One battle line drawn

Listening to Barack Obama's speech last night, I knew I was listening to a great orator. The senator from Illinois looks great on TV, is into text messaging, plays basketball, and gives a rock-concert-like show. How can he lose?

Lots of style and some substance. He actually gave a few details last night about his plans for domestic and international issues. Cut taxes on the middle class, establish health care for those that don't have insurance now, new educational programs, etc, etc. He says, to pay for it, he will review the federal budget line by line and cut wasteful spending..Two comments there: First, I hope he has longer than a four year term, as the last budget was almost 2000 pages long. That's a lot of editing. Second, let's hope he is not accepting campaign contributions from anyone he's about to cut funding off from; his war chest may just dry up if the special interests think their pork will be cut. So, that leave what the government has always done: Borrow and increase the national debt (a real good idea for his youth support contingent, as they will be left with the bill in their middle age), or print more money, which will spur inflation and further weaken the dollar overseas. None of this is new. Play his speech next to Bush's in 2000, Clinton's in 1992,...go back as far as you like. Same themes, pretty much the same issues (gay marriage is new, I'll put more on that at a later date) and same proposed solutions.

Folks, It is going to cost us dearly to dig out of this economic morass we are in, and I'm not talking about the housing "slump." As a nation we are drowning in a sea of debt, and we are running out of time to fix it. Fix the national debt and Social Security - which, by the way, are two separate issues. Fixing the debt requires old fashioned grandmotherly horse sense - don't spend more than you make. THAT will be painful. Special interests will have to get used to not feeding at the federal trough, and politicians will have to get used to not feeding them. Social Securrity will be additional pain - especially for me, I reach my sixties 10 years AFTER the trust fund will be depleted. Doing the math, the only way TO fix it is a combination of benefit cuts and tax INCREASES. The sooner we start, the less draconian the numbers for each individual. I'll do my part, if someone with character is elected to office and stands up to the pressure.

Out of the loop

I am going out of the loop for a while. Off to Southwest LA to "stand in the breach" for whatever comes that way. I'll try to get a few words in or a pic here and there, but because I'll be working don't look for it here. I blog about work at www.myspace.com/ffpm311. See ya when I get back.

Look out Mark, here comes Fay

It will be interesting to watch the media during the coming week.

The 2008 Summer Olympics has been the lead story every night on the NBC Nightly News. Little doubt, since Brian Williams and most of NBC's A-team staff are in Beijing. And the performance of the American Olympic team has been for the most part spectacular, and always courageous. Mark Phelps is about to dethrone Mark Spitz as the champion swimmer of all time, and deserves all the accolades. The lip synching controversy and questions about the ages of Chinese gymnasts have been duly reported, then rendered subservient to the sports. Families are together again in front of the TV, they say, dashing to the fridge during breaks. NBC is waving the American flag this week, and smiling all the way to the bank with ad revenues.

And literally half a world away, off the south coast of one of the worlds last remaining bastions of Marxism, a small tropical storm churns off to the west. Meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center and elsewhere glance at the Games during breaks in analyzing the stream of data now starting to come in on the storm. At the moment, the West Coast of Florida seems the likely target, possibly as far north as the Big Bend area.

(A side note: Such a sharp right turn was predicted for the "K" storm of 2005, but happened a day later than predicted. On the morning of August 26, landfall was predicted for Destin, Florida. Twelve hours later, the Louisiana/Mississippi border was the center of the cone. Let not your guard down just yet.)

With the "A" team positioned antipodally from the action, will anyone notice if a small Category 1 or 2 storm lands in Florida? My prediction: CNN, homebased in Atlanta (which stands to benefit from reservoir-replenishing tropical rains on the current storm track) has the most resources nearby to cover any landfalling storm. If this storm turns out to be major, young reporters could get their big breaks doing what they got in the business to do: Report the news with attention to detail and fact and a minimum of analysis. While no one wishes a big one...good for them.

What this is...

What, with all that's going on in the world right now, I decided to throw in my two cents worth (down to less than a penny at current exchange rates). Who am I? Well, in brief...male, mid forties (ouch), grown kids, a career paramedic and instructor in south Louisiana, USA. High school grad, some college, just getting back in school right about now. Interests outside EMS and fire service: Current events, moral issues, meteorology (the weather, OK?) , and outdoors type stuff - boats, ships, camping, fishing. And as like most in my field, I usually find myself working rather that doing the stuff I really like to do.

What can you find on these pages is a commentary on just about anything not EMS related. I have decided not to include that material here primarily because I spend so much time with it elsewhere, but also to defend against any confidentiality issues that may arise. Politics, current events, contemporary news items, defense of traditional values and culture are fair game, however. Although primarily a person of science, I am also intrigued by the theory that we (society) are headed to some type of major moral crossroads in the next four years, as suggested by the Mayans a few hundred years ago. The possibility that my generation is witness to the decline of another great power of history is a more secular view of the same concept.

Responsible comments and differing points of view are welcomed. I don't consider myself to be a very good debater, so don't expect to draw much fire. I will attempt to defend by opinions to the best of my ability. I will not respond to personal attacks on me or others. I eschew the so-called politics of personal destruction.

And finally, I am not sure where all this will lead, except to perhaps clarify my own thoughts and ideas about the world we live in by committing them to writing. The act of writing requires a greater organization than that of a fleeting thought in response to a sound bite. The electronic media, I believe, encourages shallow analysis; as a point is being pondered by the viewer/listener, the commentator is off to the next item. Oops, sorry, got started too soon!

(Picture caption: Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee, August 2008)