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Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

For my former IC classmates:

James Hamilton, M. D.

MM,

Thank you for posting. That was my father's favorite hymn which was sung at the conclusion of his funeral Mass at IC in 2004.

Jim 

John Maxwell

Mark Schweickart

Mike -- In describing your idyllic environment there in Orlando with your trre-triimming projects etc., you left out the description of nailing plywood over your windows and hunkering down in the bathtub each time a hurricane rolls through. Always a downside, isn't there? My lovely environment here in Los Angeles can equally turn nasty with wildfires and earthquakes. Still it's better than shovelling snow, I guess.

Michael McLeod

Right you are Mark.

https://www.orlandomagazine.com/writing-out-the-storm/

David Mitchell

Mike,

Have a care.

.....,"having just come back from skimming the swimming pool in my back yard, where the gorgeous bouganvilla bushes are in bloom -- fuschia, mostly"

I think that might be considered hitting below the belt for our cold freezing "yankee cousins". 

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And Joe, I collected stamps and coins but never got into old "bills". That was pretty cool. My dad did have a few "silver certificates" and one old Confederate bill in his stamp collection.

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MM,

An all-time favorite hymn from dyas of yore. We marched out of OLP Sunday Mass to that hymn every single Sunday for years. The music I sing now is very different (drums, electric guitars and keyboard), but I think I could still sing all teh words to Holy God.

David Mitchell

Been kind of laying off while pre-occupied with a difficult personal drama - my young Romanian Physicain friend from Germany - arrested in East Texas - more on this story later - it's crazy!

But funny things still happend to bring a smile.

Tonight I was doing some airport pickups on my driving job. I get a guy coming in to Savannah that seemed like someone important from the agency that gave us the referral. He comes down the escalator and looks sorta familiar. Conversation during the 20 minute ride to his second home in dowwntown Savannah reveals that he is in the commercial making business. I got him all the way to the curb in front of his condo, and it hit me, I turned and asked ,,,,,,,,, 

James Hamilton, M. D.

For all you Southern types living in SC, FL, CA, part time in Mexico and other warm places, you are missing some beautiful snow in the colder parts of the country. It was all of 9 degrees when I awoke this morning but the sun and the blue sky contrasted nicely with all the white stuff on the ground. Fortunately, no new snow had fallen overnight, thus my snow blower and shovel was not needed. Soooo... that meant that it was time to grab my camera and head into North Cheyenne Canyon for a little photo session. I also stopped by Bear Creek Nature Center (shhhh...don't awaken any hibernating bruins!) for a few shots.

So far this year we have had about 31" of snow here in the city. The high country has been so inundated that one of the ski areas earlier this week had to close for a day due to -- get this -- too much snow!

Enjoy your tropical drinks. For me I'm going to have a Guiness.

Jim

Michael McLeod

love that shot at the bottom Jim.

Joseph D. McCarthy

Fantastic article Mike.  Felt I was there. 

Jim, are you sure that bottom photo wasn't taken just West of High street near the Olentangy River?

This morning i woke with a good feeling.  Then I read in this mornings Press Democrat (Sonoma County, CA) that Jon Provost of Sonoma County was giving a talk.  It stated that he was turning 70 next month.   IMMEDIATELY I began to feel old.  Jon Provost starred as TIMMY on the Lassie show.  Now were old.

I said Moning paper out of habit.  How many remember the Citizen Journal in the Morning and the Columbus Dispatch in the afternoon.  In the San Francisco bay area we use to have the a morning and afternoon paper.  Things change, and we get "Younger".

Joe

David Mitchell

Been so busy lately I almost forgot; (3 nights ago)

I got to visit with Mary Ann (Nolan) and her husband Jeff at the opening night "dinner" of the Beaufort Film Festival. Brief, crowded, and noisy, but had a really enjoyable time. Mary Ann and Jeff used to own one of Beaufort's old historic Inns and some of the Hollywood people who atted this small (but growing) film festival have been guests at the Inn a number of times. 

I think Blythe Danner is one of that group of former guests. She is now on the "board" of this film festival. She first came to Beaufort to film "The Great Santini" (written by Pat Conroy) with Robert Duval. I always thought that was a pretty darn good film.

Mark Schweickart

Joe -- My first paper route was carrying the morning paper, The Ohio State Journal, but as luck would have it, the following month that paper merged with the afternoon Columbus Citizen to become the Columbus Citizen- Journal and my route instantly doubled in size. It was a tough first week trying to fit all of those extra papers into my bicycle's rear canvas saddle bags (remember those?) and finding all of the new customers now aded to my route. Fortunately, shortly thereafter my route was divided in half, and it became manageable again. What was never manageable for this fifth-grader was getting up at 4:30 AM each morning.

Timothy Lavelle

Doesn't it appear like the Dems are waiting for one presidential candidate to walk on water? I hope they will begin to recall the rule that applies when two people are faced with a cougar. Outrun your buddy. 

Every Republican will vote. Every last one of them. They have been insulted, ridiculed and their main man has been the source of more humor and antacid than anyone since Nero practiced on the strings. They are feeling threatened (a little!) at how life would change without...hey, I saw a joke...a photo of Trumpy had a haircut just like Kim Il Jung and  the caption below it gave his Korean name, Wun Dum F*k. They will come out in unprecedented numbers to keep Mr. F*K doing what he does to the dishonor of this country.

Can I suggest that Dems start today to get organized to get every last voter to the polls. Buses, cars, strollers, leashes, walkers...whatever it takes. No Obamacare computer rollout debacle, no Iowa fiasco. To beat the cougar, you only have to be to one step faster than your buddy. Not Jesus.

I'm Tim. I approve this message. 

Party on.

Jeanine Eilers (Decker)

Tim--Outstanding.  We are doing our best to follow your advice.

Frank Ganley

To my learned friends from moose creek. For eight years those of us who support conservative values have had to endure complete economic stagnation with no payroll increases, the stockbroker barely s able to make s profit, f forced to abandon our private heath care and go with a plan that not only tripled or more the cost of insurance but also a h hefty fine for those that did not enroll in this farce. With the administration going around apologizing for all Muslim nations even to the extent of Bowing down to their leaders,  claiming anything that was built was because of the government building it. Higher taxes and complete abandonment of anything that would stop racial discord. No president caused such a rift in race relations, little or no support for black communities. He was without a doubt the worst president who had the greatest of opportunity to cure these problems. He proclaimed that isis was a jv team only to have isis expand to be a with the world threat. To delivering a plane load off cash (over s billion dollars) which was used by them to support terrorism and world  unrest. Then came the election which every dem Knew that Clinton would walk away with the presidency. Opps! But wait clinton didn't win and immediately the plans to impeach started over 3 years of lies and false investigation started with out government strangled with this investigation led by proven liar, schift. No one hated our president more than shifty. Dispute all these imaginative roadblocks put in trumps way he never was slowed. the economy grows at over 3%  eve month and no inflation ! Wages grew for the first time in over 8 years. The stock market has risen by over 10,000 points causing every one with a 401k to see growth in their nest eggs to explode in value. He's regained the respect of every nation by proving we are and bringing o lon taxes ger the worlds pasty. He has created more jobs than any other president to the extent that every category of workers are enjoys the lowest amount of unemployment in our history. Lowers taxes in both business and personal. By doing this companies returned to usa. No more making something oversee and bringing them back here with no taxes.. according to oblabla manufacturing was dead and the only was to bring it back was with s magic wand, nice and President Trump. I have said before that the only r reason you hate trump is because of his past. Who cares what he did or didn't do, its all political crap. Just think of what he has done to make America great. Allow this man to govern with out all this bias.. now who in dem party would be able to continue this economic growth etc. my question to ask democratic classmates: why do you support dems and hate trump so much.. for what he has done for "we the people"  he has made us safet, richer and allowing our citizens a true path to happiness. What will the dems run on, hate trump, college for all, forgiving college debt, medicare for all even for those here illegally open borders allowing criminals to enter, dangerous drugs to enter our country. Not pot but fentinal, heroin et al. Your candidates are weak radical and unamerican. Why should we put up with that. With world peace on our doorstop's let us not abandon the path we are on and return to higher taxes, more restrictions on business' and crippling our economy. Now is the time to come to the aid of our country. 

Michael McLeod

I think it's interesting, Frank, that you ask us to forget Trump's past, while at the same time you want to talk about Obama's past - rather, the fictional past: that plane-load of money for terrorists - based on a bona fide mistake involving $200,000 - is a figment of calculated political disinformation. Even if it weren't this a logical fallacy that I see the right getting away with time and time again - HE did it! So let us away with it! I couldn't have gotten away with a bullshit line like that on the playground. Why do adults insist on trucking it out?

(Answer: because it works on gullible people.)

It's also just a flat-out falsehood to say that Trump has earned respect from other nations. Au contraire, mon classmate. There is objective evidence in the form of surveys of the rank and file populace of various European nations, and plenty of evidence that their leaders think of him as a bozo. Could compile a dossier for you on that score but you've got an internet connection. Use it.

This is all apart from the book-burning vindictiveness and pardoning of cohort white collar criminals that we see in him lately. Look up "democracy" in any dictionary. Also "dictators."

Timothy Lavelle

Frank,

I am a satirical jerk, yes. But claiming I live in Moose Creek, instead of the metropolis of Mossyrock is really hurtful...Moose Creek only has 63 people and M-rock has almost 200.

Politically, I understand your view. Your informed ideas strike me as well thought out and historically accurate. In that vein...

Today, I announce to the world the "Memorial to the 1941 Japanese Pilots". I am proud to admit that like Pepsodent Trump single-handedly ending the second deepest recession of the last 100 years, we must honestly thank those Nipon pilots for bringing our country into WWII...it was their attack on Pearl Harbor that ended the Great Depression. We will ignore the democrats New Deal back then and the 2009 Recovery Act in support of your logic. We will ignore the slow crawl up out of bad times that took place for eight years before your man was voted in by 3 million less votes than his competitor. 

Is it because he plays golf Frank? 

I am sort of stuck, believing in old sayings like I do. So, I support your personal approval of Wun Dum because we need "some". Otherwise how could we believe that you truly can fool "some of the people all the time".

I am sure it is difficult to fathom, if you did not do any military service, how an easy ego-driven mistake by an old fart can cause memorials with lengthy lists of names. Obama was elected in part to stop our people being killed in the Middle East. (Damn those missing weapons of mass destruction of your Bush and Cheney)  Not spending soldiers lives needlessly  doesn't matter to a lot of people but it has resonance to some of us.

And, you are certainly correct that Obama did not do as much as he could have for the black community. Think about it for a moment...imagine what you crackers would have said if our first non-white president gave any bias or freebies to people in obvious need of a damn break. All he gave them was a deep abiding pride in a man who represented them in a style reminiscent of our best leaders. 

Thanks for correcting my foolishness Frank. Nine months and counting.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Yes Tim, some of us are "threatened"......we are threatened by the socialist agenda of the Democratic party.  Socialism destroys personal initiative and replaces it with State control.  It violates private property by calling for a redistribution of what one has earned through taxation by the powerful, to whomever those in power deem downtrodden or oppressed.  The fundamental assumption of socialism sees any inequality as unjust in itself, even though there is no such absolute equality achievable.  We humans all possess various abilities, talents, life experiences, etc. etc. that will ultimately determine our successes or failures.  However, socialists see only victims who need the State to protect them from themselves. 

Socialists disregard the idea that there are absolute truths or revealed morals that define standards of conduct that apply equally to everyone and always.  Rather, they believe that everything evolves, including right and wrong, good and evil.  In the process of seeking to eliminate "injustice", socialism actually creates injustice by destroying true liberty. How does it do this?  By transferring rights and responsibilities from individuals and families to the State.  In order for the central planners of a socialist-styled government to secure for themselves the reins of power, they must necessarily deny its citizens' the freedom to decide all matters that lie within their own individual competence and to follow the course shown by their own reason, within the laws of morality and the principles of justice and charity.

Socialism feels good, but it does not do good.  

James Hamilton, M. D.

Although I have been trying to avoid discussing political topics recently, I'll just add this and then maybe consider at least giving it up for Lent.

Let's take the people who carry the banners out of the picture for a moment and concentrate on the banners themselves. It appears that when we vote this fall for not only the Presidency, but also other positions and issues in federal, state and local offices, we will be choosing a very well defined direction in which we want our country to proceed. And the overshadowing banner at stake will be continuing a capitalistic approach or begin a socialistic approach to the problems we face. Of course, there are other banners being carried but, in my opinion, this is the most Important and the one that will have the most dramatic effect on the future of life in the United States.

I think we should all keep this in the forefront of our minds as we consider the candidates and the issues. 

Jim 

David Mitchell

Golly this is gettin' fun again!

Frank - I beg to differ on two points;

1) the Tax "Cut"  - although the brackets were lowered, the brackets levels were adjusted, leaving some people caught in higher, instead of lower tax liability rates. And some deductables were removed, so that people like me who earn at the second lowest rates saw a rather nasty raise in our taxes. My income went down considerably from 2018 to 2019 and I saw an $800 increase in my taxes.

I guess you'd say I "missed the cut".

And while on the subject, this tax cut has ballooned the deficit like never before, making prior deficit spenders like Obama, Bush II, and Ronald Reagan seem like budget breaking boy scouts.

Man, I feel old. I am so old I can remember waaaay back when Republicans gave a damn about the budget - but I guess that only matters when Dems are in office. Who cares anyway? That'll be our "gift" to the grand kids.

2) Gaining respect of other nations:

Are you kidding?  What other nations?  Surely none of our allies in Western Europe. You remember those folks - those folks we have fought for, and traded with, and and been close friends with for decades! My friends in England, Hungary, and Germany cannot stand him - and they are conservatives.

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And Tim,

For Pete's sake, you completely forgot your "and".

As in -  "I am Tim, AND  I approved this message."  Pu-leeease!

p.s.

I bet the caucuses in Mossyrock are some real hum-dingers. I heard the winner comes away with a pint of beer and a new riding mower.

David Mitchell

A true story - a nightmare!

While we are all baring our political fangs at one another, here is an ongoing story that will really give you shivers regarding our "justice" system.

As I alluded a week or so ago, I have a young friend in deep, deep legal trouble that is so complicated that it bogges my mind. This may seem a bit long but there is a Catch -22 at the end that wil really shock you - and it is very political - and current.

A little history:

My young friend is an ethnic Hungarian, Romanian, from the town of Targu Mures, Romania.

We met about 14 years ago in my men's group at church. He played basketball with us. Then he went back to Romain and finished Medical School after being gone or 7 years. I helped out a bit with that. After graduating, he and his new bride (also a doctor from he same "Medical College of Targu Mures") moved to Germany where they make a LOT more money than the $250/mo maximum allowed for interns in Romania. He is a Neurologist/Psychiatrist, and she is a Child Psychiatrist - at the same hospital in West Germany.

He's always been quite gulllible and prone to accidents, mis-haps, mis-understandings, speeding tickets, even getting the wrong meal at a restaurnt - repeatdly, etc. We all joked that he walked under a dark cloud. It seems to go on, and on, ever since we all got to know him.

He comes back to stay with me every year for one week to keep his residency card up to date and a also pass his medical exam fo his local CDL (Commercial Drivers License) - seriously, like he's gonna quit his medical practice and come back here to drive a truck?

We call this (jokingly) "Eastern Bloc" thinking). They are afraid every situation will eventually turn out badly. It comes from the experience of living in the corrupt societies of Eastern Europe. 

So he arrives here this year and has a rental car. He decides to drive over to Texas and visit an old friend from back home in Targu Mures. She's divorced and lives with a boyfriend in a small town in East Texas, where they run a business together. She asks him to take some money back home to her impoverished parents (as are his parents and his wife's parents).

So, like the gulible idiot that he can be, he agrees to take $8,500 CASH - back with him in the car.

Driving a bit over the speed limit through Clarksville TX (in the county of Red River - between Paris and Texarkana, he gets pulled over.

So picture two young small town cops who have an out-of-state license, rental car, driven by a guy with a foriegn accent. They search the car and find $8,500 cash. You can imagine what red flag that raises. And while he is cuffed and in the second police car back (unable to see what they are doing) they test his Sam's Club orange juice bottle and find Meth. 

And he is one of tehmost honest and clean living souls I know. 

He gets charged with Possesion of AND Tampering with evidence, and locked him up for three days -without allowing him to have his blood pressure meds or his glasses. 

It so happens after a lot of reading by me and several of the other guys, that Red River county Texas has a history of being the most corrupt law enforcement in all of Texas. I spoke with the director of  one advocacy group in Austin - "The Texas Jail Project" - and she said, "Oh he doesn't have a chance in that part of Texas. That'ts he worst County in the worst part of the sate for this kind of thing."

I'll skip ahead (skipping a lot of scary detail here - about Sherrif Jimmy and the local DA that NYC justice advocay group "Above The Law" calls "very suspicious".)

** Here is the payoff. The old law stated that a foreign national who is "Convicted" of a felony in the US cannot leave the country and ever return. Okay - harsh but understandable - I guess.

But President Trump signed an "executive order" some time back that changes that law.

It is now such that if a foreign national who is merely "Accused" of a felony in the US, they may not leave the country and ever return. 

I believe this is totally unjust and unfair - uncionsionably immoral! It flies in the face of "innocent until proven guilty" - a basic tennant of our legal system.

So here is his situation. He is waiting his trail date (which could take years), while his Hospital calls every day asking when he will get back home, (I think his job must be on the line).

Hs wife calls - she wants out of the marriage, and cannot pay all the expenses and mortgage herself.  

HIs freind in Texas (the one who gave him the $8,500) is out that cash AND $15,000 bail that she posted for him (wiht 3 credit cards), AND part of this lawyer's $8,000 fees (she engaged the lawyer herself).

BTW, the Bail Bondsman said "Don't you dare hire an attorney from this county or you'll never get a fair trial." 

He cannot leave the country, go home and save his carreer and his home, and return to defend himslef. He would surrender all of her cash and the bail bond and some legal fees. 

It is a no win situation. We all keep telling him he needs to get on a plane to Germany and get back on his paycheck - with the promise to pay his friend back over time. And never return.

But he is stubborn - - and VERY SCARED !

(and here under foot all day long - with me - and broke)

David Mitchell

Boy, have I ever made a lot of phone calls and learned a lot about these totally unjust and widely abused laws about "search and seizure". They keep the money even when they don't get a conviction.

And one of the guys here sent me an investgative article from the Greenville, SC newspaper about how widespread the practice is here in South Carolina. Some absolutely frightening stuff about police abuses of this law - Yikes! 

Michael Boulware

Sue and I have a grandaugter that happens to be on the same field hockey team as Jodelle Sim's grandaughter. Their team won the U14 National Championship held in Pennsylvania. Naturally; Sue, Jodelle, and I claim to have superior athletic genes and passed them down to our grandchildren. Thanks for this bragging opportunity.

Their names are Rylee Steinbeck and Alayna Bogner. 

Mary Margaret, you confused Communism and our form of Socialism. We need Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare,Internal Improvements, The Armed Forces, Public Education, Libraries, Welfare, and other agencies critical to our society. We can still have private business and free enterprise while our government funds the departments we need. We tried to privatize prisons and our Army; it just did not work.

I agree with you that Communisn " destroys personal initiative" , but our brand of socialism is a democratic form, controlled by voters.

Joseph D. McCarthy

Congratulations to your Granddaughters Mike and Jodelle.  They might NOT have superior athletic genes, but they are Superior Atheletes.  Way to go.

Joe

Michael McLeod

Thanks for making that distinction, Mike.

I would have been a lot windier.