Tuesday, January 11, 2011


Here we go again with another suspect killer. The disturbed young man who shot U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, killed six people and wounded eight others is now considered a suspect in the shooting. This insane act took place with a parking lot full of witnesses with three of them tackling the guy and removing his weapon. He is now merely a suspect or alleged shooter. What does it take to say the guy is the killer? It’s now going to cost the taxpayer thousands of dollars to convict this madman. He won’t get the death penalty, so he will spend a number of years behind bars and in the courtroom at out expense.

The same thing happened over a year ago with the Ft. Hood Shooter. He is constantly referred to as the suspect or alleged shooter. It took over a year to even have a military hearing to determine if there was enough evidence for him to stand trial. In the meantime, he has cost us thousands of dollars for his care as a paraplegic with a special medically equipped jail cell. This guy’s lawyer has drug the process out for over a year with one excuse after another.

I realize that folks should be considered innocent until proven guilty, but in some cases, when it is obvious who is guilty, the process shouldn’t require any other investigation. Cowboy justice should prevail. The Ft. Hood terrorist and the Arizona madman should merely be taken to the nearest tree and hung. Some innocent folks have been put to death because of false information, but in the case of the Ft. Hood and Arizona nuts, they should be disposed of as soon as possible.

Anyway, if they are going to put these guys behind bars and wait for months to bring them to justice, I just wish they would stop calling them a suspect or alleged killer. Maybe we should change the wording in everything else that is reported. When a baseball team wins four out of a projected seven game series should we call them the suspected winner? If a political candidate wins 75% of the vote should we call him the suspected winner? If a funnel cloud dips down from the sky and destroys a town should we say that a tornado was a suspect for the destruction? In obvious cases we should just call a spade a spade and be done with it.

As I sit on the porch and watch the deer denude my plants, I guess I should say they are a suspect for the destruction. It might be the hummingbirds who frequents my feeder. I know what would happen to me if I shot the deer. I would be arrested and given a very stiff fine. There wouldn’t be any suspect or alleged terms used in my arrest and penalty. Oh well, such is justice.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011


They are meddling with my hero and favorite author, Mark Twain. Today, it was announced that this so-called Mark Twain scholar is going to rewrite “Huckleberry Finn” and eliminate the N word. The book has been banned in many places for many years because the N word is offensive and considered racist. People have been talking about doing this for years and now the professor is going to substitute the word ‘Slave” for the N word. How brilliant, and what a way for him to make some bucks to supplement his paltry teachers salary and gain a little fame at the same time.

I have studied Mark Twain all my life and agree with Ernest Hemingway who said that all of American literature starts with the book “Huckleberry Finn.” Twain was the first truly American author. He captured the language of the people and addressed one of the greatest problems in our country, slavery. It is a book that is antiracist and antislavery. Like so many things with Twain, he pokes fun at our ignorance regarding the acceptance of different races and the evils of slavery. Huck and Jim address these problems on their boat trip down the Mississippi. Huck comes to realize that Jim is a human being like everyone else and he cares for his wife and children just like the white folks. Huck decided, he had just as soon go to hell, as to do what was considered right, and turn Jim in.

If this professor is going to sanitize Twain he has a lot of work in store. Twain had a pretty poison pen when it came to hypocrisy. He poked fun at almost everything in society, especially politicians. He also went after medicine, ministers, religion, health practices, charlatans and just about anything you can name. He wrote an entire book exposing Christian Scientist. He hated American Imperialism and was very critical of our government. He was especially tough on God himself, as well as most of the Bible. If the professor chooses to clean all this up, then we have no Mark Twain or at least one I wouldn’t care to read.

This professor is doing what Tom Sawyer did in his story. He is whitewashing. I plan to keep my old editions of Huckleberry Finn that are not whitewashed, and give me the true voice of Twain, and America at the time it was written. Twain is probably turning over in his grave with the news of today. If he were alive he would challenge the professor by rewriting the book himself with the title being changed to “Nigger Jim”.

There you have it. I have used this forbidden word in my blog. I’m looking for the police to appear on the porch any minute, along with representatives from the NAACP, and other organizations representing political correctness to ban my blog. If they show up, I will just say the N word over and over, even though in my heart I despise the word and feel the same as Huck Finn and Mark Twain. Twain hated political correctness, but would join me in reciting the word in 2011 because it brings into sharp and harsh focus the nastiness of prejudice and racism.

Monday, January 03, 2011


The Holidays have now passed. I had a great time, but am now exhausted and depressed. Our family is together a lot during Christmas and New Years, and we have a lot of fun, and eat too much. Our last family party is usually the Saturday after Christmas when we get together with my spouses brother, sister and their kids, grandkids and now great grandkids.

For us in Central Texas the end of the Holidays is an hour after the lighted ball in Times Square drops. In days past, we would listen to Guy Lombardo’s Orchestra play Auld Land Syne, and would sing along. Auld Lang Syne means “for the sake of old times.” They don’t play that song much anymore. All the entertainment on TV and in Times Square on New Years is Rock Music and Rap with deafening noise and words that can’t be understood. I sure miss hearing the melody of Auld Lang Syne coming from the saxophone of Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians.

The only familiar thing on TV is seeing the face of Dick Clark, although it is now distorted by his stroke. They have him sitting up and he utters a few unintelligible words with his paralyzed tongue. It’s almost pathetic, but it does remind me of times past.

One of my best New Years celebrations was several years ago. We attended an all Tchaikovsky concert by the Houston Symphony. Ever since, I have associated that great composer with New Years. That same year we stayed up all night with our friends, and ended with a big breakfast. I can’t do that anymore. If we stay up to see the ball drop, I likewise drop into bed and am asleep within a couple of minutes.

At my age, from now on, I think I will restrict my celebration to the porch. I will just keep the TV muted and play my old recording of Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo.