I just got my butt whipped on a video game by my ten year old grandson. That doesn't surprise me, since the reflexes I have left are about as slow as molasses on a winter day. What does surprise me is that my grandson has been just getting by in school and is doing poorly in math and reading. I have to believe that there is a lack of motivation to do well in school. He is a wiz at video games, reads stories with his grandmother, has cracked the codes for all the levels of the his video games, and can remember the next sequence of moves the bad guys will throw at him. I have a few educational CD games that he aces, but they don’t hold his interest like the complicated games he plays. I wonder if we should have a few classes in school that are devoted to learning through video games. I bet my grandson would ace them. Are we not challenging the kids enough, or is the material in school so boring that their minds don’t focus? I am concerned because there are probably a lot of kids who can kick their parents butts playing video games, but can’t pass a test at school. As far as my grandson is concerned, I don’t mind losing the video games, I still kick his butt at pinball.

A legendary form of communication has ended.- stop - Western Union sent it’s last telegram yesterday. - stop - Technology has finally caught up with the telegram, a key player in many old western movies, and a marvel of communication for it’s time. When it first connected the coasts of this country it was possible to send a telegram from New York to California in less than a day. All those busy fingers tapping out Morse Code would pass the message from station to station, and information would flow across the continent on those solid copper wires. It was good enough to put the Pony Express out of business, and good enough to last up until yesterday, fighting the telephone, snail mail, faxes, and e-mail to the bitter end. Why did this archaic means of communication last so long? Probably because there were no unsolicited sales calls, no junk mail, no fax scams, and no spam to clog up your hard drive. When you received a telegram it was, good or bad, important information. Good bye faithful and trusted friend. Your memory will last in a thousand scrap books of cherished memories, and on the silver screen, when some telegraph operator is franticly sending those dots and dashes down the line, trying to let the Cannon Ball Express know that the bridge over Dead Man’s Gulch is washed out.

I just received a call from GOPAC, the Republican fund raising organization, soliciting funds for GOP candidates in the upcoming elections. Unfortunately, they caught me on the day I paid my fuel oil bill and EXXON announced that they made 10 billion dollars profit in the last quarter of 2005. I politely declined to help the GOP raise money. They could probably save themselves both the time and money they spend on soliciting a small potatoes guy like me and just dip into Dick Cheney’s petty cash drawer. I am not a political idealist and consider myself an independent voter. I rarely miss an election and I cast my vote for the person I feel would do the best job, regardless of their party affiliation. Sadly, for a number of years, I have felt that, in most cases, I was voting for the lesser of two evils. I would love to see a viable third party emerge in this country. I dislike when one party controls all of the branches of government because no matter how much they claim to be open to bipartisan cooperation, I can’t help but feel that in the smokey back rooms the winning party members are jumping up and down and shouting “It’s pay back time!”. Spreading the power out between three parties would make for some interesting debates and coalitions, and maybe bring back some of those checks and balances everyone tells me we are supposed to have. I think the reason we see so much mud slinging and negative adds in campaigns is that neither party can really claim the high ground on issues of substance, so the next best thing is to pull the other candidate down into the slime and hope the voters can’t see through the filth. Politics has changed from the art of compromise for the greater good, to a side show seen through a veil of smoke and mirrors.

Another child was shot down in the streets of Philidelphia. The four assholes were targeting someone else and the child just got in the way. It happens all the time because firearms are macho and if you fought the old fashioned way, man to man with fists, you could get hurt. Firearms in the hands of street thugs with a shoot first and damn the bystanders attitude are leathal weapons in criminal and valueless hands. I am not a proponent of a complete firearms ban, but some common sense should prevail. Straw buyers are people with clean records who by several firearms legally, and then resell them on the street to who ever has enough cash. They should be banned from firearms purchases and prosecuted as soon as they can not account for where their weapons are. I believe a purchase limit is needed, like some states that set a limit of one gun a month. Unless you are a dealer or a gun collector, the average Joe could wait a month between firearms purchases. I also believe that the weapons laws on the books should be enforced and not subject to plea bargaining. In Philadelphia a felon caught with a gun can plea bargain away the weapons charge and usually get his offense downgraded. This is because the courts are backed up and plea bargaining is an expedient way to cut the backlog. I believe that if a weapon is involved in a crime it MUST go to trial, and a minimum sentence of five years hard time be imposed if covicted. As a veteran and gun owner I believe in training. There should be a mandatory proficiency and safety course required the first time you purchase a weapon, just like the hunters safety course you must take before you get your first hunting license. Most of the assholes in these street shootings don't even know how their weapons work. They just pump bullets until they hit something. Unfortunatly they usually hit and innocent bystander and sadly, a lot of children. The violence in this country has risen in direct proportion to the drop in civility between people. Too many video games? Too many movies and songs glorifying violence and disrespect for one another? I'm not sure, but the body count on our streets tells me that something has to be done or we'll end up like some third world country, where you can't go outside without an AK-47. We might not have to like each other, but at least we should respect each other. Peace.

The political squabbling in Washington over the latest political contribution scandal strikes me as ludicrous. It reminds me of the kid in the school yard telling the teacher what everyone else is doing, just to make sure the teacher has no time to look at what HE was doing. It’s called blowing smoke to divert attention from you to someone else. Power and the need to be reelected drives most of Washington’s political denizens, and that power and re elect ability thrives on hard cash. I would love to see a list that shows every politician and party organization and the source of their contributions. It could probably be done by searching the available public records and reports that are filed, but my little pea brain doesn’t have the math capacity or organizational skills required. Irv Homer, a long time radio talk show host here in the Philadelphia area, once said “If you want to find the truth about something, follow the money trail”. I think some American people would be surprised at the truly massive amounts of money that greases the wheels in Washington. As far as the “scandal of the month” is concerned, I remember another say that goes “He that is without sin, cast the first stone”. Sadly, I don’t think that there are many sin free stone throwers left in Washington.