the talk of "caring" about the poor, down-trodden immigrants (They wouldn't dream of tying the word "illegal" with "immigrant".). But, just as much as Republicans, their real goal is to provide cheap labor for businesses, especially large agricultural and construction concerns.

Sure, the Federal government plays the game of protecting us from terrorists, but only as far as big business feels comfortable. And big business likes the cheap labor. And they don't care that "roughly half the population growth comes from immigration..." This means more people sharing the same amount of land and other resources, a more crowded country. Is this fair to our children?

A nation's first responsibility is to its own citizens. Somehow too many politicians, especially liberals, miss this point. Remember this phrase from the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution: "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity?"

"Ourselves and our Posterity"

Of course, much of the rest of The Constitution has been disregarded, we shouldn't be surprised that this part is too.

Ottawa County, Michigan must reprint 170,000 ballots for the Nov. 7 election due to leaving the "l"out "public." When performing a search for this subject I noticed misspelling "pubic" for "public" seems to be fairly common. Some examples I found:

Only when research confronts the full range of consequences-some positive, some negative-of high levels of pubic funding will we begin to better understand the behavior and decision making of these complex organizations.

Are they referring to brothels?


We would rather endure negative pubic opinion than enjoy popularity at the expense of [a] crumbling economy," he added.

Apparently, he's secure in his manhood.

Voting rights organizations are misleading the pubic on several critical issues.

There's nothing worse than misleading the pubic. It's illegal to do it to a minor.

The debate raged for two years in private meetings, during several large pubic gatherings,...

"Large pubic gatherings" are called orgies.

Morlino notes that recently Deputy Mayor Tobasco told a member of the pubic at a town meeting to "sit down and shut up".

Few men would tolerate their pubic member being spoken to that way.

NIPSA is uniquely placed to defend the common interests of pubic sector workers ....

How come no one told me about pubic sector work on career day?

"There is no way to solve this problem without a huge new source of revenue," says F. Scott McCowen, executive director of the Center for Pubic Policy Priorities in Austin.

Each adult should be free to develop his/her own pubic policies. We don't need a "center" telling us what to do.

I lost the link this one, but I'm quite interested in "pubic access."

"The acquisition of fee title to, perpetual conservation easements on, or other interests in public or private land for the purpose of preserving watersheds, rivers, lakes and streams, wetlands, uplands, critical wildlife habitat, endangered species habitat, ecological areas, agricultural lands and soils, farms and ranches, sites of cultural and historic significance, motorized and non-motorized trail rights of way, greenways, pubic access, state and local parklands, and predominantly undeveloped natural lands and open space..."


Certainly, if it wins this one, the government will follow this with similar proposals for other Mexican health systems and pubic employee unions.

Is "pubic employee" another name for "hooker?"

A headline:

Bishop Garcia Says Peace Lies In International Pubic Opinion

Oddly, he may be absolutely correct.

Research published in Pubic Opinion Quarterly ....

Frankly, I'm rather sensitive about pubic opinions.

From my alma mater, the University of Tennessee, could this be one of GM Roper's endeavors?
Has information on the resources and services of the Roper Center for Pubic Opinion.

If you have a negative pubic opinion of me, just keep it to yourself.

From a school website in Vermont:

Readings and Movies: (subject to change)
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Pubic Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman

Is this appropriate reading for high school or under? I don't think so. How much do you have to do whatever to amuse yourself to death?

Remember, folks, spell checkers only catch the misspelled words not the incorrect words.

Ever so often I visit LissaKay. During my visit today, I came across her post in which she describes a male teacher having inappropriate physical contact with her daughter when she was 11 years old.

Now, to compare ... my daughter, at age 11, was pushed up against a desk by her teacher as he leaned closely toward her. He swatted her on the butt, and made obvious learing glances at her well-developed chest. When she reported this activity, she was treated as if she were making it all up. It was her word against his. He of course denied it. The school officials gave him a month off with pay. She was left to feel cheap, used and abused. She later had to transfer out of his class because, after he returned, he made her life hell.

Now, guess what, five years later he's under scrutiny again.

THEN, when reading the WBIR account of the teacher, I saw an article about a Knoxville business man pleading guilty to raping a high school student while she was visiting his own daughter. I had met this guy many years ago, very upper class.

Moving on, I checked the website of the local newspaper where I now live. Oh my God! A teacher in the next county is busted in an Internet predator sting. Is any place safe?

Having four children, I worry about the many dangers lurking in a child's world. My oldest is an adult with children of her own. My two boys are bigger and stronger than the average adult male.

But my 10 year old daughter is a developing 5' 3" long legged beauty. I warn and instruct her often regarding the dangers facing her. Considering what she tells me about her life now, I feel fairly confident she would tell me of any transgressions.

All I can say is if someone harms my daughter or any to the other kids, including the adult, they better hope the police get to them before I do.

The Anchoress has a post today that includes a discussion of "Luke 10:38-42, the part of the Gospel where Martha complains to Jesus that Mary is just sitting at his feet listening to him, instead of working with her. "

My favorite sentence: Indeed, the surest sign that something is off in Martha’s soul is that she even tells God what to do!

Reminds me of my ex-wife. While we now get along reasonably well, I've never met another person who spent as much time telling others what to do while doing so little herself.

My co-worker in the neighboring cubicle pointed out this article at CNN.com about Scarlett Johansson. Please bear in mind, as I will, that Scarlett is only 21 years old.

Regarding allegations that she is promiscuous Scarlett had this to say:

"There does seem to be a mistaken belief out there that I am sexually available somehow -- which is not to say that I'm not open-minded about sex," she continues. "Yet I wouldn't say I'm a serial monogamist, either. I mean, I went through periods of time when I was, ah, single. But when I'm in a relationship, I'm in a relationship."

I would like to see a clarification of "I went through periods of time when I was, ah, single." Sounds to me like potential, ah, promiscuity.

Scarlett's "wisdom" scares me.

"I get tested for HIV twice a year. ... One has to be socially aware," she says. "It's part of being a decent human, to be tested for STDs. It's just disgusting behavior when people don't. It's so irresponsible."

Good Lord, what are you doing, who are you having sex with, how many are you having sex with, are you drinking discarded pints from the blood bank? And we wonder why efforts to stop the spread of HIV have been unsuccessful.

Scarlett, testing only tells you what you don't want to know when it's too late. Knowing you are HIV positive will only allow you to temporarily stave off the inevitable, horrible death awaiting you. Knowing will also enable you to not spread it either, if you so choose.

My children have better brains than that. I pray they don't lose them between now and adulthood.

JW Wells left this link to an article on females who murdered their children. The article begins:

As a female friend of Frances Elaine Campione put it, this after Ms. Campione was charged on Wednesday with murder in the death of her two young children, "That mother needs a hug."

In that line, widely repeated in Toronto and national media outlets, is a telling clue to what is so wrong with much of what happens both in the nation's family courts and in its child-protection system -- the pervasive view of the female of the species as constantly nurturing (except, you know, when she allegedly kills) and as in need of constant nurture (hugs all 'round, no matter what).

The article also delves into another murder case.

...Zachary Andrew Turner, who was 13 months old when his mommy dearest, one Shirley Turner, drugged him, tied him to her chest and jumped into the Atlantic Ocean, where they both drowned.

Dr. Turner was no ordinary mother. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, she was a medical doctor, cute and tiny and clever, and she was also facing a murder charge in the States, where she was accused of shooting to death her former boyfriend and Zachary's father, a young man of 28 named Andrew David Bagby, also a doctor, who had just ended their relationship.

Violent women are frequently treated much different than violent men.

Hopefully, we all remember Charles C. Roberts IV who slaughtered several Amish school girls last week. Do you remember Tiffany Hall? She murdered a pregnant woman and her three kids and cut the fetus out of the woman. Later she claimed the fetus was her own still born child. Women certainly have shown the ability to commit as horrendous crimes as men.

U.S. circulates draft resolution at U.N. calling for sanctions on Pyongyang

Soon North Korea will be begging for mercy. When the U.N. flexes its muscle, look out! Just look how the U.N. stomped out terrorism.

Just about as bad as you can imagine. A woman uses her baby as a weapon to attack her boyfriend.

A woman used her 4-week-old baby as a weapon in a domestic dispute, swinging the infant through the air and striking her boyfriend with the child, authorities said.

I'm sure someone will somehow find a way to blame the boyfriend.

Byron Williams wrote an excellent column on how both parties need to take a long, serious look in the mirror.

The Republican Party as we know it today is a reckless, hypocritical, self-serving entity that gives lip service to morality so that it can, in the most Machiavellian sense, hold a base just large enough to ensure victory.

Pretty harsh.

Without moral clarity and a sense of their own political raison d'etre, roughly half of the Democrats in the Senate voted in support of authorizing the president to use force in Iraq. It is an insult to the American people to listen to Democrats, who now have buyer's remorse, stating, "If I knew then what I know now, I would not have voted the way I did."

Listening to the Democrats is certainly an insult to one's intelligence. Democrats love to play self-righteous games. Why do you bring up Studds/Clinton/whomever in comparison to Foley? Maybe because the comparison is a valid one.

Democrats have shown their lack of moral clarity time and again over the last three decades. Yet, they get very self-righteous over a woman's "right" to kill her unborn child or homosexual marriage. If those are the only issues in which you can claim the moral "high" ground, you're in sad shape.

Since neither party owns "the" truth, both risk being permanently lost in their own delusions of grandeur. Those who allow themselves to be engaged in the public conversation need the contrarian's perspective lest they fall into the trap of believing that only their thought is normative. Such arrogance blinds us to our own imperfections, and no good can be realized from it.

Over at GM Roper GM and Woody post frequently about their skepticism regarding popular notions of global warming. They often point out threats to free speech by the global warming alarmists who disdain skeptics.

Skeptics play an important role in scientific endeavor, consider treatment of stomach ulcers.

For nearly 100 years, scientists and doctors thought that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy food, and alcohol. Treatment involved bed rest and a bland diet. Later, researchers added stomach acid to the list of causes and began treating ulcers with antacids.

The human body, related diseases, etc, and treatment of the diseases and conditions have probably received more scientific attention than any other subject over the history of mankind. Why did the medical profession believe for so long in the incorrect cause of ulcers? Lack of respect for skeptics and silencing skeptics.

John Lykoudis, a general practitioner in Greece, successfully treated ulcers with anti-biotics in the 1950's.

After treating himself for peptic ulcer disease with antibiotics in 1958 and finding the treatment effective he began treating patients with antibiotics. After experimenting with several combinations of antibiotics he eventually arrived at a combination which he termed Elgaco and which he patented in 1961. It has been estimated that he treated more than 30,000 patients.

In his time he had great difficulties in persuading the Greek medical establishment about the effectiveness of the treatment. He was given a fine of 4000 drachmas by a disciplinary committee, and indicted in the Greek courts. He was unable to get an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and was not able to get the established phamaceutical companies sufficiently interested in the treatment.

Fined by the legal system and ignored, at best, by the medical establishment.

His reports were shunned by academic medicine throughout the Mediterranean area. He was encouraged to share his data more widely and submitted a paper on this subject to JAMA in 1966. His letter of rejection from the Journal of the American Medical Association has been published.

Ironically, in 2005, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall won the Nobel Prize in medicine for proving Lykoudis' theories true and identifying the actual bacteria. Approximately fifty years in which the established scientists refused to listen to a skeptic and millions suffered needlessly.

If global warming/climate change alarmists stifle and drowned out the voices of skeptics they may well do more harm than whatever good they imagine they are doing. Just yesterday, The Anchoress posted on new information on how cosmic rays effect Earth's climate.

Goodness!

When inquiry and skepticism is forbidden danger lurks.

Tennessee quarterback, Eric Ainge, passed for two touchdowns and ran for another.

Refusing to fold, Tennessee won a big game over the Georgia Bulldogs yesterday. At one point in the second quarter, prospects for a Tennessee victory were so bleak that I left the house to buy pop, wondering if it would be worth watching the final half of the game.

It was.

Tennessee came roaring back, scoring 5 touchdowns and a field goal in the second half of the game. Eric Ainge looked like the quarterback he is supposed to. Georgia played valiantly but fell short.

In my mind, the rivalry between Tennessee and Georgia has always been a friendly one. I don't remember bad blood between the schools. I attribute much of that to Georgia historically having classy coaches, such as the great Vince Dooley (unlike Florida's ex-coach, Steve Spurrier, snicker), and classy fans, such as Patrick Armstrong.

Good Tennessee fans teach their children that there are two teams to always root for, Tennessee and whoever is playing Florida. Florida is the only SEC team I won't root for under any circumstances except when they play Miami.

Leaving for church this morning, I quipped to my son that maybe someday he'll be wearing THE ORANGE and WHITE crushing guys in red and white. Then, because I'd be proud for my son to play for Georgia, I said "or red and white crushing guys in orange and white." He replied, "Or either one crushing guys playing for Florida!" Lord, I'm proud he's my son. He's an official Gator Hater.

I doubt that Tennessee is Georgia's biggest rivalry. Florida is Tennessee's. Alabama used to be Tennessee's greatest foe but Alabama's fallen on harder times and the games don't have quite the drama they used to. But like Georgia, Bama's always had classy coaches. They don't come any better than the Bear or Gene Stallings.

Cruising various blogs, I see much debate continue regarding the Foley fiasco. I only have a few simple thoughts considering the situation. First, Foley's a pervert and good riddance to him.

Secondly, nothing I have heard or read to this point convinces me that Democrats care a lick about this situation other than how much advantage they can gain from it in the up-coming elections. The Democrats didn't care when 46 year old Gerry Studds had actual sex with a 17 year old page. In fact, they gave him three standing ovations on the House floor. Any 46 year old man having sex with a 17 year old male or female is a pervert.

How long would a school teacher having sex with a 17 year old student keep his or her job? Studds kept his 13 years more.

And, of course, Slick Willy probably showed only the tip of the iceberg of his sexual escapades. Ted Kennedy's sexual desires led to the death of a young lady. Gary Condit's intern lover some how ended up dead.

The Republicans are not proving themselves to be of the moral/ethical standards I prefer but neither have the Democrats. The Democrats still support many issues such as abortion and gay marriage that I don't. It will take more than one foolish, perverted Republican Congressman from a district other than my own to get me to change my vote.

From the party that considers fundamentalist Christianity a greater threat than radical Islam GM Roper found this picture.



Visit and enter his caption contest.

I feel obligated to say something about the Rep. Foley story.
Obviously, to normal people, intimate friendships, perhaps sexual relationships, etc. with under age boys and/or girls is totally unacceptable behavior, especially for elected Federal officials.

Unfortunately, it's not like this hasn't happened before. In 1983, Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., admitted to sexual relations with a 17-year-old male page. I guess those Massachusetts liberals aren't bothered by this sort of thing. Studds continued to be re-elected until he retired in 1996.

The conservative, Rep. Dan Crane, R-Ill., caught up in scandal at the same time for having sexual relations with a female page lost his bid for re-election. Apparently conservative voters care about such things.

I suspect these things are much more prevalent than we realize. Gary Condit comes to mind along with Bill and Monica. Sure, they were of legal age but just how ethical were their actions? Would you want your son or daughter being subject to sexual predation?

Once again, the aspect that strikes me the hardest is the different rules for us and them. Congresspersons and Senators continue to show greater disdain for the American citizen. They, Republican and Democrat, are the privileged ruling class and effectively answer to no one. While they vote themselves raises and extend the breadth of their power, we struggle to make ends meet. I just wish some how we could replace the whole lot of them at once.

The timing of the revelation. The ignored warnings. The only argument seems to be who it was meant to give an advantage. Are Republicans trying to distract attention away from Iraq and other issues? Are liberals hoping to use the event to harm the Republican Party nationwide. So far, no elected officials which I can vote for are involved.

Michelle Malkin has an excellent post regarding Foley and other sex scandals.

Working at how today I have been listening to the news about at least 6 Amish girls shot dead execution style in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Several other Amish girls are injured. Some of these girls are as young as 6 years old. According to the CNN news and news conference, the shooter is a 32 year old man who is not Amish. Having left notes to his wife and children, he apparently was getting some sort of "revenge" for something that happened 20 years ago.

How sick do you have to be to shoot a defenseless, peaceful Amish child? I can't imagine. Less than a month ago, I wrote about a visit I made to an Amish community near me. Here is a picture I took of two Amish girls (with my son's big foot in the foreground).



Perhaps is mental health and social service agencies were more "male friendly" more of these incidents could be avoided. In a quick check of United Way of Cincinnati, I find one agency dedicated to serving men, Genesis Men's Prigram. It receives a United Way allocation of $39,276.00. The Woman's Crisis Center and Rape Crisis & Abuse Center of Hamilton County formerly Women Helping Women receive $398,808.00 and $136,612.00 respectively.

This is a total of nearly 14 times of the Genesis Men's Program. Boy Scouts and YMCA's include programs for females. The YMCA in my community is dominated by females. The only full-time male employee is probably the maintenance man. Girl Scouts and YWCA's do not run programs for males of which I am aware or could find at the United Way web site. Boys Clubs are now Boys & Girls Club.

Our social and mental health services have been almost totally consumed with improving and broadening services for females while turning their collective backs on males. Maybe the recent school shootings are examples of reaping what we sow.