Dear Friends,

The Cold War ended in 1989, yet we still have 79,000 troops stationed in Europe with 45,000 of them in Germany alone. Only four of our 28 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies are spending more than 2% of their gross domestic product on defense while the United States is spending 4.7%.

The reason why they can get away with spending so little on defense is that they are relying on the United States to provide it for them.

President Obama is putting forward a budget that will pull two out of the four U.S. Army brigade combat teams that we still have in Germany. This week I proposed pulling all of our forces out of Europe with the exception of those that may be located there that are essential to supporting ongoing operations in Afghanistan or are in support of the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet.

I strongly believe that it is time to bring our forces home from Europe and I also believe that we can demonstrate our commitment to our European allies by conducting periodic joint military exercises with them instead of maintaining permanent bases at the expense of the American taxpayer.

By making these cuts, along with others that I will be proposing, I will be able to prevent reductions elsewhere in the president’s defense budget that I believe will be harmful to our military and will compromise our nation’s security if allowed to go forward.

Sincerely,

Mike Coffman
Member of Congress

That 17% turnout of warm bodies was probably ‘good’ but I would prefer there be a Presidential Primary in the hopes that more people would express their binding preference for a candidate. Colorado is a ‘caucus’ state. At the precinct caucus you vote for precinct delegates (2 + 2 alternates) to attend the County Assemblies where they vote for delegates to attend the State Assembly and eventually the Republican National Convention, where they vote for a single Republican Presidential Candidate. At every step of the way delegates can express a preference for a candidate but they are not legally bound to ultimately vote for a specific candidate.

During the precinct meeting people have the opportunity to speak their preference in support of a presidential candidate before a casual secret ballot straw poll is taken. 4 or 5 spoke in favor of Mitt Romney (business man, electability). A couple spoke in favor of Ron Paul (stop spending money overseas for foreign aid and wars when we have problems here to deal with). One spoke for Rick Santorum (consistent in what he stands for) and none (!) spoke for Newt Gingrich.

As a room full of like-minded Republicans all were unified in the thought that Obama has got to go.

My precinct poll results were 27 Romney, 7 Santorum, 6 Paul, and 2 Gingrich. Thus I was shocked to find when I returned home that Santorum had won voting in Minnesota and Missouri that night and was leading Romney in Colorado by about 40% to 28%. What’s up with THAT?

The final statewide result was 40% Santorum and 35% Romney, with 13% Gingrich and 12% Paul, so Romney recovered some ground. My Douglas County results were 47% Romney, 33% Santorum, 12% Gingrich, and 8% Paul. About 65,000 Republicans voted statewide, about 6,000 in my county. I suppose that’s not a bad turnout considering warm bodies have to get up and moving on their own personal commitment. Thank goodness the recent 2-foot snowstorm was 4 days past and left only icy side streets in its wake along the heavily populated front range. Note however that 65,000 is less than 10% of 793,000 registered Republicans statewide and 6,000 is likewise against the 71,900 registered in the county. (Someone told us that Douglas County had a 95% Republican turnout in the last presidential election and they were investigated for fraud (to no avail) because that was so high.)

As someone must be saying, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over”. We are fortunate IMO to have numerous qualified candidates, any of which would make a ‘decent’ president. Certainly the commitment is stronger than usual this election amongst some of us at least that it’s “Anyone But Obama”. In God, crystals, crossed fingers, etc., We Trust. One can only ‘hope’.

This is the second book I’ve inhaled during the last two weeks, a good speed for me. (See my recent review of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.) This one took about five days. I like to read but I’m lazy about it so I must have been gifted with two decent books this Christmas.

The Litigators is “good Grisham”. IMO it’s not as gripping as The Confession (chilling because it could happen), The Innocent Man (chilling because it is non-fiction and did happen) or The Appeal (disconcerting because it too could or does happen). On a Grisham scale I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I recommend it.

I find good fiction entertaining, relaxing, and escapist. One can let go of one’s own mundane life and vicariously observe the lives of others from the un-interfering vantage point of a lesser deity perhaps. With Grisham you also feel you are learning something about law.

I won’t bore you with a plot summary or details. You can find those everywhere and with a title of The Litigators you can be fairly certain this is another Grisham book about law, fiction in this case. Many of his fiction books and characters have such a considerable believability to them that you think they must be closely related to real life. At the beginning of The Litigators the characters seemed like slightly aberrated, almost comic, caricatures of real people and it led me to think that THIS was different. They were believable enough to hold my interest.

Like any good suspense mystery, which most Grisham novels have plenty of, the reader, like any good detective, is trying to guess the outcome as the story evolves. The plot line in this story was fairly straight forward and did not have several seemingly unrelated plots melding in a big, oh wow, finale. It did keep me guessing enough to remain entertained to the end.

Someday maybe I must read about plot structure and fiction writing. How someone like Grisham who has written at least 2 dozen books can keep coming up with enough plot twists and turns to hold your interest yet again without becoming too formulaic is a marvel to behold.

In addition to being entertained I liked that this novel got me thinking about lawsuits and torts (wrongful acts or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to legal liability).

We are lawsuit crazy these days. Is this good or bad? Isn’t this self-responsibility and individual freedom at its best? Rather than having the government legislate every minute aspect of our lives and economy shouldn’t people and businesses be generally free to do as they please and then suffer the crippling costs and penalties of a court of law for various injuries they cause? What about the settlements and the huge amounts the lawyers make? It often seems like they are vastly overpaid. Thoughts to ponder. Thoughts to ponder.

A friend and his references to the Fall 2011 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly THE FUTURE, as well as a night in the hospital recently, got me thinking about my mortality.

As I’ve grown older, retired, and plotted my potential income and expense for the rest of my potential life I’ve given TIME much more thought than the previous rest of my life. I’ve come to be more aware that “I’m not going to live forever”! Horrors!!

Regardless I don’t live my life like it is the precious finite commodity that it really is. I laze, snooze, fiddle, procrastinate. What if we were raised and lived our life like it was really REALLY finite. Suppose at the age of 6, 8, or 10 we started our Life Spreadsheet and gave ourself a generous and optimistic 100 years to live. It’s a nice round number and always subject to adjustment as life goes on. Perhaps 85 or 90 would be more realistic though still fairly generous. We could plot and plan our education, our careers, family, etc. We do this plotting in life to a certain extent anyway, some more so than others. The Life Spreadsheet would help the focused to be more focused and the unfocused to be at least a little focused.

But I digress. I think I’ll sleep on it.

My primary purpose in this was to speak briefly about Lapham’s Quarterly and direct you to two essays in the issue on The Future.

Lapham’s is a superb assembly of thought from all of recorded history. Each quarterly issue gathers essays and commentaries from great thinkers on a broad but specific topic. Recent issues have dwelt on Food, Lines of Work, Celebrity, The City, and Arts and Letters.

For the frugal many essays in each issue are available free online. However the print edition is a work of art itself generously decorated throughout with relevant colorful art and quotations. It is softcover of the highest quality, stiff bond paper. One would want to keep and collect these issues. I cannot imagine them easily being discarded after a first read. They are a valuable resource for the ages. Considering that the current annual subscription price is $49 ($12.25 per issue, $4 per month, or less than $1 per week) for a FULL year of reading and self-education, it seems darn well worth it to subscribe. Non-collectors can get an online digital subscription for $29 or both digital and print together for $59. Why haven’t I signed up? (I should be compensated for such blatant advertising but I’m not.)

Two essays in The Future issue made me think about that nemesis TIME. First there is Back to the Future quoting Roman senator Seneca from 40BC. http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/voices-in-time/back-to-the-future.php

He discusses how little we value our time:

“I am always surprised to see some people demanding the time of others and meeting a most obliging response. Both sides have in view the reason for which the time is asked and neither regards the time itself—as if nothing is being asked for and nothing given.”

“But nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing. But if death threatens these same people, you will see them praying to their doctors; if they are in fear of capital punishment, you will see them prepared to spend their all to stay alive. So inconsistent are they in their feelings. But if each of us could have the tally of his future years set before him, as we can of our past years, how alarmed would be those who saw only a few years ahead, and how carefully would they use them!”

“Life is divided into three periods: past, present, and future. Of these, the present is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain. For this last is the one over which Fortune has lost her power, which cannot be brought back to anyone’s control. But this is what preoccupied people lose: for they have no time to look back at their past, and even if they did, it is not pleasant to recall activities they are ashamed of.”

Might we live a better present if we gave at least half a thought to how it will be remembered in the past?

The other essay is Managing the Future by Alexis de Tocqueville, circa 1840. http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/voices-in-time/managing-the-future.php

This is an intriguing circular argument on how we live for the afterlife and not this one, lose sight of it and live for the present, then return to live for the afterlife.

“In ages of faith, the final aim of life is placed beyond life.”

“This explains why religious nations have often achieved such lasting results. They discovered the secret of success in this world by concentrating upon the next.”

“But as the light of faith gradually dims, men’s range of vision grows narrow, and you would say that every day the object of human endeavors is more within reach.”

“Social instability fosters the natural instability of man’s desires. When destiny is in a perpetual state of flux, the present looms large; it masks the future from his sight and his thoughts are unwilling to go beyond the next day.”

“Governments should strive to restore to men that taste for the future which religion and the state of society no longer inspire, and they should, without exactly saying as much, teach daily in practical terms that wealth, reputation, and power are the payment for work, that great success should come at the end of a lengthy period of waiting, and that nothing lasting is ever gained without difficulties.”

Both essays are short and well worth reading.

Speaking of mortality I’ve arbitrarily given myself a life span to age 85 based on family history and general health. I found how very arbitrary it was when a virus and dehydration put me in the hospital for a day where I was poked, probed, scanned, and generally harassed in my best interests for 36 hours. I’m nearly 66 and I realized that despite my good intentions there was no guarantee I would make it to 75 or even 70. Sure, people of every age from 1 day to 100 years die every day, but that’s their problem! I was ‘confident’ I could make it to 85, maybe even more!

I now have two countdown clocks running on my iPad (one is called ‘So Dead!’) which countdown the days and weeks to age 85. Since my recent brush with illness do I now set the alarm for earlier and jump out of bed ready to consume my remaining time voraciously and productively? Uhhh, no. There is inherent sloth and laziness in my being, but I’ll keep working on it, should I live long enough.

[In keeping with the late Apple CEO Steve Job's interest in making the iPad2 a Content Creator as well as a Content Viewer I've created this particular post on my iPad2 using the WordPress app. I did use an external keyboard as the touchscreen is toooo sensitive and frustrating for extended typing. I suspect I may do some final editing on my laptop regardless.]

Jobs was the mercurial co-founder and intermittently long-term CEO of Apple Computer, the company that has produced Apple, Macintosh, and iMac computers as well as iPhones, iPods and iPads.  The book is Jobs’ authorized but not interfered-with biography.  (No small feat.)  Jobs knew he was dying and wanted his story told.  (He passed away Oct. 5, 2011 at age 56.)

I’m a retired computer person and worked with the Microsoft Windows environment for over 20 years.  I’ve been a convert to Apple for the last 18 months.  (Macbook Pro laptop, iPhone4, and iPad2.)  I think anyone with even a mild interest in computers, modern technology, innovation and design, and/or modern corporations would like this book.

Steve Jobs was a supreme butthead.  The book more prevalently quotes the word a**hole.  He may have been bi-polar, though that is only mentioned once.  He was emotionally fragile and subject to extreme mood swings throughout his life.  He claimed co-workers ideas as his own.  He was beyond rude to nearly everyone.  I never would have been good enough to work for him or strong enough to last if I did.  I find little to admire about him other than his PERSISTENCE, his REFUSAL TO ACCEPT NO for an answer, and his insistence on SURROUNDING HIMSELF WITH “A” PLAYERS.  This appears to have led to more successes than failures.

Apple succeeded in spite of him and would definitely have failed without him IMO.  It was a rocky road that could have gone either way.  The book is as much a history of Apple as of Jobs.  It offers fascinating insights into corporate executive interactions.  It also discusses the closed/total system environment of Apple (hardware/software, relatively ‘sealed’ and Apple-controlled) versus the open PC system of Microsoft and multiple hardware vendors.

The story flows well and is thorough, although I felt it didn’t reveal enough of the personal side of Steve Jobs (other than the revealing contents of his iPod).  Yes, he was into Zen Buddhism and extreme vegan diets, but what did he read?  What did he do in whatever spare time he had?  What does a CEO do when he’s not yelling and screaming at people?!?  Though the book is chronological a minor complaint I had was that events would jump around a bit and I often was looking back to see what year was being discussed.  Regardless it’s a gripping, informative book on many levels.  Five out of five stars.  One of the very best books I’ve read in some time.  READ IT!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 35 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Superb. I inhaled this book in about 36 hours. A proverbial tour de force. Very well written. 10 star rating. I highly recommend it.

Excellent contrapuntal plot device throughout the first half of the book, expertly woven together in the second half. Whenever I thought it was about to slip into the angst of personal romance (something I don’t care for myself) the story moved on, though a fictional personal story is central to the plot and in the end is well-presented in its own right.

I’m a young old man. 65 years young as we like to say. Physically active and in good health, most of the time, coping with and then ignoring various illnesses and infirmities as they come and go with slightly increasing frequency.

I have to keep reminding myself Sarah’s Key is a work of FICTION. Still those of us who are not WWII Holocaust deniers must appreciate the historical context of stories such as this, in the case of this book the July 1942 round-up of Jews in Paris and their subsequent shipment to Auschwitz for execution.

Reference my age I find myself emotionally more fragile than in earlier years. I’m not an incessant weeper (I like to think) but these days I find myself easily moved to tears at heart-wrenching stories such as those about the Holocaust. (I could never do the 6 o’clock news.) Stories, movies, and re-presentations such as Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, and Sarah’s Key. (At the very least ‘Private Ryan’, ‘Schindler’s’, and a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. should be required viewing for every high school student in perpetuity. They could read Sarah’s Key for extra credit. Iranian President and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be required to view also, but I digress.) I didn’t sob while reading this book but my eyes did well up numerous times. I was MOVED.

In the last 2 years my lady and I have been on 2 bus tours in Europe focused on following the footsteps of her father’s WWII infantry division in their part in liberating parts of Belgium and Holland. I am equally moved to tears when I try to talk about the profound appreciation for that liberation that still exists and is expressed, particularly by the Dutch, in southern Holland (vicinity of Zundert, Oudenbosch, and Staandarbuiten) and northern Belgium (such as Wuust-Wezel).

WWII may well have been the last war in which there was a clearly defined enemy and a clear, common goal to pursue in their defeat. I still find it hard to believe that atrocities such as the Holocaust could be committed in the 20th century.

Any book like Sarah’s Key that reminds us of these horrors does a service to us all. I trust intelligent people throughout the ages to come will not let these memories be suppressed or fade into antiquity.

Never forget.

View all my reviews

HWSNBN (He who shall not be named.):

There are some interesting stats in this about the Democratic news media.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/11/11/scandal-no-one-is-talking-about/

ME:

We have troops in Uganda?!?  I have not heard that. The rest is fodder for Ann Coulter’s next book.  We are being dulled, lulled, and numbed into expecting lies to be the norm. Just more crowd control. We have no self of course.

Sent from John’s i-PAD!!

ME AGAIN:

I mention Ann Coulter because her books are filled with stats like “318 stories against Republicans and 12 against Democrats” on some issue or another.

Ahhh, troops in Uganda. Google is my friend. Noteworthy article:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/obama-sends-100-us-troops-to-uganda-to-combat-lords-resistance-army/

Just a few ‘advisors’. Sort of like how that little Vietnam thing started out, free-range style. “The forces will deploy beginning with a small group and grow over the next  month to 100. They will ultimately go to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the permission of those countries.”

This isn't me but I've been thought to look this good, in my own mind at least.

Today, in honor of the 6th birthday of my faithful Westie dee-oh-gee (d.o.g.) companion KaCee the Wonder Dog (it’s a wonder KaCee does or doesn’t… fill-in-the-blanks) I had my first ski day of the 2011-2012 season at Copper Mountain Colorado.

As my small, carefully selected circle of friends (many of whom I pay for me to have the privilege ) and extended family know this is no small feat considering the exquisite, graceful, and thorough fracture of my ankle near the end of ski season last year (“…40 years of skiing, 42nd day skiing that season, yada, yada, yada.  Oh the inJUStice of it all!”), outlined previously in these pages:

The End of Ski Season

“I’m WALKIN’ here!”

15 November is early for Colorado skiing most years.  This year is no exception.  If it wasn’t for man-made snow it wouldn’t be happening.  Having 2 main chair lifts (American Eagle and Excelerator) and 2 main runs (Main Vein/Rhapsody and Ptarmigan) open at Copper isn’t a whole lotta skiing.  For me and the 4-inch plate on the back of my left ankle, I’m tickled to death to be standing… on skis and sliding on snow.

The big run, Main Vein, was well covered in snow.  No rocks, and that’s a good thing. High winds were blowing off the top of the higher Excelerator chair lift and the snowpack was nearly blown to the ground in some places.  The rest of the Ptarmigan run was not too bad.

Besides rocks, the other early season danger is PEOPLE.  Too many eager skiers not unlike myself itching to get a few turns in as a warmup for later in the season can create a skiing hazard of its own.  It wasn’t toooo bad.  There were a lot of fast-skiing racers making their way to numerous courses setup on the minimal available terrain.  The Copperopolis run was open only to racers and was setup for a snowboard race course.

Main Vein had a slalom ski course setup on the side.  The bottom of Main Vein on the left had snow machines furiously blowing on half-pipe construction while directly opposite on the right was a ramp-jump-rail course for trickster snowboarders and skiers, leaving only the middle to navigate back to the chair lift.

Oh-be-joyful.  I had a good time anyway.  That ‘great to be standing…’ thing.  Considering it was about a $429 ski day (the price of my season pass for Copper Mountain/Winter Park, not counting my lunch and gas costs) I kept my sense of humor.  Of course my next ski day will cut pass costs to $215 per day, so it does get cheaper as I strive for 42 days or more.  I may easily settle for 20 to 30 days of easy skiing this season, ‘just to be standing…’.

In 41 days of skiing last year before that little slip-up I spent $169 on gas, $245 on lunches, and $399 on the pass for an average cost per day of $20.20 and a cost per run for 424 runs in 41 days of $1.95 per run.  Ahhh, but if I smoked I probably would have easily spent more for cigarettes.  There’s always a rationale, always an excuse…

Some of us are content to walk on sandy beaches and bluffs.  (You know who you are.) Others of us strive for greater heights (altitude, baby, altitude).  Still, there is that increased risk factor.  Hmmm.

It’s great to be standing… on skis… and sliding on snow.

A.B.O. is my presidential campaign motto for 2012. “Anyone But Obama.” Now that you know where I sit AND stand, following are a few thoughts and articles of recent note.

Image via Wikipedia

Mitt Romney continues to shine in the Republican Presidential Debates if only for his ability to stay in the middle of the road, avoid scandal (RE: Herman Cain), and avoid mental lapses and gaffs (RE: Rick Perry).

Perry’s brain
freeze makes it
warm and cozy
for Romney

Romney continues to write and get published cogent articles about his stand on issues and policies, such as this one in today’s WSJ:

I Won’t Let Iran Get Nukes

Newt Gingrich, if one listens closely when he speaks, continues to expound intelligently and be suitably presidential. A good piece on him appeared in the WSJ recently:

Why Gingrich Could Win

Speaking of Joe Paterno, the aging football coach at Penn State University recently involved in a sex scandal cover-up, I only speak of him because my brother and sister are both Penn State graduates. Many loyal fans, including student rioters on campus, do not think he should have been fired. Many of these have not heard the explicit details of what was a heinous crime (read about Victim 2 in the Grand Jury Report, linked below). Paterno, McQueary, et al, will be fortunate to avoid criminal charges on the matter, and that remains to be seen. Nasty business all around.

Grand Jury report

Have a great day.