1. Alcohol. While it is legal, it has caused more grief in this world than all the tobacco. Yet, today, alcohol is heavily advertised while no one can advertise tobacco. I could never live with myself if I tried to encourage anyone to drink what amounts to a slow acting poison. Some will say we tried prohibition and it didn’t work. That is true. However, do we need to go from one extreme to the other? Do we need to really have to allow people to make it look glamours. We can’t stop the use of it but we can stop the advertising of it, especially on TV where children are watching.
2. Gambling. There was a time that gambling was virtually outlawed. Now, governments, corporations and even some churches encourage it. Do we really want to encourage people to gamble when there we already far too many people who have real gambling problems. Moreover, when the states and corporation openly advertise a thing, it gives that thing an an element of legitimacy. Is that really a good thing.
3. Medicines or drugs. We have no reason to advertise even the legal drugs. If we have a real need for a prescribed drug, then the doctors can prescribe them without advertising them. We do not need to advertise drugs to those who do not need them.

When alcoholism is the number one drug problem in this country, why is it that we want to advertise it? When families are disintegrated by the parents losing the paycheck at the casino, do we need the glitter displayed in front of the habitual gambler every day. It does make me wonder how anyone can make their living ruining the lives of others. I have heard all the so-called reasons for it and, to me, they just don’t wash. I mean if I were to advertise any drug and it caused the loss of one person’s life, how could I live with it? How can anyone live with it?

My wife likes it warm. On the way out the other day, we walked by the 8000 BTU A/C and she felt the warm exhaust outside hitting her. She stood next to it and said how nice and warm it is. At first, I tried to ignore it. Then a thought occurred to me.

The problem with my thought is that the control panel is on the inside. If I turned the thing around so it exhausted inside, it would provide a lot of heat indoors, but I would have to go outside every time I wanted to change a setting.

Well, as I said, it is a thought. Maybe if they built A/Cs with separate control panels.

I understand the Starbuck’s has a new CEO who lives in Newport Beach, CA. Actually, that part is pretty good. Newport Beach is a wonderful place to live. I would like to live there myself. However, Starbuck’s headquarters and the CEO’s office is in Seattle.

I’m not a brilliant mathematician, but that’s a long commute. As near as I can tell, it takes him over 2.5 hours and that doesn’t include the time to and from the air fields. Well, at least he can sleep during the flight time.

I can’t help thinking I could propel my little Nissan Ariya a long time on the energy that plane burns in just one flight.

Well, it’s okay. I really don’t care.

What I want to know, who’s picking up that tab. That fuel is just part of the cost of flying that plane for 2.5 hours. Just one round trip… I don’t even want to think about it. It is a temptation to break the Tenth Commandment.

Forget his exact words, but he used, but he said he would never say something bad about…. He already did when he lied about his service.

When I went into the Marines, thousands were going to Canada to avoid service. When he refused to go to war, he put himself right in that group.

I was in the Marines 9 years. One of those years was in Vietnam. Admittedly, I was not in the jungle or rice patties. But I was, by definition in a war zone and I wore two ribbons because of it. I spent the time in the heat and I carried a rifle and live ammunition locked and loaded. I worked and lived in areas that had real bunkers and I spent a lot of time in them. I was on a guard post with rifle and grenades and I got wet in the rain and I walked in mud up past my ankles. I got eaten by mosquitoes and this man refused combat duty after spending 24 years supposedly at the ready to fight. Others went. He didn’t, even though, as a sergeant major, he would not have likely had much of a threat. With his rank, he would not have suffered the discomfort of his troops. Being in artillery, he would have been far removed from direct danger.

Walz has made all the military look bad. He let down the national guard. …and he disgraced his unit, especially considering his rank. If he were a private or even a corporal, that would be bad enough. However, he was holding the highest enlisted rank in the national guard.

More than that, he disgraced himself, which I hope will follow him for the rest of his life. Indeed, it should have disqualified him for any job in the military, let alone, to be in a position where he might command the military.

My wife had bad vision problems from her youth. When I met her, she had 20/1000 vision. At that time, contact lenses were very expensive, but we did agree to get her a set. Not only could she see better with them but it also seemed to stabilize her sight.

I will never regret paying for them. There are dozens of advantages to contacts beside appearance. I noticed one of the big ones is that she did not nearly spend as much time looking for the other glasses that she had a habit of misplacing. The fact was that without her glasses, she was legally blind. She had to bring things within 6 inches of her eyes to see it clearly.

Years later, I took her to have her eyes examined and while she was being examined, my younger son asked if he could have glasses. I started to say that he didn’t need glasses, but then paused. I, in essence, borrowed the eyechart. I had him stand at the line and had him read the letters on the chart. He had a hard time and got most of the letters wrong.

Wow. Did I ever get a lesson. I was under the assumption he could see fine. I mean he was in the second grade and was getting good grades. Could have knocked me over. It is only by chance I found out he was having big problems.

Tonight, I saw a story on the news about children entering school with eye problems, encouraging parents to have their sight checked. It is one of those times I really do suggest that the government get involved. By 4, certainly by 5, all children should have their eyes checked. It is for a variety of reasons, but certainly for reading. I would guess it helps in playing baseball too. I am sure it would have been much better if my son had glasses at least two years earlier.

Perhaps it could go further than that. Maybe pediatricians could perform a cursory check by age three. I know. They aren’t eye doctors. Still, how long does it take to check a three year old for basic vision. No since all the other kids get the head start in development.

Moreover, I have known children who were deaf or partially deaf and didn’t know it until second grade. They had learned to read lips on their own. Maybe one of the best things we can do for our youth is to check their eyes and ears before going to school. Considering we spend maybe ten thousand dollars a year educating them, surely we can spend 5 or 6 minutes on each to make sure they can see and hear.

At the very least, we can make sure all the stupid people like me can make sure to check our own kids. I mean, once my son could not read the eye chart, I knew he had problems. He saw an optometrist within minutes. A few days later, he had two pairs of glasses. He also had a repentant dad.