Passing the Bar

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is a graduate of that famous law school, The Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University.
by Charlie Leck

I find it strange that Congresswoman Michele Bachman has raised questions about Barack Obama and his law degree from Harvard. She never made clear why she doubted he could have done such a thing, but there was some kind of reference to the word “luck.” Obviously, if I can’t find the statement, I can’t nail down what she was getting at. I’ll keep searching, but if any of you remember this whole dialogue and can help me find it – well – please do!

The Congresswoman got her undergraduate degree from Winona State University in Minnesota. She began studying there in ’78. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and English.

President Obama began college at Occidental and ended up at Columbia University in Manhattan. From Columbia he went on to Harvard Law School and became the head of the Harvard Law Review in his senior year.

Congresswoman Bachman went on to Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University. Her’s was the last graduating class from that law school. It was closed down in ’86 after it lost its accreditation. The general skinny is that it was teaching too much religion and not enough law (but, in all honesty, I can’t source or document that). Then, it is said, she went on to William and Mary and got a LLD degree in tax law in ’88.

Barack Obama passed the bar examination shortly after leaving Harvard. So far, we can find no record that the Congresswoman has ever taken the bar examination (and, if she did take it, whether she ever gave it back). We’re trying to look into that here in Minnesota. It’s not an important matter because one can work for the IRS without having taken the bar exam (that’s a fact). And, that is what the Congresswoman did for a couple of years.

10:00 A.M. Addition to this blog!
A member of the MN Bar Assoc did confirm for me this morning that Michele Bachmann did pass her MN bar examination in 1986 and was then admitted to practice in MN. She is no longer authorized to practice law here but that
could well be that she has simply not continuted to pay dues while she is serving in Congress.

Let me retract my comments about her being a nut-case. I was actually trying to be funny (I shouldn’t do that). Instead I’m going to substitute the word “enigma.” Michele Bachmann is an enigma.

I’m pouring over information about her so that I can better explain her. I’ll do my damnedest to document, source and reference everything, but that isn’t going to be easy. However, I do know that some very good reporters are now trying to put together an accurate biographical background story about her.

I wonder if anyone has yet asked her to come up with a birth certificate to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was born in Waterloo, Iowa. I think it would be silly to ask for anything like that. No one would really do such a thing, would they?

My first recollection of the name Michele Bachmann came in connection with something just crazy – sorry, but it was just that – really crazy (see below)!

MinnPost, a first rate on-line news source up here in Minnesota, did a story some time ago about some of the kind of weird or enigmatic things she’s done. My favorite, of course, is this one…

The bushes
Early in her state Senate career Bachmann was caught spying on a pro-gay-rights rally by hiding behind bushes. This incident occurred after she was profiled in the Star Tribune and photographed vacuuming in heels (see LaFave's letter to the newspaper above).

If you want to read the entire 2006 MinnPost story you can find it here!

I want to say something positive about Congresswoman Bachmann. If she’ll be serious and use some caution in what she says (as she advised Chris Wallace to do after he asked if she was “a flake”), she can be a very powerful candidate. She shouldn’t be lumped in with the former Alaska governor. She’s brighter and quicker than that. She recently admitted that she occasionally misspeaks and admitted that she needed to be more careful. All that being said, I don’t think she can do that – that is, be serious and use some caution. She is not psychologically built that way and she’ll just keep misfiring and shooting herself in the foot.

Tomorrow I’ll have more about some of the Congresswoman’s most recent “misstatements.” Some of them are serious and very erroneous. Once these misstatements are planted in her followers' minds, it's very difficult to correct or erase them.

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Comments on “a Minnesota Corn Flake”

My “flat out crazy” description of Michele Bachmann really drew some rage!
by Charlie Leck

I make a practice of not publishing comments by people not willing to put a name on what they say. It’s easy to vent and rage against someone when you are not willing to reveal your identity. Anonymous comments tend to be rather nasty and mean – “tough guys” hidden behind the anonymous tag. That's been the case in most of the 22 comments that came in about my recent blog, Michel Bachman is a Minnesota Corn Flake. Most of them show me clearly the kind of people she appeals to most.

I’ve published the ones that included a name after the comment (even though those names might be fictitious, I suppose). Most the commenters, however, were not identified.

I feel guilty about not publishing the rest of the comments because they were so highly critical of me and really hacked at me and my writing skills. I don't want to appear to be closed to critique. So, here’s a summary…

“Write much? All I read is an angry old man who can’t stand to see a woman in power who speaks up. Back to the kitchen to make me supper where you belong…”

I’d like to tell this anonymous person that I was first on Hillary’s bandwagon in 2007. I’d also like to tell her I write a great deal and that I’m not an angry old man at all – old, indeed, but not angry. I just dislike Michele Bachmann intensely. And, I do prepare about 90 percent of the dinners around here.

“The same type of analysis could be done for any candidate with similar results and for the current president you could have a field day with misquotes and ignorance…” …from Alabama

This guy’s long comment was actually very good and I enjoyed reading it. I’d just like to tell him that our President does get his tongue twisted occasionally, but it’s not from stupidity and he doesn’t lie. We know Representative Bachmann up here and she has a history. She really is a “nut case!”

“This reminds me of Fred Armisen’s sketch in SNL where he just reads a headline and says ‘that’s crazy’ without any real analysis.”

Good stuff! I remember that sketch, too.

“What a demo idiot!”

I’ve been involved in a lot of demo occasions. I use to demo legal research for a big company out east and I demo naturally raised lamb meat to potential buyers. I do a pretty good job of it, too, and I’m not usually called an idiot.

“You should be embarrassed. You’re an idiot.”

Again with the idiot label! Two graduate degrees, anonymous, and plenty of people who respect me as an academic (but come to think of it, you’re probably correct because an awful lot of academics are idiots).

“Speaking of always getting it wrong… you can’t even spell her first name, so I’m embarrassed for you.”

This one hurt because the commenter is correct.

“That’s a great list. My favorite gaffe of hers was when she was talking about the ‘Hoot Smalley’ act. Not only did she get the name of it wrong, but it wasn’t passed under FDR like she had said… I guess we’re lucky she’s not a tax attorney.”

Yup.

“Can you write anything except ‘flat out crazy’? Try ‘insane’ or ‘mentally deranged’… You type like a second grader.”

Nope! Ooh, the comment about my typing hurt. I took two years of typing in high school and got straight As both years. Lord that was a fun class. Twin sisters were in the class with me and one sat on each side of me and we played footsy all the time – Mary and Agnes!

“You call Michelle Bachmann flat-out crazy but you think your ultimate destination is the edge of the universe and beyond? Ok, Woody. And you claim that there's only one rule and that is "to be kind". Then you call a mother of five a flake, a dumb-ass idiot, crazy, homophobic, a nut-case, and a witch. Do you understand that her children might read this? Do you understand that this screed might be hurtful to those that love her? You have no credibility. I pity your grandchildren..”

Ooooh! That’s a real smack. This comment came to me in an email from Richard Scheibel. He really takes me to task. I can only reply with the following…

I hope my grandchildren will be proud of me for standing up to a woman who lives by the lie. And you say I have no credibility. In a credibility contest between Ms. Bachmann and me, I will win going away. My destination? How about her belief that she is saved and will live out eternity with Jesus? Her claims are based on the literature of the Bible while mine are on the literature of Milton. Don’t be a literalist! We’re both talking about fantasy here. The woman doesn’t know the real, tough and merciful Jesus – the one who demands we feed the hungry and clothe the needy.

Enough with literalism! Even my small grandchildren are not literalists.

Here’s what I’ll guarantee you (or is it guaranty?): I’m watching Representative Bachmann like a hawk and I’ll report on every single one of her goofs and lies here. And, there have been plenty of new ones lately.

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Take a look at this fantastic midsummer night’s sight in Poland!
by Charlie Leck

On Tuesday last week, the community of Poznan, in Poland, established a new world record when they released 8,000 Chinese lanterns in celebration of the shortest period of darkness of the year – Midsummer’s Night. The lanterns rose into the sky, making an incredible and delightful sight and music played on in the background.

Watch the video below. I found this on my favorite web site, Open Culture, which is also currently featuring, in memory of Peter Falk (one of my favorite all-time actors), a scene from the movie Wings of Desire. One can get lots of free classic films through Open Culture. Right now you can also watch Andy Warhol eat a hamburger, which is quite an extraordinary sight. Visit Open Culture often at http://www.openculture.com

I hope my favorite Pole, Stanley (Stanislawa) Musial, gets to watch this video. He’s in his twilight years now but still the great slugger in my mind. I just finished reading George Vecsey’s wonderful book about him, Stan Musial: An American Life [read Hardball Times review of the book here]. Oh, how Stan the Man loves his father’s homeland. He’s built ballfields over there and contributed thousands of bats, balls, uniforms and St. Louis Cardinal paraphernalia to the kids of that nation.

A wonderful hometown friend of mine when we were kids, Charlie Adams, sent me the neatest signed Stan Musial poster a number of years ago and I love that thing. It just showed up in the mail one day. At the time, Charlie was a sports memorabilia dealer in Atlanta. I’ve since lost touch with him and I’m upset about that. If any of you know anything about Charlie, please let me know.

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The Big Money Earners in Minnesota

The widening gap between the filthy rich and the rest of us keeps getting wider.
by Charlie Leck

What was it Jesus said? “The rich will always be with us!” Anyway, it was something like that.

New reports came out in the last few days detailing the big compensation earners in Minnesota in 2010. Some business execs made HUGE amounts. How do I feel about it? Well, it makes me wonder why we need to cut back on the amounts we spend in our state on education, health care and services to those at the bottom of life’s pit.

How can the chief executive of a health care provider earn nearly 49 million dollars? That’s not a typo! Stephen Hemsley was has the helm at United Health Care Group earned $48,830,094 last year. The poor guy only earned half what he did in 2009 ($101,959,866). Now that really makes me sick!

The CEO at Target Corp took home over 25 million in 2010, which was three times what he earned in 2009. He gave a pot load of money to Michel Bachmann in 2008.

Now wait! Aren’t they telling us the economy is miserable shape and sales are off and jobs can’t be found for the ten percent of Americans who are unemployed? Something is very strident with this sound! Target’s chief triples his earnings last year. Oh, my!

George Buckley, over at 3M, took down more than 23 million. When I see that the CEO over at Xcel Energy made over 11 million dollars last year I know why my electric bill is so high.

Yet, the legislature and the governor are locked in negotiations about how to meet Minnesota’s budget without chopping away at services in our state. Honest to God, isn’t there something wrong with this music?

2011 Top Earners in Minnesota

Stephen Hemsley	United Health	$48,830,094
Gregg Steinhafel	Target Corp	$25,238,803
George Buckley	3M	$23,219,257
James Cracchiolo	American Finan	$18,829,062
John Wiehoff	C.H. Robinson	$14,098,034
Richard Kelly	Xcel Energy	$11,308,896
Randall Hogan	Pentair	$10,487,579
Douglas Baker	Eco Lab	$ 8,495,955
Jim Prokopanko	Mosaic Co	$ 7,580,165
Richard Davis	US Bancorp	$ 7,315,476
Daniel Starks	St Jude Medical	$ 6,520,270
William McLaughlin	Select Comfort	$ 6,495,989
Kendall Powell	General Mills	$ 5,903,904
Jeffrey Ettinger	Hormel Foods	$ 5,626,937
Michele Volpi	HB Fuller	$ 5,620,890
William Hawkins	Medtronic	$ 5,592,228

Above are your top 16 earners in Minnesota companies. There are another 33 who made over a million dollars last year while the country is in tough times.

This is only a fraction of the list of Minnesota’s wealthiest people who are earning big money from salary, investments, trusts or a combination of all these sources. Their willingness to pay a couple percent more in income taxes over the next two or three years would set Minnesota straight again and not cause us to reduce funds to education and health care in our state.

Oh, my!

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New York Votes for Gay Marriage

I’m celebrating this morning for good, old New York. How different it is from rural Minnesota and my small town.
by Charlie Leck

That small percentage inside me that is gay is rejoicing mightily this morning as I read in the NY Times that the state of New York has passed a law that will give gays and lesbians the right to marry and all the legal protections and benefits that go with marriage. Hooray!

An old friend of mine and an expert of matters of the Protestant Church and its relationship to gays and lesbians, many years ago, taught me a great deal about what it means to be gay. He theorized that each and every one of us has a percentage of our sexual makeup that is gay. It might be a very tiny percentage or it might be a large amount – and we’re born with it! Conversely, every individual who is gay has a percentage of the heterosexual within him or her. The individual who is truly healthy, when it comes to his or her sexuality, is the one who can recognize that and handle it well.

Now this will be controversial even among my readers. Can you imagine trying to convince the Michel Bachmanns of the world that this is true?

Those who rebel intensely against any homosexual tendencies or characteristics they might have inside themselves are the ones who often turn out to be intensely homophobic. Having had this thesis offered to me for thought, I have often observed those homophobes I’ve met with this in the back of my mind – and wondered. I’ve wondered about the basis of or for the threat these people feel. Why the lack of sympathy, understanding and tolerance? Why the fear? Why the loathing?

I’ve had the good fortune to have a number of gay friends in my life. They’ve taught me a lot and helped me understand that one’s sexual character or inclinations – one’s sexuality, if you will – is not very often a matter of choice. I tried to express that a week or so ago in a blog I called BORN THIS WAY. If you haven’t read that, and this subject interests you, you may want to go back and read it.

So, on this historic morning for the people of New York, I am having two conflicting thoughts. One is, of course, of great joy and sense of celebration that the legislature and governor of that state could muster the courage and bravery it took to do what is right. It is a shame to say that, but the opposition to the legislative action is vicious and even dangerous.

My second thought is about what we will face here in Minnesota in the coming year as the campaign heats up about the ballot initiative to amend the constitution of our state to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. The campaign will be a difficult one and, at times, vicious and cruel. My chips are in and I’m committed to work against such an amendment because of the ignorance behind it.

I live in an area or region within this state that is extremely conservative. Most of my neighbors out here are instinctive and knee-jerk conservatives. This issue of gay-marriage is one they won’t even discuss. They dismiss the possibility out-of-hand. Nope! Never! Impossible! It is difficult to even have a discussion of sexuality because the subject is often regarded as taboo.

I remember one of my first and dearest gay friends. I’ve written about him here before. I met him in the late 60s and spent quite a few hours talking to him about the agony his parents were going through because of his femininity and obvious gay nature. My friend’s mother totally blamed herself; and his father was willing to agree with that assessment. I went with him on the long drive to his hometown and his parent’s house one day. They had agreed to sit down and discuss the subject. It took only a few minutes for the father’s fuse to burn down and he exploded on me and drove us both from “his” house, telling his son never to return. Within a few weeks, my friend was dead. He decided he could not go on living in such estrangement .

This is the complexity of this extraordinary issue. Oh, that we could celebrate love between human beings! That is what the legislation in New York State does. Hooray!

I’ve had chats with God about this and I’m convinced that He/She is on the side of allowing humans to love one another as fully and completely as they can.

Now, it’s on to Minnesota!

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The State of the State

Things aren’t too good here in Minnesota right now and here are some of my observations about the state we’re in!
by Charlie Leck

Busy food shelves ahead!
This spring’s massive flooding of spectacular farmland along the Mississippi in Illinois and Missouri is going to seriously impact both food supply and food prices in America. In Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas, massive and persistent amounts of rain are also taking a toll. Take note: food prices will be high this summer and fall – and probably right through the winter. As we know, they are high enough already. The average family will again need to increase the percentage of their income that goes to food.

Local food shelves will become important institutions in every community across the land. There will be more hungry people. I encourage you to give generously – as generously as you can – to your local food shelf. I’ve found it more sensible to give money rather than food products to our food shelf. That way they can make the determination on what they need to fill their shelves. In our giving, we budget $700 each year for the food shelf. We’re going to try to raise that amount this year to meet the coming food crisis.

Tim Pawlenty’s and Michel Bachmann’s positive national numbers rise!
Oh, my! The 2012 political campaign, which is already underway when we aren’t even half way through 2011, is going to eat away at my stomach lining. How can the American public (at least the Republican portion of it) look favorably on Michel Bachmann as a presidential candidate? I truly believe America must be going crazy! The woman is a lame brain, paranoid and slightly imbalanced. The only thing I can hope is that she will shoot herself in the foot enough times that she will no longer seem an attractive presidential possibility. It is to Minnesota’s shame that we contribute these two politicians for your consideration. I’m sorry!

The great state of Minnesota may shut ‘er all down on July 1…
Our Republican led bicameral legislature and our Democratic Governor cannot agree on a budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. That’s the first day of the July 4th weekend. Happy Fourth of July. Our constitution does not allow the appropriation of funds without a fully approved budget. State parks and camp grounds will close down. State highway crews will not be working. The question about state prisons and police services will probably be decided by the courts. What will happen to state mental institutions and homes? What about veteran’s services and homes? How about the state crime bureau?

The blame game has already begun here in Minnesota. Republicans are blaming the Democratic governor and the governor is blaming the Republican controlled legislature. A district judge up here brought the gavel down hard on both of them and told them to stop playing games and get back to the table to negotiate a settlement.

“There will be private businesses that will not survive,” she told the lawyers for both parties and a packed courtroom, “and there will be families who will not be able to pay their mortgages.”

“The courts can’t become the Legislature,” she said at another point and then added: “We can’t become the executive branch. I am not happy about this.”

The judge likened what’s going on up at the state capitol to “a game of chicken.”

Mark my words! If this state government shuts down on the first of July, for even a day or two, the voters will figure out who to blame in the 2012 legislative election races and a lot of people over there in St. Paul are going to lose their jobs.

The Republicans want to dramatically trim spending. The governor sees too many little people and important state projects being hurt by such cuts. He wants to raise taxes on the very highest income earners in the state – a relatively small percentage of people The Republican argument about such tax hikes was clearly made in MinnPost yesterday by Peter J. Nelson (a fellow at the Center of the American Experiment) and John Spry (an associate professor in the department of finance at the University of St. Thomas). I’ll give it to you here in a nutshell but I’ll also state emphatically that I don’t believe it. [If you want to read the entire article, click here!]

“According to mainstream economic thought, the trouble with raising state tax rates on a narrow tax base springs from the incentives higher tax rates create for taxpayers to avoid additional tax payments.

“Taxpayers can avoid state income taxes through tax shelters, working less, making fewer taxable investments, or by moving to a lower tax state. Each tax avoidance avenue, in its own way, makes it harder for poor and middle class workers to find well-paying jobs in Minnesota.’

Come on! I just don’t buy it! Most high-income people I talk to are asking for higher taxes because they want to help out in this situation. The legislature can put a sunset clause on these tax hikes and have them end automatically in two years. I’ll gladly give up my golf trip next winter and pay a few more thousand in taxes in order to help out!

The state of the state right now ain’t too good – to put it bluntly!

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The Sheep are Out!

How do you like getting a phone call at two in the morning? One's heart skips a beat or two when it happens.
by Charlie Leck

When our kids were teenagers we occasionally got those two in the morning phone calls. I thought those days were over. As tough as it was raising teenagers, I'd take them to sheep any day!

The sheep got out last night. The phone rang at about 2:30 a.m.. I had a hard time shaking myself awake. A local policeman sweetly told me that he had a group of about 60 sheep up on the highway and he figger’d they were ours.

“Okay,” I told him, “we’ll be right up there!”

For some reason, recollections of Fargo, the movie, were playing themselves over in my mind. I nudged the wife from her sleep.

“Sheep are out then, don’t you know – up der at the end of the road, at the County Road!”

She replied with something unglamorous that I can’t really put in print here, but I can tell you her feet hit the floor before the last of the obscenities were out of her mouth.

I rolled out as well and stumbled around trying to find some proper clothing. I could hear the rain pelting the windows. It’s rained pretty steadily for the better part of a week up here and there’s been an abundance of rain for pretty much all of the last two months. Everyone is sick of it and I expect the sheep might have been also.

The wife was rumbling toward her mud room where she keeps her sloshing boots and stuff.

“Probably went off, up der, lookin’ for higher ground then, you think?” I hollered after her as she went. “Ey?”

She neither saw nor heard any humor in the situation, ey?

“I’ve got to grab some buckets of feed,” she said.

“Okay, then,” I replied, “I’ll go up der to the highway then and speak to the pole-eese man!”

I can be stupid when I’m awakened from a hard sleep by a clanging telephone. I pulled on trousers and found one of my golf rain suits and headed for my car. The sheep had gone north and crossed the county highway and gotten on to the Pioneer Creek Golf Course. The police car was parked dead in the middle of Copeland Road, right at the entrance to the course’s clubhouse. The sheep were all huddled in fear at the side of the road and just on the edge of the course.

“Fine thing to be doing at three o’clock in the morning,” I said to him. “The little woman will be here in a minute or two with some buckets of feed. They’ll probably follow her home.”

I felt like singing Mary had a Little Lamb! I didn’t.

He was in a good mood and just chuckled. I supposed it beat some of his usual tedious chores – like cruising the local roads and highways, looking for erratic drivers. He thought the two of us might start herding them right down the road and back across the highway and then on down to our farm. He flashed a search light at them and tapped some kind of horn.

The sheep bolted further on to the golf course and settled in alongside the fourteenth green in a small swale. They weren’t interested in the lush grass. They were frightened and didn’t have the slightest idea where they were or what was going on.

I have a history with the sheep on this farm – one that goes back a number of sheep generations. They’ve never liked me. They see my kisser and just bolt in the other direction. I’ve written some long ditties about my relationship with them. I’ve chased them through corn fields, the stalks and ears of corn whacking me in the face and head, and I've tromped through swamps cussing and trying to get them to obey my commands – all to no avail. I knew I wouldn’t fare any better on this dark, wet night.

I explained that to the policeman and said it might be better to just wait for my wife. She arrived on our Traxter – an ATV with a dump bed in the back of it. She’d loaded four big buckets of ground feed. The sound of the ATV startled the sheep and they moved further out on the golf course. She got off and walked out into the darkness toward them.

“Sheepy, sheepy, sheepy,” she called out to them, dumping a bit of the feed in the tall rough behind the fourteenth green. They stood looking at her, but they also watched the police car and me out of the corner of their eyes. They moved further west, down the fourteenth fairway.

The policeman thought I should take the ATV and drive out on the golf course to herd them back east, toward the road.

“Then we’ll just herd them straight down the road toward your place.”

“You betcha!” I slipped back into Fargo mode as I thought about just how simple he was making the effort sound.

The golf course, I knew, was awfully soft and wet. I didn’t want to go near any of the greens, tees or fairways with that ATV. I knew the course well enough that I drove up the road to the parking lot and then found the macadam path that led down to the driving range that went out along the fifteenth fairway. I drove west in the driving range, figuring I couldn’t damage that too much. I saw lights come on in the house way out on the west end of the golf course. It was the owner of the place and I could imagine she was watching the light on the ATV and got on the phone right then to the police or to her course manager, telling one or both of them that there was an invasion going on out on the course.

I managed to get the sheep turned back east. I stayed pretty far behind them, but they kept moving back toward the road.

From there, the chief shepherd, my wife, again tried to urge them to follow her down the road toward home. Something spooked them (probably I) and they headed east instead, out into a big, dark farm field. This was a field I knew nothing about and I explained that to the copper. I’d had a recent hip replacement and I wasn’t going to subject it to a ride on an ATV across wet, soft land that I knew nothing about. He suggested he would give it a try.

The golf course superintendent showed up in his pickup truck while the policeman and my wife were wandering invisibly around out in the dark field. I pointed into the blackness. The rain continued and I was getting more and more unhappy about my strained relationship with these sheep. The two of us stood in the road, talking about what we might do to help, when the sheep came wandering back out of the field and crossed the gravel road and proceeded back out on to the golf course. The policeman and the ATV followed along behind them, but the poor guy had no idea what he might do to turn them south and down the road toward our farm.

We all looked hopelessly out into the dark, dark golf course. The rain kept falling steadily.

“I know the course well enough,” the superintendent said, “so I’ll go get one of our maintenance carts and see if I can herd them back.” He headed north, toward the big equipment shed.

My wife, on foot, now having walked several miles trying to get her sheep to follow her, headed off into the darkness again while the policeman drove out onto the course with the ATV. I could only hope he knew enough about golf to stay away from those expensive greens. I got into my car and drove out to the highway to see if I could get a better view of what was happening on the course. Nothing, but the small light on the ATV moving around in an aimless sort of way!

I drove along the roads that went around the edges of the course, all the way west and then all the way north, then east and then south again. Suddenly I saw the light of the ATV and it was on the other side of the highway, slowly heading down the road the led to our farm. Hooray! I pulled into the maintenance shed and told the superintendent that they were on their way home. I drove slowly south, staying a respectable distance behind the policeman who still drove our little ATV. It took awhile, but they made it safely back and the old farm woman got them into a fenced-off area.

I’d contributed absolutely nothing to the entire project. I could have just as well stayed in bed and escaped the rain and mud. However, I was extremely pleased at the effort and patience the police officer showed. He was a regular guy and it’s good to know our town has got people like he protecting and serving us.

As for me, I’m a bit grumpy today. I thought I’d crawl in and take a good nap this morning, but a roof repair crew showed up first-thing this morning and they’re banging around up there, making so much noise that a guy couldn’t possibly sleep – even if he counted sheep!

“Gosh, dang it then, anyway!”

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NATO and Robert Gates

NATO is weak by design, I think!
by Charlie Leck

Have you ever looked at a list of the member nations of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization)? I hadn’t until a few days ago – as I reflected on the recent critical remarks by the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, about NATO’s poor showing in Afghanistan and Libya.

There are 28 independent member countries, from Albania to Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. (NATO maintains a web site that includes, among other interesting stuff, a list of the member nations.)

Gates steps down any day now that the Senate has approved his successor. In a kind of “valedictorian” speech last week, he criticized NATO for not being strong enough and for not spending more money on its military capabilities.

The fellow should review history a little bit. It’s been U.S. policy not to let most of the nations within the NATO alliance get too strong. We’ve had a painful history with war in Europe and our general game plan was to have an alliance over there, but, aside from the United Kingdom and France, we didn’t want those countries to have too many military capabilities.

I don’t know if Gates was talking off the cuff or with presidential approval when he bemoaned the military weaknesses of NATO in Libya. The fact is that we are to blame for NATO’s limited military expenditures and I’m not sure it wasn’t the correct policy to follow. Nevertheless, there probably are going to be a number of hot situations in the future where NATO assistance would be a good thing. The problem is that any additional funds to expand its military power will probably need to come from (you guessed it) America.

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Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.

Rory and Tiger

I don’t mean to brag, BUT…
by Charlie Leck

It was more than two years ago when I wrote here about Rory McIlroy’s golf game and I told you to watch out for him…

“Rory McIlroy may become the next hot-shot, professional golfer. He doesn’t have the poise of Tiger Woods, but Rory McIlroy is a phenom! He has all the talent in the world and he seems to have a good head about him also. He’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. And, he's only 19 years old.”

Now, I’m no dummy and I know one can’t yet compare Tiger and Rory… one major championship is a long way from the 14 Tiger has and a long way from Tiger’s 96 wins world-wide. Yet, this kid is something special and deserves our attention. I am hoping Tiger recovers in both body and mind and can come back to compete at a high level. I’d love to see these two go head to head.

Have patience! My next blog will be about NATO and Secretary Gate’s recent criticism of that organization’s strength or lack of strength and why it just might be our fault.

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Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.

Twins Win!

The Minnesota Twins are on a roll and so is a young, extraordinary golfer!
by Charlie Leck

I will write yarely this morning, only to tell you that the Minnesota Twins, which began the season playing like they didn’t understand anything about baseball and with more players on the injury list than any other team, have now won 14 of their last 16 games and went 7 and 1 in their latest home stand. They just finished sweeping the San Diego Padres in interleague play.

If you are a Minnesota Twins fan you are probably telling me to shut up because I’ll likely jinx them! I hope you are not correct.

Let me tell you, I had a wonderful Father’s Day, switching between the Twins game and Rory McIlroy’s extraordinary win at the U.S. Open Golf Championship. What a day for a sports junky! I actually worked as I watched the game, getting our living room and dining room all spiffed up and rearranged for the coming attack of the grandkids and our children in two weeks time. This morning I ache all over.

I’ll get serious with my blog again tomorrow.

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Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.