I was shocked when I heard the chair of the advisory board of the Council on Aging in Ashburnham, Mass., wants to take doughnuts and pastries away from the coffee clubbers who meet at the local Senior Center.
He said doughnuts aren’t good for the seniors, and that they should be eating carrot sticks instead.
He probably will be lucky if the senior citizens don’t hold him down and stuff him full of doughnuts until he gains 10 pounds and gets pimples.
I can’t imagine a decree like that would go over in Madera. When I visit Madera doughnut shops (for research only, mind you) I notice many a senior citizen sipping coffee and munching on a maple bar, a bear claw or one of many varieties of doughnuts.
Those senior citizens have bumper stickers which say things like, “When doughnuts are outlawed, only outlaws will have doughnuts” and “You can have my doughnut when you can pry it out of my cold, dead hand.”
Even Mrs. Doud, who actually prepares carrot and celery sticks in our home, likes the occasional doughnut. I don’t think she hangs out in doughnut shops all that much, but the other day I spotted a sack in the kitchen with a grease stain on it, and when I peeked inside, there was a doughnut that had a couple of bites gone from it. It was a delicious-looking doughnut, and I was tempted to try a bite myself, but I was afraid she would notice my teethmarks in it, and a forensic dentist would be on our doorstep waiting for me when I got home that night in case I tried to deny nibbling.
She watches out for me pretty closely when we are around doughnuts, because I am not supposed to have all that much sugar. I don’t think a bite of doughnut would have hurt much, but the stern looks would have.
I understand the tremendous appeal of March Madness, I really do. Even the average fan who hasn’t followed college basketball at all during the regular season, becomes invigorated during tournament time.
But there is one person that I would prefer to not spend his time breaking down the brackets and following the tournament with rapt enthusiasm.
That person would be President Barack Obama.
I get the purpose behind his filling out the brackets, I do. He played basketball in high school and kind of used it as a shtick while running for president.
We get it, Mr. President, you’re just a normal guy: Played sports, watches ESPN, can use a wrench to fix the garbage disposal, walks around the White House in his boxers and enjoys a frosty 12-ouncer with a Cuban cigar on occasion.
But let me offer you the perspective of millions upon millions of Americans: We don’t need you to still be posturing as the normal guy now that the election is over. You won. Now quit with the nonsense and get to work because we know you were never just a kid who made it out of the rough and tumble streets in living out some illusory American dream.
You were a kid that didn’t grow up playing in the tough gang-riddled streets of South Central L.A. or the Bed Stuy area of Brooklyn reeling from decades of urban decay and crime.
You played for Punahoa High, the largest and one of the most affluent high schools in the country, situated on a sprawling campus in Honolulu.
So while I do like the fact that the you are a sports fan, I would hope that you feel you have far more pressing duties to attend to right now than watching how your brackets turn out.
And you only picked 11 out of 16 first-day games correctly, which is only slightly better than pitiful. And not that I am bragging but I chose 14 winners.
But while I woke up this morning, pulled on a pair of shorts, shirt and flip-flops to head down to the Tribune and watch some results from the second day of the tournament and figure out the sports schedule for the day to make sure everything is covered, you woke up needing to handle a few things more daunting than ensuring coverage for local high school baseball and softball.
Even if you had gotten all 16 games right, I would much prefer that as the leader of the free world, you would spend a little more time tackling issues like the buckling economy, the housing crisis, getting back that bailout money that was funneled out to the AIG executives while possibly reassessing your stance on the timeline for troop removal in Iraq.
Even the legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski voiced concerns that you used your time to choose his brackets and follow the tournament.
And while this has nothing to do with the tournament, I also have a hard time believing that in addition to his bracketology, you had the time to appear on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” Thursday night wisecracking about the White House dog, “American Idol” and your ineptitude at bowling.
Sure, Bill Clinton played the sax on the “Arsenio Hall” show during the 1992 presidential campaign, but never has a sitting president made an appearance on a late-night talk show.
So, I’m willing to make a trade with you, Mr. President: You make sure that our economy is firmly on the path to recovery and scrap your budget proposal that will increase the deficit about a trillion a year, find a way to put the roughly one million workers who lost their jobs in the past year back to work, nail those AIG jackals and help my parents to not have to spend the majority of their income on inflated drug costs.
Then let Michelle deal with the whole dog issue and hit the late-night talk show circuit, and I will take care of the NCAA tournament.
Because any more time spent by you following the tournament and your brackets would truly be March Madness.
Cheers to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder for making more public records public.
Something you may not know is that nearly all government documents are open for public inspection. That means any person, theoretically, can request any document (or a copy), and it is supposed to be provided. This is true at any level of government — from federal records all the way down to your local planning commission.
A few things are off-limits. Documents can be withheld for security reasons, or because they are ordered sealed by courts. Documents about specific personnel matters can be withheld. Law-enforcement investigatory documents can be withheld as long as charges haven’t been filed, within limits.
All those reasons are understandable, but often abused. Some pretty goofy things, such as the prices paid by the government for peanut butter, are sometimes stamped “secret” under the guise of national security.
The Bush administration ordered that as many documents be withheld as possible, meaning that people who challenged the withholding had to file lawsuits and work their way through the courts.
That was a change from the policy of the Clinton administration, which made public information easy to obtain.
In making federal public information public again, Obama is fulfilling a campaign pledge, for which he deserves credit.
Obama has said government should be transparent, and he is right.
Locally, government agencies are good about making public information available. The California Public Records Act pretty much prohibits turning public information into secrets, and local agencies follow that law.
Under Bush, the feds made it hard to get information, which served only to hide potential malfeasance.
It looks like President Obama’s order to make it harder for Mexican trucks to drive freely on U.S. roads will stick, and that Mexico will retaliate by putting tariffs on certain U.S. products.
Which is why the North American Free Trade Agreement is likely to die a slow death.
Trade agreements usually make sense on paper, but when they play out on the economic stage, like many scripts, they can stink.
During President Obama’s campaign, you could see that NAFTA had a target painted on it. Many of Obama’s supporters, such as unions, tend to be protectionists.
In the past few decades, most of what has been traded has been human labor, and we’ve been on the losing end. We have bought foreign labor in the form of goods and services which were made by people willing to work for less than American workers. Nothing angers unions more, even though their members go out and buy pants made in China, shirts made in India and cell phones made in Singapore.
As a nation, we are so used to this trade in human sweat we don’t even recognize it for what it is. We have the capability to manufacture almost everything sold in the U.S. But we don’t want to pay Americans to make those products. We would rather pay someone somewhere else who is willing to work for less.
When we do this, we send more money abroad than we get back in trade. Ideally, free trade is a quid pro quo — an equal exchange. But our exchanges for the most part are unequal, and not free. That won’t work forever.
So when Obama has a chance to at least make a gesture — such as ending the Mexican truck experiment — he does it virtually overnight.
That’s bad news for believers in free — or almost free — trade. But good news for protectionists and their friends.
One of the most impressive services in Madera County is Madera’s Community Hospital’s Emergency Room and its personnel.
I have been in this community for a year and have come to realize Madera County has a wonderful and sweet personality, because of the individuals who have chosen to work, live and raise their families here.
I have in the last 30 years worked in many hospitals across the state of California as an associate and nurse. When I can I tell my past comrades from other countries about the efficiency, effectiveness and the constant teamwork the doctors, physician assistants, nurses, admission staff, and auxiliary staff has together, along with the ambulance personal associated with the emergency room operations.
They find it amazing this medical group of professionals is achieving enormous accomplishments with such a large volume of patients in Madera County.
This emergency room treats more than 42,000 patients a year. There is often a span of only seven minutes between the time one is seen at registration and admitted to the emergency room. The patient is promptly met by a doctor or physician’s assistant. This means the admission, diagnostics, diagnosis, treatment, and discharge times are the fastest in California and probably in the United States.
We hear in the news on television and radio about waiting periods being up to 24 hours before they are seen in another emergency room. Imagine the amount of time we save as individuals and have our medical needs met compared to our counterparts in other areas.
As residents of Madera County we received a unique quality of medical and psychiatric care along with quantity. With an unusual set of circumstances of having only one hospital in Madera County Dr. David Smith, EMD, of California Emergency Physicians, and Roger Tallbon RN,B.S. EMM, are responsible for providing emergency treatment for the residents in Madera County. Through their insight and wisdom they have assembled a special team of professionals under their management who have the knowledge, experience, caring and motivation to be our community’s guardian angels over our medical emergencies.
If one were to think of universal health care, Madera Community
Hospital Emergency Department would be an exultant place to
find the fundamentals of service.
All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content or space limitations some comments may not be published. Please limit calls to two minutes or less. Repeat messages on the same subject adding to the length will not be published. More than one message from the same caller during the same week will normally not be published.
The hot topic in this week’s Red Line was concern over the “increased gang activity in Madera.” Many callers voiced similar comments. “Why doesn’t Madera do something,” said one gentleman, “before it’s too late?”
Another expressed, “Everyday in another paper you read, ‘12 gang members arrested,’ ‘police net 24 in gang raid,’ ‘over 40 gang members arrested in sweep.’ It seems Fresno is doing a lot to curtail their gang problem. Are those (expletive) all coming here? I would if I was a gang member. Madera has become a haven for gangs being driven out of Fresno.”
A woman said, “I have lived here all my life, and enjoyed life in wonderful Madera. Now, I’m afraid to walk in a park or down the street. I don’t even go out at night for dinner because, living alone, my husband died a couple of years ago, because I fear coming home when it’s dark.”
A man called “in response to the woman caller to the Red Line on 3-10-09” who gave “positive reinforcement of B.J. Robinson’s letter on Monday.” He said “he could not contain himself any longer. Thanking God for this presidency I don’t have a problem with, but blaming the past president for falling short on moral issues, you must be kidding. The current president lifted Bush’s ban on embryo stem cell research.” The caller also mentioned the president’s “spending spree on the backs of our children” and “releasing fanatics back on the battlefield for a second chance to kill our soldiers, to me, is ridiculous.”
A woman called about “a concerned Madera High softball parent. My daughter came home very upset yesterday because, instead of practicing, they had to pick up nails off their new facility. I don’t understand what the maintenance crew is doing, but the boy’s (fields) seem to be just fine. It’s pretty bad when Coach Shaubach has to hold up practice to pick up nails off the field. I hope the school board does something about this.”
A visitor to the Red Line Web site responded to a March 7 column by Chuck Doud entitled “Green energy independence long way off.” The person writes, “Although new nuclear technologies reduce the problem of nuclear waste-management, and make it much more manageable, many in the west prefer to force oil-based energy use in oil-poor countries like India.”
Another online reader, self-identified as “Robert A. Ridge,” writes, “I’ve been seeing this car on Fillmore, east of Schnoor, for at least a week jacked up real high on one stand. It looks very dangerous. If that was in another section of town, I’m sure code enforcement would have ticketed it or have it towed by now or cops would have.”
A third Internet guest, self-identified as “Rick Farinelli,” commented on the opening of a new diner in Madera, which was featured on the front page of Saturday’s issue of the Tribune. He writes, “I was lucky enough to be able to test out their food for breakfast and dinner last Saturday. If you want a place to have fun in Madera you have to try (it) … As those of you who know me I am not a little person. I actually went away with a ‘Bear Bag’ for the next meal. Please go have fun and eat heartily … (The staff) will treat you with service that will make you forget the ‘doom and gloom’ news for at least an hour.”
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Thank you for your comments. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by logging on to www.maderatribuneredline.com.
One of Madera County’s most infamous residents, Sarah Jane Olson (aka Kathleen Soliah of the Symbianese Liberation Army), has left after seven years at Chowchilla women’s prison, headed for Minnesota, and it is good to see her go.
The SLA was a violent and evil group that kidnapped Patty Hearst in 1974, robbed banks, engaged in shootouts with police and committed murder.
They claimed to be protesting against what they called government oppression, but they were just low-life crooks.
Many of the SLA members were either killed or jailed. Soliah escaped, wound up in Minnesota, took the name Sarah Jane Olson, married a doctor and lived the happy suburban life against which she had protested and used violence to try to destroy. She finally was arrested in 1999.
“We were young and foolish,” the Associated Press quoted Olson as writing in an apology she issued before being sentenced after pleading guilty to helping place pipe bombs under Los Angeles Po-
lice Department cars. “We felt we were committing an idealized, ideological action to obtain government insured money, and that we were not stealing from ordinary people. In the end, we stole someone’s life.”
Let’s see now. How sorry was she? Young and foolish? Always a good excuse. Government-insured money? Always the worst kind, if you are trying to expiate a heinous criminal act. Stole someone’s life? Hmmm. Where I come from, that’s called murder.
The victim of that particular crime, 42-year-old Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four, was gunned down during that bank robbery. Stole someone’s life? Sara helped murder an innocent person, but she decided to call that awful crime something else. That’s a bad girl.
I’m glad Sara has gone back to Minnesota to serve her year
of parole. Much better than having to look over our shoulders here.
You can be sure American International Group’s payment of bonuses to some of its employees is the right thing for the company to do.
The reason you can be sure is that President Obama and several members of Congress are bellyaching about it so loudly. These critics seem unaware of laws which require employers to pay their employees wages which the employees have earned.
Of course, they might not know about these laws, because none of them has met a payroll in his life.
AIG is an insurance company, and much of what it pays out to its workers is in the form of commissions and bonuses. Those are paid according to contracts with the employees. If an employee sells an insurance policy, the employee is entitled to a commission, and if he or she sells a lot of policies, that person may be entitled to a bonus on top of the commissions.
That’s the way the insurance business works. Insurance companies don’t pay out bonuses for answering the telephone, or filling out forms or for filing papers. Those, for the most part, are wage jobs. But the companies do pay commissions and bonuses for sales, or for managing a department in such a way as to meet a particular goal.
These commissions and bonuses are part of employment contracts. The heads of AIG don’t walk the halls of their offices throwing money around. They most likely pay it carefully to people who have earned it.
Obama, Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Dick Shelby all are talking about how the bailout money AIG received is being wasted.
But they probably would express shock and horror if AIG decided to not pay its janitors, file clerks or any other hourly worker.
For AIG not to pay its sales people would result in private and state lawsuits against AIG, which AIG would lose. The company may be guilty of stupid things, but cheating workers shouldn’t be one of them.
My wife and I would like to thank Officer Foss and the rest of those in the Madera Police Department for their fast action in catching our daughter’s stalker. We filed the report around 10:30 p.m. and Officer Foss called us at 2:30 a.m. that they had the stalker behind bars. We hope and pray that our daughter is the only one who is a victim of this guy.
We feel that it is important enough to the public with this, in case there might be more victims here in Madera. This creep went over the line. We went in to talk to Officer Foss and that’s when we showed him the 30-second video/text message the creep sent to our daughter of himself down below.
Exactly how the police were able to catch him that quick is amazing, and on the night shift at that. We appreciate everything they did to catch this guy four hours later and put him in jail.
He saw our daughter while she was working at Mervyn’s and called there, acting like a friend trying to contact her. He left a message for her to contact him using a phony name and his phone number. During her break, she called this so-called friend on her cell and that is how he got her number. After she found out she didn’t know this person she told him to leave her alone.
Every time after that when he would call her it would come up withheld number. She lost the original number so we couldn’t do anything until he sent her a video which showed his number. Again we hope and pray that there are no more victims, but if there is please contact Officer Foss.
The crime rate in Oakland is going down, according to Chip Johnson, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Since Jan. 1, felonies against people and property have dropped 23 percent; homicides are down 50 percent from a year ago; robberies are down 16 percent; auto theft dropped by a third.
That’s wonderful news, if you live in Oakland, a city known for being crime-ridden.
What happened to bring crime down so far so quickly?
Two things: (1) The city finally hired enough police officers, and scheduled most of them to be on duty during the times most crimes are committed (weekends); (2) teams of gang-intervention specialists hit the streets to try to talk gang-bangers into going straight.
A lot of cities with crime problems try to pretend they can get by without hiring enough police officers, and then equipping and training them, but the fact is, just about nothing else works.
New York City discovered this when Rudy Giuliani was mayor. That city hired more cops and put them in places where crime was more likely. As a result, New York City became safer, more a center of culture and less one of criminal activity.
How many police are enough? The answer seems to be that sufficient officers should be on duty at any time to answer all calls of trouble.
That is more than the standard FBI formula of about 1.2 uniformed officers per each 1,000 population. That’s certainly true in Oakland’s case. Oakland has about 830 sworn officers for a population of 400,000, which amounts to more than two per thousand.
Madera, in comparison, has about 1.3 sworn officers per thousand people. Is that enough? Not likely, especially considering growth.
Would Maderans pay for more? In an election a few years ago, they said no, sadly.
