Something a friend emailed today

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.

And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country.

I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?"

(regarding Katrina); Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools , and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing? Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards.

Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

Here comes another WRKO Saturday

Rise and Shine!!!!!!!!!!!

1 --- Here is what bothers me more than anything else about Hillary Clinton. She has done everything possible to weaken the President and our country (that's you and me!) when it comes to the war on terror.

· She wants to close GITMO & move the combatants to the USA where they would have access to our legal system.
· She wants to eliminate the monitoring of suspected Al Qeada phone calls to/from the USA.
· She wants to grant constitutional rights to enemy combatants captured on the battlefield.
· She wants to eliminate the monitoring of money transfers between suspected Al Qeada cells & supporters in the USA.
· She wants to eliminate the type of interrogation tactics used by the military & CIA where coercion might be used when questioning known terrorists even though such tactics might save American lives. I can't think of a single bill Hillary has introduced or, a single comment she has made that would tend to strengthen our country in the War on Terror. But I can think of a lot of comments she has made that weakens our country & makes it a more dangerous situation for all of us.......She goes hand in hand with the ACLU on far too many issues where common sense is abandoned. She is a disaster for all Americans.

2 --- Thomas Sowell made an observation I suspect many of us has felt but not defined nearly as well:

"None of the candidates looks truly inspiring at this point. I wouldn't buy a used car from most of them, nor a brand new car from some of them."

3 --- The astute political columnist, Bob Novak, has said John McCain is now on a roll. He thinks McCain could go all the way now that he’s reorganized his campaign and done some serious fundraising. I wouldn’t jump at that so fast because Dr. Sowell has observed this of McCain which will be on the minds of conservatives when they step into the voting booth:

"John McCain seems to be having a little resurgence but it is hard to believe that Republicans are so desperate as to support a man who joined with far left Democrat Russ Feingold to restrict free speech in the name of 'campaign finance reform' and with Ted Kennedy to sponsor a bill giving amnesty to illegal immigrants."

Sometimes campaigns can be defined with one word. The Bush/Cheney campaign had the word “gravitas” I bet you have not heard that since). This year it is “immigration”.

Immigration is the issue of this election and John McCain is on the wrong side of it.

4 --- How do you handle a lack of experience or expertise in a particular area during a campaign? Simple, say it’s not important.

Mitt Romney, who has had little or no foreign relations experience (except for a year in France as a missionary) now dismisses the need for experience and actually likened his experience with the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002 as proof of his expertise. Oh yes, his management of Massachusetts the first two years of his term (that is before he became an absentee governor) are pointed to as proof of his skills. Somehow he didn’t mention the biggest failure.

Romney was urged by many in Massachusetts to return here to run against the failed Jane Swift and her mishandling of the Big Dig. How did old Mitt handle that? Just a mere weeks into his term he met with the bigs from the Big Dig, Bechtel, and from that time until the death of Milena Del Valle, Romney had virtually no role in supervising or managing the mess created before his arrival.

Mitt Romney, living proof a magician can run for president. First you see it, then you don’t. Poof.

5 --- Numbers USA has rated the candidates stand on amnesty:

EXCELLENT

Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson

They are EXCELLENT in pledging through website and speech to oppose amnesties of all kinds for illegal aliens ... advocating "Attrition Through Enforcement" to cause present 12-20 million illegals to go home over time.

GOOD

Ron Paul

Does a good job of opposing amnesties of all kinds for illegal aliens

FAIR

Mitt Romney

Does a fair job in pledging through website & speech to oppose amnesty ... public statements create uncertainty about total opposition and about what eventually happens to the illegal aliens now here

POOR

Mike Huckabee

Does a poor job of pledging clear opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens ... public statements sound like at least a portion will eventually get legalization

BAD

Rudy Giuliani and John McCain

While saying that enforcement measures must come first, they would allow most or large numbers of illegal aliens now here to remain and legalize their status

ABYSMAL

Hillary Clinton,Barrak Obama,John Edwards,Bill Richardson,Joe Biden,Chris Dodd,Dennis Kucinich

They assertively advocate for the legalization of most or all illegal aliens now here ... do not even require that tough enforcement measures against future illegal immigration be in place first.

6 --- We had better stay on the right side of Pervez Musharraf and his flunkies in the Pakistan military. In the meantime we must learn the location of Pakistan’s nuclear warheads. If a civil war breaks out we need to take them out or they’ll wind up in the command and control of Islamist extremists. The current policy of “nation building” and being nice is now no longer workable. Our troops have done incredible work in Afghanistan and Iraq. The problem is our people are stretched very thin. We must return to the policy of engaging those who harbor the extremists.

We must use words wherever possible but make clear we have guns in place to support our diplomatic efforts. Our efforts to disrupt the money trails of the fringe groups must be redoubled. The ACLU be damned, we must intercept communications from and to known terrorists here and overseas.

Democracy without stability is doomed to failure. What we see in Pakistan at the moment is anarchy, pure and simple.

7 --- So now we learn all those thousands of news reports describing how Benazir Bhutto dyeing, not from bullet wounds or shrapnel was flat out wrong. Now we’re told she had a fractured skull when she struck her head when she was pushed into the car she was entering.

Do you believe any of this? Who told the news outlets she had been shot? Why was the area of the killing not dealt with in the way crime scenes are treated and all evidence protected? The fire department was washing down the street moments after the body of Mrs. Bhutto was removed.

Now we’re told it was Al Qaeda. Do you believe it? If the government was responsible for her murder who do you think they would blame?

It’s time to stand back and watch for a while here.

8 --- Pat Sajak asks ten very pertinent questions concerning global warming. The questions become a bit of a global warning:

The subject of man-made global warming is almost impossible to discuss without a descent into virulent name-calling (especially on the Internet, where anonymity breeds a special kind of vicious reaction to almost any social or political question), but I’ll try anyway. I consider myself to be relatively well-read on the matter, and I’ve still come down on the skeptical side, because there are aspects of the issue that don’t make a lot of sense to me.

Though I confess to have written none-too-reverentially on the subject, I want to try to put all that aside and ask ten serious questions to which I have been unable to find definitive answers:

1. What is the perfect temperature?
If we are to embark on a lifestyle-altering quest to lower the temperature (or at least minimize its rise), what is our goal? I don’t ask this flippantly. Can we demonstrate that one setting on the global thermostat is preferable over another? If so, what is it, and how do we get there? And, once there, how do we maintain it? Will we ever have to “heat things up” again if it drops below that point?
2. Just what is the average temperature of the earth?
At any one time there are temperature extremes all over the planet. How do we come up with an average, and how do those variations fit in with our desire to slow global warming?
3. What factors have led to global warming in the past, and how do we know they aren’t the causes of the current warming trend?
Again, I don’t ask this in a judgmental way. There is no argument that warming cycles (or cooling, for that matter) have been a part of earth’s history. Why are we so sure this one is different?
4. Why is there such a strong effort to stifle discussion and dissent?
I’m always troubled by arguments that begin, “Everybody agrees...” or “Everyone knows...” In fact, there is a good deal of dissent in the scientific world about the theory of man-made global warming. A large (and growing) segment of those who study such things are questioning some of the basic premises of the theory. Why should there be anything wrong with that? Again, this is a big deal, and we should have the best information and opinion from the best minds.
5. Why are there such dramatically different warnings about the effects of man-made global warming?
Predictions of 20-foot rises in ocean levels have given way to talk of a few inches over time. In many cases, those predictions are less than the rises of the past few centuries. Whatever the case, why the scare tactics?
6. Are there potential benefits to global warming?
Again, I don’t ask this mockingly. Would a warmer climate in some areas actually improve living conditions? Would such improvement (health, crop production, lifestyle) balance any negative impact from the phenomenon?
7. Should such drastic changes in public policy be based on a “what if?” proposition?
There are some who say we can’t afford to wait, and, even if there’s some doubt, we should move ahead with altering the way we live. While there are good arguments for changing some of our environmental policies, should they be based on “what it?”
8. What will be the impact on the people of the world if we change the way we live based on man-made global warming concerns?
Nothing happens in a vacuum; there are always unintended consequences to our actions. For example, if we were to dramatically reduce our need for international oil, what happens to the economies of the Middle East and the populations that rely on oil income? There are thousands of other implications, some good and some bad. What are they? Shouldn’t we be thinking about them and talking about them?
9. How will we measure our successes?
Is the measuring stick going to be temperature, sea level, number of annual hurricanes, rainfall, or a combination of all those things? Again, do we have a goal in mind? What happens when we get there?
10. How has this movement gained such momentum?
We’ve faced environmental issues throughout our history, but it’s difficult to remember one which has gained such “status” in such a short time. To a skeptic, there seems to be a religious fervor that makes one wary. A gradual “ramping down” of the dire predictions has not led to a diminution of the doomsday rhetoric. Are these warning signs that the movement has become more of an activist cause than a scientific reality?

Just asking.

Funny thing, those are great questions.

9 --- The Daniel Tavares saga continues to haunt Mitt Romney. This morning’s Boston Herald has a front page, above the fold, story on how Romney’s appointees in the Department of Corrections could have taken steps to keep Tavares behind bars at least one more year. That action of stripping his “good behavior time” could have had him behind bars instead of murdering a couple in the state of Washington.

How can a man who repeatedly attacked his guards and was always unruly be let out sooner than necessary because of “good Behavior”? Why was Tavares never criminally charged with the assaults?

Maybe Mitt can direct us to those he appointed to the DOC responsible for this travesty.

Romney’s lack of attention to his responsibilities here while he ran for president indirectly led to the death of three people. Mrs. Del Valle mentioned in item #4 above and the couple in the state of Washington.

The governor’s office should not be a stepping stone. Too much is at stake to have a governor with one eye on the job and the other on the White House.

10 --- Old Hillary has reappeared in Iowa the last couple of days. The Los Angeles Times today said she is not taking questions from the audience or reporters after her speeches. Even former first daughter Chelsea is turning a deaf ear to ANY questions.

Now that’s the Hillary we’ve known for years. She’ll tell you what she wants you to know and it for you to shut up and like it. Period.

There’s no way this woman is going the distance.

Bill was known as the comeback kid. She is becoming known as the go back kid.

11 --- This from the U.S. Census Bureau:

As our nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2008, population will be 303,146,284 -- up 2,842,103 or 0.9 percent from New Year’s Day 2007.

In January, the United States is expected to register one birth every eight seconds and one death every 11 seconds.

Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person every 30 seconds. The result is an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 13 seconds.

How many of the “one person every 30 seconds” is legally here.

12 --- Great white hunter, Reverend Huckabee couldn’t resist a Dick Cheney joke about his hunting skills. While he was on a pheasant hunting expedition someone asked a why he hadn’t invited sporting enthusiast Dick Cheney along. "Because I want to survive all the way through this."

At one point, Huckabee’s hunting party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the group’s heads.

Now that’s stupid. The first lesson on gun safety is you never, never, never, point a gun, loaded or not (because sometimes unloaded guns are not), at yourself or anyone else.

There are two basic points about accidental shootings – no one gets shot with a loaded firearm or one that was intentionally trained on you.

The Huckster keeps giving us reasons to be concerned.

13 --- We’ll have three military guests Saturday morning on AM 680 WRKO, Boston’s Talkstation.

At 7 we’ll say hello to Lt. Colonel Michael S. Finer. In the civilian sector, LTC Finer is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Financial Planner and serves as the President of Major League Investments, Inc., a Wealth Management firm that caters to media personalities, celebrities, professional athletes and multi-generational family wealth.

He was an ROTC Scholarship recipient in a joint program between Babson College and Boston University where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1987.

At 7:30 we’ll welcome old (actually not old, longtime fits better) Navy Captain Bruce French. Capt. French has extensive experience in Baghdad. We’ve remained in personal contact since he was our first guest from Baghdad more than a year and a half ago.

Later in the half hour we’ll speak with another long time friend, Marine Sergeant Major Glenn Golba. He is currently at home in Florida but returns to duty right after New Years Day.

SM Golba is currently engaged in preparing Marines for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ll talk with him about the morale and preparedness of the soldiers being readied to return to the war zones, some for their second and third deployments.

See you in the morning from 6 to 9 on WRKO.

Ciao…….Moe

The murder of Benazir Bhutto creates an assortment of problems for Pakistan and the U.S. as well. The entire region could become consumed in potential turmoil that could erupt in the region.

Let’s try to understand what is of importance here:

To understand Pakistan we need to know some things about its population, geography and history.

The population is approximately 165 million. The life expectancy in Pakistan is somewhat limited in terms of modern industrial countries. Men are expected to live to just 63 years and women to 65. This is less than India, Iran and Iraq and all nations in the region except very impoverished Afghanistan. That certainly is an indicator of the living conditions. Infant mortality also trails the region’s averages.

The country is diverse and has spent centuries under the thumb of one conqueror or another for many centuries.

Pakistan is a successor to the Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world and dating back at least 5,000 years. During the second millennium B.C., remnants of this culture fused with the migrating Indo-Aryan peoples.

The place we now call Pakistan was the victim of successive invasions during the centuries including the Persians, Greeks, Scythians, Arabs (who brought Islam), Afghans, and Turks. The Mongol Empire flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries. The British then came to dominate the region in the 18th century. The separation in 1947 of British India into the Muslim state of Pakistan (with two sections West and East) and largely Hindu India was never satisfactorily resolved. India and Pakistan have since fought two wars - in 1947/48 and 1965. These wars have been fought over the disputed Kashmir territory.

A third war was fought by these countries in 1971 - in which India capitalized on Islamabad's marginalization of Bengalis in Pakistani politics and resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. In response to Indian nuclear weapons testing, Pakistan conducted its own tests in 1998. The dispute over the state of Kashmir is still in existence. Pakistan and India have conducted talks since 2002.

The population in Pakistan is diverse. There are ethnic factions including the Pashtoons in the west along the border with Afghanistan and are thought to be at the center of trying to convert Pakistan to a religious (sharia law) government.

Pakistan is overwhelmingly Moslem, divided by about 4-1 sunny versus shi’a. There is a tiny Christian and Hindu minority accounting for between 2 and 3 percent.

The country is also divided in language. There are various Indian languages dividing many of the country’s regions. However, the official language of the government is English. However literacy trails most of the region’s countries. Less than half the population can read and write. Barely over 60% of males and fewer than 40% of females are literate.

Pakistan is a federal republic with a constitution modeled after British common law. It had been suspended many times, including now.

With some feel for Pakistan here’s what we know about the latest crisis in Pakistan:


1. Who killed Benazir Bhutto? The list of suspects runs rather long. Pervez Musharraf would have to be on a short list along with the Taliban and other terrorists.
2. There are elements in the Pakistani Army with a history of opposition of both Musharraf and Bhutto. About one-fifth of Pakistan’s Army officers are Pashtoons, many of whom are sympathetic to the Taliban (and El Qaeda). There have been multiple attempts on Musharraf and an earlier attempt on Bhito (when she returned in October).
3. I believe the Bhutto family is originally from India and had been closely related to the British government whe the Brits ruled India. Could there be an Indian element involved here.

What role should the U.S. play here. After all, it is our support of Musharraf since he took over in a military coup in 1998 which has kept him and his military junta in control oif Pakistan. That was when he ran Bhutto out of the country. Her exile was called self imposed but I suspect she felt she and her family would be killed if she remained afte the coup took her out of office.

Our mistake is the usual where we support the lesser of two evils. By keeping Musharraf in power and watching Pakistan become a nuclear power poses a serious dilemma for whoever is our president. This crisis is not going to go away and we don’t thrust where it might wind up. I suspect Presidemt Bush will be thinking about what could happen if an radical Islamic government similar to Iran’s or the Taliban with anywhere from 60 to more than a hundred nuclear weapons in their control.

India is now a close ally to us and has toned down its rhetoric concerning pakistan. What would India do if Pakistan’s weapons fall into the hands of a group which wants Kashmir to be all Pakistani and decides on some saber rattling diplomacy. Would India attac? How would Pakistan respond, with nukes?

Would a Taliban like government in Pakistan become a threat to the entire middle-east (imagine a Taliban goverrnment in Afghanistan with nukes and Osama bin Ladin calling the sdhots)?

Our options are very limited. We are heavily comitted in Iraq, concerned with the direction of Iran, leery about North Korea and whether it will cease its nuclear projects, the resurgence of fascism returning to Russia, and any one of a dozen other places we have our noses firmly in place.

The best course may be to let the Pakistanis settle this themselves, even if it means a civil war. I don’t think a single American life should be invested there. We’re struggling to get stability in Iraq and its 27 million people and Afghanistan, a country of 31 million. Adding the boiling couldron of 165 million is is beyone our ken.

The time has come when we can no longer simply shake a fist and watch the bad guys shudder in their boots. Maybe now we will focus on our own energy needs domestically and let others fight it out and let people chose their own government. If they won’t fight for their freedom maybe we should let them have the government they deserve.

We settled our differences in the middle of the 19th century.

What is needed is a leader who says build whatever we need for our own safety. Let’s have a military, stationed here an dhave the sdtriking capability that could crush anyone threatening our liberty and indepencence. We should be strong enough to crush any foe anywhere. If we do that no one will want to antagonize us.

No one begins a fight they know they can’t win.

With China flexing its muscles we need to be Fortress America with the ability and will to defend our homeland and culture.

In yesterday’s Issues of the Day I said we’d do a listing of where each candidate stands on illegal immigration and their positions concerning strengthening our security along our borders and more supervision of aliens already here. We’ll try to do that tomorrow along with our weekly issues prepertion for Saturday morning on WRKO.

Ciao…….Moe

Mitt Romney appeared on WRKO's Howie Carr Show just before Christmas. He was confronted by friend and colleague Gregg Jackson on his position on whether he was really against gay marriage. Romney waffled and flopped all over the place and distorted his own record on the issue.

Romney is rapidly becoming the Democrats John Kerry; something I thought couldn’t be done.

My thanks to Brian Camenker, of www.massresistance.com , for granting permission to republish his report on the Romney distortion of facts concerning gay marriage.

Below is the complete report:

Romney name-calls Gregg Jackson (WRKO host) on air, evades question on same-sex marriage
On the Howie Carr show (major drive-time Boston talk show), on Friday, Dec. 21, 2007: WRKO talk show host and conservative writer Gregg Jackson called in and asked Romney some hard questions. Romney insulted him and refused to give a straight answer, changing the subject. Is this the man you want running your country?
(Click on the hyperlink above to hear the entire interview.)
Transcript:

Howie Carr: Thanks for the call . . . Put on Gregg Jackson. He's from Pundit Review Radio, which can be heard Sunday night on WRKO. And he's also the author of "Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies". Go ahead, Gregg. You have a question for Mitt Romney?

Gregg Jackson: Thanks, Howie. Mr. Romney, I'm just wondering, why is it that you have claimed that you were just following the MSJC's Goodridge opinion by ordering the Department of Public Health to change the marriage certificates from "Husband and Wife" to "Partner A and Partner B" and also forcing the Justices of the Peace and Town Clerks to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies or resign when there was no specific order from the court for you to do so? I mean, I guess the question is, why did you violate your oath of office that you swore and, was it to fulfill a campaign promise to the Log Cabin Republicans not to oppose same-sex marriage?

Howie Carr: Boy, they don't like … the Log Cabin Republicans have been running ads on our radio station, Gregg, against Mitt. Go ahead, Mitt.

Mitt Romney: Gregg, I'm afraid, is slightly delusional. And let's go through this one by one. First of all, we received a request to change our birth certificates to "Parent A and Parent B" and we refused to do so. So we insisted that they not change the birth certificates. So he's got that wrong, number one. Number two, we did instruct our Justices of the Peace that they needed to understand that given the Supreme Court's decision requiring them to marry people of the same people of the same gender if so requested that they had no choice but to do so or, alternatively, they would be wise not to stay as a Justice of the Peace because they might get sued by somebody. So we were giving them the information they needed to avoid a legal condition. And finally, number three, the idea that I'm not an opponent of same-sex marriage is frankly laughable.

Howie Carr: Right.

Mitt Romney: Everybody in the entire nation knows that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court made same-sex marriage legal and that I fought it in every single way I could. I even went to Washington and testified in favor of an amendment to the federal Constitution. I helped collect signatures. I took cases to the court. I did everything in my power. And I continue to fight same-sex marriage. So it's a little silly. By the way, I'm probably the most frequently protested person by many gay groups because of my opposition to gay marriage. So to have the folks on the right wing think that somehow I was trying to promote gay marriage is actually the heighth [sic; Romney’s pronunciation] of silliness.

Howie Carr: [Goes on to the next caller.] OK. We have time for one more question. Can we take one more question . . .

Analysis:

Gregg Jackson brings up the following issues for Mitt Romney to respond to:
(1) Romney changed the Massachusetts marriage certificates from "Husband and Wife" to "Partner A and Partner B" in order to facilitate same-sex "marriage". Here is the new Massachusetts marriage certificate that Romney had changed (Note: “Party A/Party B” where it used to read “Husband/Wife”.)
(2) Romney threatened to fire any Justice of the Peace who refuses to perform same-sex "marriages", according to an April 25, 2004 Associated Press news article.
(3) Romney held "training sessions" for Town Clerks, telling them that the law had changed and that they must perform same-sex marriages. Here are the slides from those sessions.
(3) The Goodridge decision by the Supreme Judicial Court did not "order" the Governor to do anything. But Romney acted anyway. (The ruling did NOT change any laws. The Court had decided that not allowing same-sex marriage was "unconstitutional" but also acknowledged that only the Legislature could change the marriage laws. However, the Legislature did nothing.)
(4) As the New York Times recently reported, Romney met with the homosexual group "Log Cabin Republicans" while campaigning for Governor in 2002. When the subject of same-sex marriage was brought up, says the Times, "according to several people present, he promised to obey the courts’ ultimate ruling and not champion a fight on either side of the issue." (“'I’ll keep my head low,' he said, making a bobbing motion with his head like a boxer, one participant recalled.")

Thus, Romney received an endorsement from the group.

Here is how Romney responded:

(1) He said that Gregg is "slightly delusional". An interesting way for a presidential candidate to respond to a media figure.
(2) Instead of responding to the question about marriage certificates, he discussed what he did regarding birth certificates -- as if that's what Gregg had asked about.
(3) Romney said he was just giving the Justices of the Peace "information." But according to the Associated Press report, he ordered them to resign if they refused to comply. He gave them no choice.
(4) Romney claims that the SJC did "require" Justices of the Peace to perform same-sex marriages, and that the Goodridge decision made same-sex marriage "legal". In fact, the Court only rendered an opinion and suggested that the Legislature act on it. The Massachusetts Constitution does not allow the Court to either (1) make law or (2) order another branch to do anything. See legal discussion. (Furthermore, the Legislature never did change the Mass. marriage statute, which only authorizes "husband/wife" marriage.)

(5) Probably the reason that homosexual groups protest Romney so much (and not the other Republicans) is that they believe he double-crossed them (see NY Times article above).
(6) Romney refers to Gregg as "the folks on the right wing." Actually, that's how he's always felt about conservatives. At least he's being honest here. (If Romney is running as a conservative, isn't that the same thing as "right wing"?)

~~~~~~~

I supported Ronald Reagan and today I’m torn between Fred Thompson and Ron Paul for president. The thing that hangs me up on Paul is his stated position that he would the, moment he took office would pull the troops out of Iraq (and presumably Afghanistan). Both are men of principle with deep rooted core beliefs. They don’t fudge on their position on the issues.

I have no regrets for having supported Ron Paul for president in 1988 when he was a candidate of the Libertarian Party. Paul, as was the case with Christy Mihos when he ran as an independent, represented beliefs and principles, not a check to se which way the wind was blowing when responding to questions. They express their views and the polls be damned. Fred Thompson seems to fall into the same category.

Tomorrow we will have an update on which candidate is strongest on the illegal immigration question.


Ciao…….Moe

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?", I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here.
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve.

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light.

Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me."
"I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,'
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile."

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home."

"I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother."

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long."

"For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas.

A CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM GOD - OUR LIBERTY
December 24, 2004

1 --- Once, several years ago, I read where Clement C. Moore, who wrote "The Night Before Christmas," was Jewish. I thought that was interesting and over the years have passed that bit of misinformation on to various and sundry friends, kin and casual acquaintances.

To top it off, I was going to write about it today as part of my on-going campaign to prove that it isn't most Jews who are trying to obliterate Christmas from our public lives and places; it is militant, God-hating atheists.

Fortunately I saved myself a real blunder by first looking up the Rev. (that's right, the Rev.) Moore on the Internet. There I found that far from being Jewish he was the protestant Episcopal bishop of New York. He was also a noted theologian and scholar.

It must have been therefore, that the guy who thought he was Jewish got confused because, along with his Christmas poem, Bishop Moore also wrote a Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language. Anybody who'd do that, you figure, had to be Jewish.

Well, not in this case.

As for the poem, it turns out that on the day before Christmas in 1823 Bishop Moore's wife was roasting turkeys to help feed the poor and she sent him out to buy another turkey. While being driven (being a typically rich Episcopalian he had a chauffeur) in a one-hoss slay to wherever one went to buy a turkey (probably not a Butterball) and with time on his hands Clem composed his eventually-to-be-famous poem.

He lived another 40 years and composed some more poetry, in fact, a whole book full, but the only one anyone remembers is "The Night Before Christmas."

All in all, it's not a bad story but still, it would have been better if he’d been Jewish. Come to think of it, I'm not sure the world was ready for a poem starting out, "T'was The Night Before Hanukkah."

2 --- Christmas Memo on the radio station bulletin board:

To: All Employees
From: Program Director

• Subject: Office conduct during the Christmas season
• Running aluminum foil through the paper shredder to make tinsel is discouraged.
• Playing Jingle Bells on the push-button phone is forbidden (it runs up an incredible long distance bill)
• Work requests are not to be filed under "Bah humbug."
• Company cars are not to be used to go over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house.
• All fruitcake is to be eaten BEFORE July 25.
• Eggnog will NOT be dispensed in vending machines.
  

3 --- I have decided not to put up Christmas lights on my house this year...I'm getting tired of wasting my Easter Sunday taking them down.

4 --- Christmas Signs At a Toy store: "Ho, ho, ho spoken here."

At a Bridal boutique: "Marry Christmas."

Outside a church: " The original Christmas club."

At a department store" "Big pre-Christmas sale. Come in and mangle with the crowd."

At a reducing salon: "24 shaping days until Christmas."

At a ski resort: "All I need to know about life I learned from a snow man."

In a stationery store: "For the one who has everything, a calender to show when the payments are due."

5 --- The wife is shopping for Christmas gifts, With purchases small and large. She doesn't believe in Santa Claus, She believes in Master Charge!

6 --- Q: What do donkeys send out near Christmas?
A: Mule-tide greetings.

7 --- Christmas was fast approaching when Mom reminded her eight-year-old son that he would soon be visiting with Santa Claus. He seemed unusually resistant to the idea. "You do believe in Santa, don't you?" Dawn finally asked her son.

He thought hard, then said, "Yes, but I think this is the last year."

8 --- Irving's mother gave him two sweaters for Hanukkah. The next time he visited her, he made sure to wear one.

As he walked into the house, his mother frowned and said, "What's the matter? You didn't like the other one?"

9 --- WANTED

All stations are to be on the lookout for the following individual(s) that are WANTED by an agency(ies) within the United States of America. The US State Department has expressed interest in extraditing the following individual(s) from anywhere in the world.

NAME
Kringle, Christopher Also Known As Santa, Jolly Old Man, Saint Nick

RACE
Unknown

HEIGHT
6' 0"

WEIGHT
320 lbs

SCARS/TATTOOS
Across both buttocks words Merry Christmas.

LAST SEEN WEARING
Red suit pants and Jacket with red thermal underwear. Red hat, with white tassel.

KNOWN TO BE DRIVING
1964 red convertible, with a nine Reindeer powered engine. Vehicle was displaying a red light on front, in violation of the State of Alaska Vehicle and Traffic law.

WANTED FOR THE FOLLOWING CRIMINAL VIOLATIONS

- Being Jolly in a No Jolly zone,
- Breaking and entering dwellings,
- Leaving un-addressed packages in violation of US Postal Laws,
- Intentional dumping of reindeer feces in sewer drains in violation of US EPA Laws,
- Unlawful crossing of US Borders without reporting the crossing to US Customs,
- Failure to obtain a non-resident work permit from INS,
- Operating a motor vehicle that is not in compliance with US DOT regulations,
- Unlawful work practice in violation of the Equal Opportunity laws of the USA (Will not employ people taller than 4 feet),
- Excess noise from motor vehicle in violation of State of Alaska Vehicle and Traffic laws (Sound of HO HO HO coming from vehicle),
- Failure to respond to repeated request for Identification by FAA Flight controllers, Violation of the sovereign airspace of the United States of America.

Individual is known to force Goodwill and Peace upon all men/women.

He has been known to assault people with vicious bouts of laughter and fun.

If contact is made with the above individual, caution should be taken as to not become happy & joyful, especially with thoughts of sugarplums.

Detain individual and contact either Detective Grinch, North Pole Police Dept., Alaska, OR Special Agent Scrooge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

10 --- The foundation on which this nation was built can be described with one word - liberty. If you’d like two words try "individual freedom."

The constitution and the first ten amendments were written for the express purpose of insuring liberty for the people as a whole and freedom for every person.

Under the constitution liberty and freedom are not given by government with the understanding that they can at any time be taken away by government. Rather they are God-given and one f the purposes of the constitution are, according to its preamble is "to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." "To secure" means to tie down, to hold fast, to make safe "Liberty and freedom. These are what this nation is all about. This is what it stands for to the rest of the world. Ronald Reagan believed that God put this nation here between the two great oceans to be "a beacon of liberty to the world."

And yet in times of danger, whether it be the Civil War, the two world wars or the current war on terror, steps seem always to be taken by the federal government, with the acquiescence of a fearful populace, to place limits on individual liberty and give government new powers that contravene those rights guaranteed by the constitution.

Such actions, whether congressionally mandated or taken by executive order, are always well-intentioned and meant to insure the safety of the people as a whole. Because their purpose and intent are benign, even though they intrude upon liberty and in doing so may violate the constitution, the majority of the people, including some who under other conditions and circumstances would protest, accept them as necessary. Always, however, with the tacit understanding that when the war is over or the danger has receded, that those rights will be returned.

Unfortunately, tacit understandings don't often mean a whole heck of a lot, not when one is dealing with government. Governments and those who run them tend to accrue power, always, of course, in the best interests of the people, and are loathe relinquishing it, even though the perceived need for it may no longer exist.

That is why it is always dangerous for that minority who are consciously aware of the role liberty plays in American life, to accept, even temporarily, laws and regulations that intrude on the people’s constitutional rights.

That is why, also, it is important that liberty lovers protest against government decisions to intrude upon and limit individual rights, now matter how justified such decisions may be in the eyes of the majority, or the majority in congress or the president of the United States.

Unless there are continued protests, unless it is constantly brought to the people's attention that for the sake of their security they have been willing to sacrifice some of their liberty they will forget it, they almost certainly will accept those new limits as permanent and normal.

Thus, the next time the nation is imperiled it will be easier for government to encroach a little farther on the people’s rights and ignore a little more easily and with a little less protest the guarantees of the constitution.

This is the "slippery slope" of which we are constantly reminded the slope that leads from liberty if not to slavery then to something only a little better—control of our lives by big brother government. In our best interests, of course, but still government control and still at the cost of the one factor that makes and keeps this nation great—the liberty and freedom of the individual.
It is as true today as it was when it was first spoken over 200 years ago that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. In this Christmas season it seems to me it would be well to thank God not only for our liberty but also for those determined and courageous Americans who continue to be vigilant in its cause.

Merry Christmas Y'All !

Afrikaans - 'n Geseende Kersfees en 'n voorspoedige Nuwejaar
Afrikaner - Een Plesierige Kerfees
Albanian -- Gezuar Krishtlindje
American - Merry Christmas
Arabic - I'D MIILAD SAID OUA SANA SAIDA
Armenian - Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri - Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Basque - Zorionstsu Eguberri. Zoriontsu Urte Berri On
Bengali - Bodo Din Shubh Lamona
Bohemian - Vesele Vanoce
Breton - Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian - Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Celtic - Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda
Chinese -
(Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
(Catonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
(Hong Kong) Kung Ho Hsin Hsi. Ching Chi Shen Tan
Cornish - Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Cree - Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian - Sretan Bozic
Czech - Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish - Gladelig Jul
Dutch - Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
English - Merry Christmas
Esperanto - Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian - Roomsaid Joulu Puhi
Farsi - Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish - Hyvaa joulua
French - Joyeux Noel
Frisian - Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
German - Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek - Kala Christouyenna!
Hawaiian - Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew - Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi - Bada Din Mubarak Ho
Hungarian - Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic - Gledileg Jol
Indonesian - Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi - Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish - Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Italian - Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese - Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Kala- Khristougena kai Eftikhes to Neon Etos
Korean - Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latvian - Priecigus Ziemas Svetkus un Laimigu Jauno Gadu
Lettish - Priecigus Ziemassvetkus
Lithuanian - Linksmu Kaledu
Manx - Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori - Meri Kirihimete
Marathi - Shub Naya Varsh
Navajo - Merry Keshmish
Northern Sotho Matlhatse le matlhogonolo mo ngwageng o moswa.
Norwegian - God Jul Og Godt Nytt Aar
Pennsylvania German - En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!
Papiamento Bon Pasku i Felis Anja Nobo
Pig Latin Errymay ristmaskay nday appyhay ewnay earyay
Polish - Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia
Portuguese - Feliz Natal
Rapa-Nui - Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
Romanian - Craciun Fericit
Russian - Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom
Serbian - Hristos se rodi
Slovakian - Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Samoan - La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Scottish - Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur
Serbian - Hristos se rodi!
Singhalese - Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak - Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene - Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
Spanish - Feliz Navidad!
Swedish - God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt Ar
Tagalog - Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tamil - Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Thai - Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish - Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian - Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Urdu - Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese - Chung Mung Giang Sinh
Waray Maupay nga Pasko ngan Mainuswagon nga Bag-o nga Tu-ig
Welsh - Nadolig Llawen
Zulu -Nginifisela inhlanhla ne mpumelelo e nyakeni
(Ed note: I can't vouch for all of these, so if something is wrong, let me know)


Please check in tomorrow and we’ll have our special Christmas card for you. This year it is different from anything we’ve done I the past.


Ciao…….Moe

Here Comes Another WRKO Saturday.....

Rise and Shine!!!!!!!

1 --- It is interesting to note the American toy industry is now mostly Communist Chinese. I can’t tell you what percentage of Chinese manufactured toys is dangerous because I don’t trust our inspectors in reporting everything. We do know the failure of Chinese toys for lead paint and other toxins would have American companies sued to the point they were driven from business. Add to that the same level of indifference for the health and safety of American children would probably land the top corporate officers in jail for a long time.

Some things we do know are Chinese-made toys accounted for 94 percent of the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls this year. Most of the recalls were related to excessive and dangerous levels of lead used in cheap paints.


Have children died or been brain damaged from the lead based paint on Chinese toys? We’ll never know. Have any children suffered harm which won’t manifest itself for many years to come? Your guess is as good as mine. However we do know lead poisoning takes many years to detect.

One thing is certain. America’s toy manufacturers have made out like bandits with all this. Chinese workers are known to work in hazardous conditions because of little emphasis on work place safety. Add to that terrible pay since the average Chinese toy worker earns about 36 cents an hour compared to over $14.50 an hour in American toy factories. That doesn’t include various benefits American workers receive including Social Security payments and workers’ compensation as well as unemployment fund payments. American factories must comply by OSHA standards and environmental restrictions.

According to World Net Daily:

“The surge in product hazards and safety recalls in recent years coincides with the relocation of toy production and other manufacturing plants in China and other countries. About 74 percent of toys sold in the U.S. are now made in China. In total, 87 percent are made overseas.
“In 1970, 86 percent of U.S. toys were made in the USA, employing some 60,000 American workers.

“While the shift overseas has been tough on U.S. workers, the profits of toy companies have soared as a result. Toy profits have risen from $50 million in 1970 to $930 million last year.

“U.S. toy production has declined 70 percent since the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization and more than 500 percent since the 1970s, claims the report.

“From 1972 through 1982, when most toys were made in the U.S., there were never more than 12 toy recalls in any year. This year there were 120 – almost all from China.”

Do slave level wages and working conditions lead to cheaper consumer prices? I cannot answer that. However, I am wearing a comfortable pair of New Balance sneakers manufactured in the USA. How much do you think a pair of American made sneakers size 12-4E sell for? My son’s Nike “turf” shoes cost over $90. They were made in Asia.

My New Balance sneakers made here were $53.95. (My daughter’s New Balance running shoes set her back $63.00.)

Where did the balance of the money go? I’ll take a guess and say one of three places. Shipping costs probably was $.50 a pair. The rest is in someone’s pocket and not the consumer’s pocket, that’s for sure. Some ChiCom boss and the big sneaker manufacturers in the case of shoes and toy companies like Mattel are doing very well.

While I was at the Christmas Tree Shop near the Cape Cod Canal I became aware there was nearly nothing made anywhere but Communist China. Chinese made goods were so pervasive I had a yearning for chicken lo mein and fried rice when we left there.

I’m not so jingoistic as to suggest we look only for the “Made in USA” label on the products we buy. I will suggest you look for the “Made in China” tag. That will be a safer bet for the benefit of your kids and anyone else you buy for.

Now, if I could only find a baseball made in other than Communist China I’d be a happy man. The only non Chicom balls sold here are the Major League baseballs made in Costa Rica. At least they’re our ally and can be trusted not to support or supply our enemies with weapons to kill us and our soldiers.

All this and I didn’t mention poisoned dog and cat food, flaming laptop computers, or toxic toothpaste. There’s more but I’m outta space for now.

2 --- Now here’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black. My favorite senator (ouch, I always bite my tongue when I lie), one Edward Moore Kennedy of Hyannis and the nearest Chivas store, is now highly offended and concerned someone in the uniform of the United States military may have cheated to pass exams to get promotions to sargeant (E-5).

Senator Edward M. Kennedy recently suggested to Army Secretary Pete Geren that he "provide the resources needed" to stop soldiers from cheating on Army correspondence courses to earn points for promotion," the Boston Globe reports:

The senior senator from the People’s Republic of Massachusetts observed, "The tests are obviously important in demonstrating that our soldiers have the knowledge needed to carry out their duties effectively. They also provide promotion points," Kennedy told Geren in a letter dated yesterday. "I was shocked to read of one website that provides answer keys and boasts that "[w]ith cheap prices and fast service, you can be wearing that E-5 [sergeant] rank before you know it."

I thought you needed to be sober to be shocked.

Nearly forty years ago, at about the time of Chappaquiddick, I was shocked to learn the following about the esteemed solon.

Kennedy earned C grades at the private Milton Academy, but was admitted to Harvard as a "legacy" -- his father and older brothers had attended there, so the younger and dimmer Kennedy's admission was virtually assured. While attending, he was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (and fired by Franklin Delano Roosevelt before the beginning of WWII), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged.

While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. He passed the bar exam in 1959, and two years later was appointed an Assistant to the District Attorney in Massachusetts' Suffolk County.

He’s quite a character. He opposes water boarding, destroys the character of honorable men like Robert Bork, now has a warm spot for doing in cheaters in the military.

What was the old saw about living in glass houses and throwing boulders? What are you going after next, Teddy, adultery?

3 --- Jamie Lynn Spears was, according to both of them, impregnated by her boyfriend, Casey Aldridge. There’s a problem for them.

If the baby was conceived in Louisiana, he could be in deep doo-doo. The statutory age of consent in that state is seventeen Jamie is sixteen and Casey is nineteen.

Here’s how Fox News explained this affair:

The act could technically be considered "felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile."
Louisiana law defines this unlawful carnal knowledge as "sexual intercourse with consent between someone age 19 or older and someone between age 12 and 17."

In Louisiana a person can only legally consent to sex at age 17. If aged 15 or 16, the other person involved must be no more than two years older for the act to be considered legal.

I wonder, did Arkansas have such a law, let’s say in the 1960’s when the virile Bill Clinton perused all the …..aw shucks you know where I’m going with this one.

Based on today’s mores they should be complimented for not taking the “easy way out” and having Jaime Lynn’s baby killed in her womb. I don’t know what their religious persuasion is but she should be commended for treasuring the life she has in her.

4 --- When Bill Clinton got in trouble from time to time to time to time he and Hillary lash out and claim their enemies are ganging up on him. Do you recall the “vast right wing conspiracy” out to get them?

The sense of being ganged up must come from the drinking water in Arkansas.

The man who brags of having had only one wife, worked his way through school, etc. is now getting tired of having to answer for his time as governor. “Everything but the kitchen sink is being thrown at me,” the Republican leader in Iowa polls complained at nearly every stop. “If the only thing some of these candidates have to run on is what’s wrong with somebody else, they must not have much of a platform to talk about.”

Touchy, touchy, touchy.

5 --- The Herald and the Globe agree on something. They’re going for John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination.

6 --- Keep an eye of Deval “DeVille” Patrick. He’s been itching to get casinos into Massachusetts. He’ll include anticipated revenues from casinos in the budget process.

The falicy with that is no one can be certain what the net effect of casinos will have on Massachusetts.

I can hardly wait to see how much he has cut out of the budget. He’s done nothing for the cities and towns as he had promised when he was candidate Deval.

Actually, I think he was less dangerous when he was shopping for a new Cadillac and silk drapes.

Dollars and cents are not the problem with Patrick. No, it’s common sense.

7 --- This letter to the editor in this morning’s Herald says it better than I can concerning the speeding ticket hit ordered by MassPike.

“After working in New Hampshire for over 20 years, I took a job in Billerica (“Troopers targeting speeders in bid to plump up Pike coffers,” Dec. 18). Just about every day, I witnessed some of the most asinine driving. However, I never once saw a state police cruiser in motion. I saw them on the side of the road at repair sites behind barriers with lights flashing as troopers talked on cell phones, read the Herald or slept. Not one on patrol. I’m sure the rest of the state was the same.

“Now because of a shortfall in speeding fines they are going to purposely hunt down and ticket the asinine drivers. They’ll probably grab some good drivers also. They’re not doing this in the interest of public safety, they’re doing this because they need the dough. So in this case, being short of cash is actually a good thing for the driving public, except of course for those receiving tickets.

“Massachusetts, you just can’t stop embarrassing yourself.”

James Kern, Sandown, N.H.

8 --- I think the Tom Tancredo endorsement of Mitt Romney is intended to help derail the Mike Huckabee train currently leaving the station. The three real candidates with a fire to end the scourge of illegal immigration and who comprehend the seriousness of the problem are:

Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul and Fred Thompson, all Republicans.

Thompson summed up the long term problem of loose borders - "It is not good, in my opinion, for our country to start becoming dependent on a constant flow of illegal immigrants that are usually less educated and come here only because they'll work cheaper than somebody else will."

Amen, Fred.

9 --- You can tell when candidates begin to lose their luster and are no longer viable in their effort to capture a certain office. Right now there are more than a dozen Republicans and Democrats running for president. The ones with a strong chance of grasping the presidential brass ring are (in no particular order): Hillary, Obama, Romney, Thompson, Rudy and Thompson. Two not currently announced candidates who could put together an instant organization when lots of Democrats and Republicans drop out are Al Gore and Newt Gingrich.

The primary campaigns are traditionally wars of attrition. Wounds early in season don’t heal. The trick is not to be in a position to be an easy target. Rudy, Hillary and Mitt have taken serious hits, the affects of them may grow more difficult as time goes on. Just because, for example, the questions about the taxpayers supporting Rudy’s love life in the Hamptons when he was mayor are not page one right now. It will come back again and again. Ditto with Hillary’s fund raiser Norman Hsu. Hsu will not go away. Credibility is like a stone tablet. The more chips which are knocked off the less imposing the tablet is.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York could make a mess of the order of things if he runs as an independent. He can’t get in if either or both Hillary or Rudy with their party’s nomination.

10 --- Pat Sajak not only has a gorgeous show co-host, he has a real sense of humor. Here’s a “news” story by Sajak:

“Lawyers for former Vice President Al Gore have filed numerous lawsuits against Time magazine, alleging a series of voting irregularities they maintain deprived Gore of Time's ‘Person of the Year’ Award. It has been announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin received the 2007 award, with Gore finishing second.

“Details of the suits are sketchy, but one of them accuses certain unnamed Time employees of denying others the right to vote when it was determined they were leaning toward Gore. Rumors have surfaced that one employee, known only as ‘Chad’, has confirmed those rumors. Another separate suit claims the voting process to be far too complicated to be understood by, to quote the lawsuit, ‘a bunch of journalists.’ Gore's lawyers are calling for a recount of the ballots in question. They also demand that independent observers from the United Nations Commission on Climate Change be allowed access to any recount procedures.”

11 --- Our guest from Baghdad Saturday morning will be 1st Lieutenant Russell Donahue from Massachusetts. We’ll also have Mrs. Donahue on with him from their home. We’ll discuss what families do when they are separated during the holidays. After Lt. Donahue, a man I view as a friend, Air Force 1st Lieutenant Phil Ventura will join us to discuss the importance of our chats with our men and women in Iraq each Saturday.

Also, a man who has become a good friend over the last few years Marine Sargeant Major Glenn Golba from his home in Florida. He has been preparing units to ship over to Iraq. We’ll learn about the morale of the men and how they feel about deployment. For many of them it’s their second and third deployments (Marine deployments are six months with at least six months back home being re-deployed.

We will conclude our show with our annual playing of Jerry Williams’ reading of Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales. That will be played shortly after 8:30 AM.

One of the best in the business, Bill Smith spun his magic creating the music and sound effects. They have added a dimension Jerry would have loved to hear.

We have linked directly to Jerry’s web site if you would like to listen to it on your computer. It is played on Real Player.

See you Saturday from 6-0 on Boston’s Talkstation, AM 680 WRKO.

Ciao…….Moe

1 --- Today Tom Tancredo, my first choice for the Republican nomination for president sent the following missive to his supporters:

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Dear Moe, It is with my heart full of gratitude and a touch of sadness that I write today to tell you of my intention to end my campaign for the presidency. As a loyal friend and supporter it is important to me that you understand why I am doing this, even though you may disagree. For the past ten years I have dedicated my public life to the critical issue of illegal immigration. I believed then –as I do now—that massive uncontrolled illegal immigration threatens our survival as a nation.

I could not stand by and let open border politicians and corporate lobbyists sell our country out to the highest bidder. Then earlier this year when I feared that the issue would not be championed by any of the top candidates I threw my hat in the ring. It was the only way I could be certain that the candidates would be forced to take a stand.

Thanks to your incredible support look what we have accomplished: Just last week Newsweek declared that "Anti-immigrant zealot [that would be me] had already won. Now even Dems dance to his no mas salsa tune. " This month alone The Economist, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal and a score of other newspapers have written similar assessments, grudgingly crediting our campaign with forcing the issue of immigration to the center of the national stage and -- more importantly -— with forcing every presidential candidate to commit themselves to an immigration plan that calls for securing the borders, opposing amnesty and enforcing the law.

Of course, many of the candidates need to be pinned down on their understanding of the meaning of amnesty, but we have succeeded beyond my most optimistic expectations of a year ago. We even have Hillary jumping through hoops on the issue! So with so much success why drop out of the race now, you are probably asking. For one reason and one reason alone: I believe the cause demands I do so. The presidential campaign has come down to less than a handful of viable candidates.

Unfortunately several of them have abysmal records on immigration and can’t be trusted to do what is needed to preserve this country if they’re elected. My fear is that if I were to stay in this race my votes could be the factor in handing victory to a pro-amnesty politician. Friends, we have done too much, come too far and the stakes are too high to play that hand. And so I am ending my presidential campaign. I know there are many more battles in our future and you can count on me to stay in this fight with you. We must continue to build the unquestioned momentum that is fueling our movement today.

In the weeks ahead, I will write to you again to share with you my plans for the future, and for the immigration reform movement that is transforming American politics. But for now, I just wish to again express to you my deepest thanks and appreciation for your partnership with me in this historic effort. I also want to wish you a very blessed and merry Christmas! We have come so far together, and through our efforts we have made a stunning and, I believe, permanent impact on the debate over securing our borders and preserving our nation. Not a day has gone by in this campaign that I have not thanked God for the dedication of so many Americans like you. I can promise you that as long as He gives me life and strength, I will work hard for our cause and to honor the trust you have placed in me.

With sincere best wishes,

Tom Tancredo

2 --- If Roger Clemens makes it to the Hall of Fame, please giver him a Yankees hat. He’ll be right at home with that bunch.

Stop the presses, here’s a news flash --- Clemens says he thought he was using linseed oil.

3 --- Pamela Anderson is certainly a good looker, no doubt about it. It’s look from a distance. When you get close she gets cold feet and calls her divorce attorney. Do you get the feeling, with her latest one lasting only two months that she should consider a Pre-Cana conference offered by the Catholic Church.

I recall some years ago the rate of marital success of couples taking in such conferences were far more likely to survive. The measure was a follow-up done five and ten years after the marriage. Of course, the reason for the success in the marriages of those who attend the conferences could be more a function of the people attending them are more serious about making the prospective marriage work.

It takes determination to make marriage work. Things rarely run smoothly in a marriage. Problems occur, sometimes an event or even events of unfaithfulness, health problems, money troubles, a (or some) difficulties with children, etc.

There are usually many obstacles to a marriage running smoothly. They must be viewed as challenges which must be conquered.

A successful marriage requires lots of hard work, sometimes by one partner, most often by both. The operative word here is work.

Unless there is a desire to make certain “’til death do us part” is to come true it can only be accomplished if the desire to do that is there before the big “I do”.

4 --- This from a regular listener to our WRKO Saturday morning get together:

Governor Deval Patrick and state casino supporters on the news, speaking ill of former Governor of Massachusetts Willard Mitt Romney and his Religious beliefs. Governor Patrick said quote "If My mother were alive she would approve of gambling along with many other elderly citizens".

No wonder these senior citizens never have enough money for food and prescription drugs. They are always on the bus traveling to casinos and spending it all away. I wonder, what would George Romney approve of, if he was alive today? Certainly not gambling. Rather he’d be for Americans to buy American made automobiles and energy independence. Thank God he raised a son that is speaking for him and will finish his fathers presidential run. Best Quote to define a moonbat on casinos! "Its easy money and we should have had it 10 years ago because of Romney who did not believe in his religion and Gambling or Liquor" George Carney, Raynham Taunton Race Track on the 10 o'clock news.

That one baffles my mind just on the timeline. Mitt Romney was to blame for it. Who was Governor 10 years ago Weld/Cellucci???? No wonder Gov Patrick and his moonbats will always be in the red fiscally, they can't count, not even with an abacus.

5 --- Ethnic voting, do we feel there is something wrong with it?

Frankly, it’s as American as apple pie.

The first thing a candidate needs to do to win our confidence in him or her is to establish a comfort zone. If the candidate fails at that our vote goes elsewhere.

Candidates spend an enormous amount of time explaining that they are just like us. John Edwards talks fondly about his blue collar roots. Mike Huckabee tells us how he worked his way through school and picked himself up by his own bootstraps.

Hey folks, we have the same aspirations for America because we are just like you. Well, the reality is they’re not.

I come from a French-Canadian heritage. Three of my grandparents are émigrés from Canada, one from Quebec (Rimouski) and the other two are from Nova Scotia. Does that mean I have anything in common with anyone from Canada? Heck no. However, if I had grown up in a neighborhood comprised of Canadian Americans and my parents were first generation arrivals here my attitude would be far different. I would probably be inclined to be more “at home” with candidates with that type of background and they in turn would likely be better able to motivate me to vote for them.

Ask my children what their ethnicity is and you’ll get something like, “what do you mean?”.

Catholics overwhelmingly voted for JFK because he was Catholic. Many voted against him for the same reason. Many will vote for Obama for ethnic reasons. There will be those who vote against for that reason.

When a group feels included in American society the new ethnicity for them will be American.
To be included in any society a key element is learning the language of the country; in our case that’s English.

Those who refuse to learn the language are losers and should not be accommodated by the government. Those with no desire for inclusion in the melting pot should not receive any of the benefits of citizenship.

It is time to establish English as the official language of the United States.

No alien who has had an opportunity to achieve citizenship should be eligible for any public services short of emergency help.

No child born here of the parents of illegal aliens should be granted automatic citizenship. The fourteenth amendment never envisioned nor was it intended to protect anyone other than slaves emancipated by the Civil War. There was a fear those children might be excluded from citizenship because their parents may not have been considered citizens at the time they were slaves. Therefore, a child born into slavery might be excluded from citizenship.

We must stop the hemorrhaging at our borders. Greater focus must be spent on those entering by other means such as students here on visas. When their education is complete they must return home and apply for re-entry as anyone else in their country.

America must return to the melting pot concept and get away from the tossed salad we are becoming. We are not stronger because of our diversity. Diversity divides, it doesn’t unite.


Don’t forget to join us tomorrow as we prepare for Saturday morning on AM680, WRKO.

Ciao…….Moe

It was this simple when I was a child.

1 --- This from old friend, a Marine (I don’t know where he got it so I’ll credit him with it):

To All My Democrat Friends: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due re spect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican Friends: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2 --- The mass Turnpike Authority is looking to its users for boost in revenue. Car poolers will get whacked pretty hard and the State Police will be ordered to increase the number of speeding tickets to enhance revenues.

According to news reports the Authority (who says they’re an authority on anything anyway) is projecting a $1.2 million increase over this year in traffic enforcement revenue from Stockbridge to Boston. That means State Police assigned to patrol the Turnpike will step up radar enforcement.

.State law allows the Turnpike Authority, which pays for the State Police Troop E barracks, to keep ticket revenue. So the turnpike cops are private.

The turnpike board (majority are Romenyites) this fall voted to raise tolls next month, increasing the cost for passenger cars at the Allston-Brighton and Weston toll booths by 25 cents, to $1.25. One-way tolls for cars for the Ted Williams and Sumner tunnels in Boston will rise 50 cents, to $3.50.

3 --- We have not yet had our first primary ballot cast but I’ve just about had enough religious pious affection by candidates. We have serious non-religious issues at hand. Try illegal immigration, the war on terror, the tanking economy and deficits and inflation at the same time.

We keep hearing about taxes on the rich. Well, inflation is heavy taxation on the working poor. I think I will vote against anyone who pretends to be more pious than thou.

4 --- Here’s another reason to vote against Hillary. Here’s some frightening stuff from CNN:

“Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president — Bush's son, George W. Bush.

“‘Well, the first thing she intends to do, because you can do this without passing a bill, the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again,’ Clinton said in response to a question from a supporter about what his wife's ‘number one priority’ would be as president.”

Now, if that doesn’t giver you nightmares nothing will. The last time something disturbed my sleep was a movie called “Thing”. In it was a hand from a monster which couldn’t be killed.

These two characters had less credibility than Richard Nixon on his worst day. One wouldn’t get rid of Saddam Hussein when he could and we paid for his removal later. That same failed president lied through his lips with the whopper of a tax increase he gave us. The second did have relations with that woman, was disbarred from practicing law in Arkansas for lying and refused to take Bin Laden when he had the chance.

I think I’d prefer Dennis Kucinich to Hillary.

I guess no one told old George about the Slick Willie scheme because he says it’s a “no go” for him.

5 --- In most matters the devil is in the details. With the energy bill just passed by the House the details will kill us and wipe out lower income working people. He’s how the AP reported it:

“WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress by a wide margin approved the first increase in automobile fuel economy in 32 years Tuesday, and President Bush has signaled he will accept the mandates on the auto industry.

“The energy bill, boosting mileage by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon, passed the House 314-100 and now goes to the White House, following the Senate's approved last week.

The bill includes the new 35-miles-per-gallon standard, a huge increase in the use of ethanol and new energy efficiency standards for appliances and building construction.

“‘This legislation is a historic turning point in energy policy,’ said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland because it will cut demand for foreign oil and promote nonfossil fuels that will cut greenhouse gases linked to "global warming.”
The miles per gallon provision is window dressing. As prices for gasoline continue to rise there will be a demand by consumers for such vehicles. Market forces work wonders the government cannot. Frankly the mileage provision is harmless because it will happen anyway.

What is not so harmless is what will happen to the price of anything grown in the United States and other parts of the world. The mega agribusiness will make out because they can shift from the risky business of food production to energy where we can be gouged. The oil companies don’t care a whit because it gives them cover to eventually give us gas and heating oil at prices they couldn’t even fantasize about a couple of years ago.

Now, who do you think will be economically crushed by this, The working poor and there will be more of them.

If you doubt the poor will get poorer, according to the United Nations the world food supply is dwindling rapidly and food prices are soaring to historic levels, the top food and agriculture official of the UN.

Any posturing to the contrary, liberals are as mean and vicious toward the lower middle class. Minorities and blue collar people will be crushed by the rise in prices for energy and food and anything else associated with grain.

Liberal big government types will make out because the bureaucracy will grow at an enormous rate. As lower income workers are forced into government programs we’ll need ever more programs and hacks to work for the government.

Michael Savage is wrong when he says liberalism is a mental disorder. No, liberalism is more fascist than crazy. The modern liberal and the classical liberal have next to nothing in common. Roosevelt, Truman and JFK would spin in their graves if they were to hear what’s happening.

6 --- There’s a small piece of good news today. Reuters had as its lead in a story concerning the meeting between the Pope and the king of Saudi Arabia the following: “The Vatican on Tuesday rejected condemnation by al Qaeda of a historic meeting between Pope Benedict and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, saying the militants were afraid of inter-religious dialogue.”

Bullseye! If anything causes angina for the terrorists it is the good guys on both sides getting together and turning their focus on the nut cakes operating under the guise of religion.

The beginning of the end of the Soviet Union was the crack in the dyke caused by Lech Walessa after he met with the Pope back then.

Benedict XVI is not colorful or flamboyant. However, he understands well how evil works. The Pope grew up in Nazi Germany and was a firsthand witness to the insanity which went on in Nazi occupied Europe.

Big Ben is my kind of man.

7 --- Is the scum Fidel Castro still breathing?

8 --- The health of the two party system as we know it is in danger of crumbling under its own weight. The USA Today/Gallup poll yesterday tells us the story:

“As President Bush and Congress battle on the budget, homeland security and the war in Iraq, Americans blame both Republicans and Democrats for the impasse.

“By more than 2-to-1 margins, they give the president, congressional Democrats and congressional Republicans unfavorable ratings in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Monday. While Bush's ratings have been poor for most of the past two years, the two parties in Congress hit new lows in the poll.”

A pox on both their houses.

9 --- Roger Clemens says he didn’t use steroids or other body building drugs. Barry Bonds says the same thing. They are just the most incredible humans God ever created. They simply got better as they aged. That sounds plausible, after a good wine improves with age.

10 ---It finally happened. Cell phone lines now outnumber land lines. An AP story says:

“The most recent government data show that households spent $524, on average, on cell phone bills in 2006, compared with $542 for residential and pay-phone services. By now, though, consumers almost certainly spend more on their cell phone bills, several telecom industry analysts and officials said.”

11 --- This CNS News item points out the shallowness of Mitt Romney on the subject of illegal aliens. He simply knows voters are angry ad hell and want someone committed to cleaning up the mess.

For four years Romney was able to do little and claim a lot.

I wonder whether Abe Lincoln’s comment; “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time” applies to Romney?

12 --- Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Michael Bloomberg is contemplating a run as a third party candidate for president. The New York Post had a story today talking about how many aids to the mayor are recommending to other unaffiliated professional campaign people. They’re being told to wait to see how things work out in the primaries.

Bloomberg doesn’t need to announce until about March to still have time to qualify for the ballot in all fifty states. He has the money to move professional organizations in each state and do whatever is necessary top qualify.

Keep an eye on anyone who had many times the money of Mitt Romney.

13 --- The Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes and apartments dropped by 3.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.187 million units. That’s the worst performance in sixteen years.

Why is that important? Simple. It is a measure of the confidence of the public in general. These numbers are especially hurtful because they will lead to a downward spiral in home prices.

The lower prices should be encouraging to new home buyers to the market but the problem is that there are much fewer buyers who can afford to get into the buying end. Add to that how difficult it is to get a home loan, or for that matter any other type of loan and the market will be further depressed.

It’s a slippery slope.

14 --- John Edwards should fly to the top of the political heap now that he’s accused of fathering a child out of wedlock.
Heck, it worked for Clinton.

Of course though Mrs. Edwards has incurable cancer she agreed to her husband remaining in the race for president. If all this is true it reveals Edwards to be as sleazy as anyone ever in national politics.

Frankly I hope the National Enquirer is wrong with this one since it would sap much of the oxygen from the races as the primary season is finally in sight.

Here’s how the National Enquirer phrased it in a story just now breaking:

The woman linked to Presidential candidate John Edwards in a cheating scandal is more than six months pregnant and telling a close confidante that Edwards is the father of her unborn child, The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

Or is planting this story just one more Clinton dirty trick?

Oh yes, Edwards has just taken the lead in the caucus delegate hunt according to some credible polls.

That’s called perfect timing.

15 --- I just learned of the passing of former Boston City Councilor Albert Leo (Dapper) O’Neil. Dapper always marched to the beat of his own drummer. He was possibly the last of the anti-PC politicians we’ll see in a long time. Was he flawed? Yes. Was he what he seemed to be? You bet. There was nothing fake about Dapper. You got what you saw and heard. And he gave you lots to see and hear.

I first met Dapper more than a quarter of a century ago, in 1980, wheh I did an evening show for a few years before coming to WRKO, on radio station WSAR in Fall River.

At that time Dapper had just formed Democrats for Reagan. He was simply amazing taking the local Fall River Democrats head on. It was no match.

A couple of years ago I wrote a chapter about three grand old men. All three have passed on now and I feel the loss of all three. In the chapter entitled “The Trinity” I said the following about Dapper:

I have been blessed with many outstanding guests. This was true especially in the few years I spent at WSAR in Fall River, Massachusetts.

What do Bob Hope, Albert (Dapper) O’Neil, and Admiral James Stockdale have in common?

They were all guests in studio.

I was very lucky.

~~~~~~~

I found the same traits in another man who was as much a different personality as I had not anticipated. Boston City Councilor Albert Leo (Dapper) O’Neil was a throwback to an earlier time in Boston politics. He was bright and disarmingly charming. He was also a tough pol in the Boston tradition. His mentor was James Michael Curley.

The reason he was a guest on a Fall River radio station was his endorsement of Ronald Reagan for president. The “Dap” had been appointed chairman of Massachusetts Democrats for Reagan. Both men had a common trait. They were each underestimated by their opponents. The political landscape was littered by the bodies of such people.

They also had many other traits in common.

While Ronald Reagan was a professional actor, Dapper was a wonderful entertainer in his own right. Both could charm a hambone from a hungry dog or sell air conditioning to an Eskimo in an igloo.

After the show we stopped by a late night spot near WSAR which had a piano bar. The player there was Al Rainone, a local Democrat activist who heard I had “Mr. O’Neil” on the air that night. He expressed surprise someone like “Tip” would endorse the Republican for president.
Al hadn’t listened very closely because he confused Dapper for the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, who hailed from Cambridge, just across the river from Boston. Tip was a very liberal politician and was in all likelihood the opposite of Dapper on almost all issues.

Rainone warmed up to O’Neil very rapidly and Dapper agreed to sing a number of songs, mesmerizing those present with his beautiful Irish tenor voice. Dapper worked the crowd shaking every hand there that night.

His personal charm was most evident when “Margaret”, a dyed in the wool Democrat who called the show regularly tried to attack O’Neil for being a turncoat for supporting a Republican. She had been the bane of my existence in my early days as a talk host. The call lasted about four or five minutes, which is long for a talk show call.

Margaret could be a real thorn in my side and tried to be the same with Dapper. The call ended with Margaret not only placated by Dapper, she invited him to dinner at her home “any time”. She all but said “I love you”.

He was a real charmer.

Dapper did many shows with me and enjoyed doing them each time he visited. He was in great demand by those who loved him as well as those who detested him. It was impossible for anyone not to have a strong feeling for Dapper, good or bad.
I loved “The Dap”.

Dapper, RIP


Ciao…….Moe