Supreme Court Composition

In light of recent events surrounding the Supreme Court of the United States I've noticed a perplexing situation.  Seven of the nine justices, including the Chief Justice, are from states east of the Delaware River, the boundary between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  Of the other two, Kennedy is from California, the land of fruitcakes.  The other one, Thomas (the black guy), is from (God forbid) that lowly Southern state, Georgia (tongue-in-cheek).

In order of seniority the current justices are:

Scalia - New York
Kennedy - California
Thomas - Georgia
Ginsburg - New York
Breyer - Massachusetts
Roberts - New York (Chief Justice appointed by George W. Bush)
Alito - New Jersey
Sotomayor - New York
Kagan - New York

Is it just me, or do you also see a heavy bias toward northeastern types with a northeastern mentality?  What about the rest of the country, especially mid-America?  Are there no qualified people in Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, etc.?  I think there should be some means to get a more equitable distribution of legal minds (or perhaps non-legal minds would be better) to serve on the Supreme Court of the Land.

Memory and Imagination

I've reached that time in life where my memory and my imagination get confused with each other.
As my wife and I returned from my 65th Class Reunion in Oklahoma we stopped by for a brief visit with one of my favorite Oklahoma cousins.  As we were departing to return home to Texas she and I were reminiscing about something that occurred when she was a babe in arms and I was a 15 year old kid.  I contradicted what she said and she accepted my account because she was much to young to remember it except what others had told her.
As we traveled the next several hours my memory kept nagging my imagination.  The more memory nagged imagination the more I came to believe I was wrong.  By the time we arrived home late that evening memory won out over imagination. My cousin was right.  I was wrong.  So, I promptly called her and apologized for lack of memory and excess of imagination.
Darn, its tough getting old.

Class Reunion

My wife and I are in Oklahoma where Saturday afternoon and evening we attended my 65th Class Reunion for the Moore Class of 1947.  I didn't actually graduate with them.  We moved from Moore when I was in the 8th Grade. But, I attended school at Moore longer than any other school I went to and made more lasting friendships.  I've kept in touch with some of my Moore classmates over the years and they consider me to be one of their classmates.  We've attended a number of the previous reunions over the years.  Though only eight of us from '47 attended the general School Reunion we had a rousing good time.  I also got to meet one of my childhood puppy love interests for the first time since leaving Moore.  She is now 88 years old and just as charming as she was when I was 9 and she was 15.  We rode the same school bus, and I thought she was the prettiest girl of all mostly because she paid attention to us younger kids on the bus, especially me.  All the other older kids on the bus pretty much just ignored or teased us little kids.

This afternoon we go to my nephew's house to visit with him and his extended family.  He is going to teach me how to edit the website for my book that he put up on the Internet.  I want to make changes to correct a few errors, and to make the website easier to navigate.  Tomorrow we will return home and I'll try to be more attentive to my blog responsibilities.

Latino Voters

The Latino voter has become a significant factor in the upcoming presidential election in November.  A little over 131 million people voted in the 2008 presidential election.   Here are some facts taken from a CNN report.

(CNN)  Because of their growing numbers and presence in some of the key battleground states, Latinos are expected to play a prominent role in this years's battle for the White House between President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Romney.  The total population of the United States is 308.7 million.  There are 50.5 million Latinos in the United States.  By the numbers, here's a look at Latino voters:

16% of the total U.S. population in 2010 was Latino.
43% increase since the 2000 census according to the 2010 census.
59.4% of Latinos were registered to vote in 2008.
49.9% Latinos voted in 2008 presidential election.
42.7% of the Latino population is eligible to vote.
22.4% of Latinos in U.S. are of voting age but are not citizens. (NOTE: I wonder how many are registered to vote?)
63% of the Latino population is from Mexico.
67% of the Latino voters voted for Obama in the 2008 election.
31% of the Latino voters voted for McCain in the 2008 election.
68% registered Latino voters surveyed in 2011 said they would support Obama.
23% registered Latino voters surveyed in 2011 said they would support Romney.
61% of Latinos surveyed said they were Democrats.
14% of Latinos surveyed said they were Republicans.

Sources for these statistics come from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Pew Hispanic Center and the Brookings Institution.


My daughter-in-law is of Mexican descent.  Her grandparents on both sides crossed the river into Texas in the early 1920's.  Both her parents were born and educated in Texas.  She was born and educated in Texas.  She attended the University of Texas School of Law and is a practicing attorney.  For statistical census purposes is she and her several siblings counted as Latinos?  At what point does one cease to be Latino and become an American?

Oblamo

Obama has become better know as "Oblamo" as he blames all the ills of his administration on someone else, especially the "previous administration."  He has no real desire to govern.  He doesn't know how.  He'd rather campaign.  That he can do.  He loves the adulation of the crowds as he delivers his socialistic beliefs and values much in the fashion of an evangelical hellfire revival preacher.  It matters not so much what he says as how he says it with the help of his good ole buddy, the teleprompter.  Its precious when he goes off the teleprompter and spews his socialism only to later have to walk it back.

BO must GO

Oil and Horse Pucky

I received the following in an email from a friend:

"It's so scary!  Is there anyone around who doesn't believe that the Saudi's would not do anything in their power (read, money) to keep Obama in office.  Begging, of course, by George Bush walking hand in hand with the King and BHO bowing and kissing the hand of His Majesty!  They know who holds the title, Crude Oil Manager of the World!"

My reply follows:

 "Scary only because we don't have government leadership with a spine.  With the right energy policy decisions we have enough oil, gas, coal, and nuclear energy sources within North America to last the next 300 years at current rates of usage, and we could tell the Arabs to kiss off.  ANWAR, the Williston Basin, and shale technology within the USA are sufficient to meet USA energy needs for over the next 100 years.  Our greatest danger, in addition to a lack of good energy policies, is our immigration policies and enforcement.  As things are, in a 100 years we will be ruled by Muslims much like what is occurring in Europe, especially France and Denmark.  Think Norway.  They looked across the Straits of Skagerrak and saw what was happening in Denmark and took appropriate legal action to prohibit immigrants from the Middle East.  We have way too many do-gooders sitting around contemplating their navel and coming up with all kinds of nanny-state things to accommodate their passions for fairness to all in the world.  Horse pucky!"

Voter Fraud

Today on TV I heard a Democrat election official in Wisconsin say there isn't enough fraudulent voting to matter.  What kind of thinking is that?  One fraudulent vote is too many.  How is it the Democrats can so casually accept the fact there is voter fraud. . . .its just not enough to matter?  I was an election judge for 12 years and my wife was my election clerk.  There was no way we would even think about it much less allow it.  There was on average 720 to 740 registered voters in our precinct.  We knew a lot of them.  We always reviewed our list of registered voters to ID the ones we knew had died or moved, or had some unusual address (like the UPS store front) that was on the list.  When we had someone not on the official list that showed up to vote I told them in no uncertain terms they could vote a provisional ballot, but they would have to sign a sworn affidavit and if the personal information they provided was not true they would be charged with a felony.  That usually took care of the matter.
There's always been voter fraud.  It seems to be an art perfected by the Democrats.  The Holder DOJ is after Florida for purging their registration lists to remove names of those that have died or changed addresses.  The Democrats firmly oppose photo voter ID.  Why?  Its time to firm up the registration lists so only legal voters are on the lists, and photo ID to be sure the voter is who he/she claims to be.  The epitome of how easy it is to vote fraudulently is the YouTube video on the Internet where a guy showed up in Eric Holder's voting precinct and ID'd himself as Eric Holder and the election official offered him a ballot.
The right to vote is a precious right that must be protected. . .not neglected or abused.

Longest war in which only one shot was fired?

This is a fun trivia historical question  Don't read the answer until you've ponder the question a few moments.

QUESTION:  What was the longest war in U.S. history in which only one shot was fired?



ANSWER:  Lyman Cutlar, an American settler on San Juan Island between Bellingham, Washington, and Vancouver, in 1846 found a large black pig rooting in his garden and shot it.  The pig's owner, Charles Griffin, a Canadian demanded $100 in damages.  Cutlar offer $10.  Cutlar claimed "it was eating my potatoes."  Griffin rejoined, "It is up to you to keep your potatoes out of my pig."  Threatened with arrest by British authorities, the Americans called for military protection.  It turns out there was controversy over which country owned the land.  The Americans and British sent troops and ships, and there was a stand-off that lasted over a dozen years before the border dispute was settled.  Fortunately, no shots were fired, except the one that killed the pig.  It is called the Pig War.